countertop options for 12ft island -- (no seams if possible)

8 years ago

So I am not sure if I am able to find a slab of soapstone or maybe carrara that is 12ft. I really wanted a white macabus quartzite but I can't find 12 feet slabs.

So I was thinking corian - but I don't fully understand the seam issue. Its not seamless just they make the seams invisible?

Also does anyone know how long a sheet of stainless is?

And I guess I can also do concrete.

If anyone has suggestions, I'd really appreciate it.

I can make island smaller but that really limits my counter space.

Thanks

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PRO

Granite City Services

8 years ago

granite and marble slabs usually max out around 132". Largest I've ever seen was 138" long.

There is an option for a "seamless" jumbo granite or marble island.

It requires "book-ended" slabs which are made at the slab polishing facility by polishing the front of one slab and the "back" of an adjacent one. This produces a pair of slabs that appear to be mirror images of each other.

the slabs are seamed in the fab shop and then the seam is polished to make it very very inconspicious. It takes considerable skill from the fabricator to polish out the seam by hand.

An alternative, if your fab shop has access to a slab polishing line, is to have the seamed oversize slab re-polished on the slab polishing line. This turns out very very well.

the next challenge is to get the giant island off a truck or trailer and into the home without killing an installer. A 3CM 12 x 4' island would weigh something like 800 - 900 lbs.

The last time we did it the slab was moved into the home with a boom on a rough terrian fork truck thru a window opening in the kitchen.

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Comments (6)

PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
8 years ago
Corian and other solid surface seams are inconspicuous. Highly inconspicuous compared to many other countertop materials. Many stones can be cut on a CNC machine or Seam Phantom and top polished to be inconspicuous, but the more "movement" in the stone, the more difficult that becomes.

DuPont taught us at Corian school to never use the work "invisible" and I never do.

Corian sheets come 1/2" x 30" x145" so you would get "invisible" seams because they would be nonexistent.

I just got the new Domain Industries catalog in the mail and they have some fantastic new solid surfaces. You can view it online, I'm sure:

Here is a link that might be useful: Affinity

This post was edited by Trebruchet on Thu, Jul 24, 14 at 17:44
chrisinsd
8 years ago
Treb may know he can't really say "invisible" but in practicality that's what they are. My Corian tops were installed on Tues and I had to have my GC show me where the seam was after the installers put the material together--you could not find it if you looked everywhere for it. He was amazed as his clients typically specify quartz or granite which always have seams somewhere.

They put it together with basically this epoxy that is exact the same color then sand the hell out of it so it's totally "invisible."

So far, I am an *extremely* pleased customer.

I think you should check out Corian Rain Cloud if you like Carara, or Corian Medea or Corian Warm Soapstone if you like that look. I personally think Rain Cloud looks awesome and is a safe color choice for the island without the durability issues of Carrara.

Here is a link that might be useful: [Corian Rain Cloud[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/brownstone-collection-montague-contemporary-kitchen-dc-metro-phvw-vp~1202720)
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ugh.... we are just at this point now and realized that our new counter/breakfast bar is 12' with the sink cutout dead center. My wife is stuck on an undermount and we really wanted granite... we will, of course, be getting a few fabricators to bid it. But is it feasible to do the seam with a cutout at the seam? The front edge of the sink seems a bit vulnerable to me. Also the current layout has the dishwasher adjacent to the sink and I guess we'd need to get the cabinet built with a support at the seam. If we can seam at the sink it would be small, just the length of the front setback (breakfast bar transitions to countertop there)... how well does the bullnose normally line up on a seam? Do they polish it on-site? Are we better off getting used to NOT granite? The 12' counter is not negotiable in our design.
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These are my pics of my countertops placed Friday June 22, 2018. I cried looking at these seams. It looks so cheap. Fabricator explains that's the way it comes. I explained that I shouldn't be able to see the seams so clearly. It looks so unprofessional. They ended up taking them back to their warehouse. In hopes they say if it is quality control will try and fix it just to make it look better. Otherwise I will have to pay an additional fee for them to come out again to install. I just don't know what to do and if still looks the same. This is the first time I've replaced my counters in 24 years. I don't and can't live with it. looking at this for another 24 years. It looks so cheap and it really was not it's a lot of money to me. I hope fingers crossed that they will fix this problem. They never told me that there would be such seams. I thought the edges were done by a machine and it would be all one piece. I have read up on this and now understand there are seams. But now I do know that they should not look like this. If they are good fabricator you shouldn't be able to see them so clearly. I will find out next week what happens.
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"The rounded edge on the inside of my sink and the two outside side edges cost a total of $150 more." This is why I keep preaching that fabricators should sell this option instead of that gawdawful ugly cheap "pencil" edge at sinks. One chip, and that's "when", not "if", and you've paid me nearly $300.00 to fix it on site. Pulling the faucet and sink, profiling and polishing a proper round over, and reinstalling the sink and faucet to reduce the risk of future chips could be $500.00 or more.
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sjhockeyfan325
8 years ago
He was amazed as his clients typically specify quartz or granite which always have seams somewhere.

I have no seams on my quartz island countertop -- I designed the island specifically to accommodate a full slab length of Ceasarstone (and not an inch more - the slab was 120", the counter is 119")
xtacie11
8 years ago
Hey Chris did you have to use the pony wall in the island? Congrats on the finish!
chrisinsd
8 years ago
SJ-- very nice! I suspect you may be the exception, not the rule, however. Width may limit you as well.

xtacie--thanks for the kind words! We have the final inspection tomorrow, so fingers crossed I'll be unpacking boxes back in the house by this weekend. And of course I will snap some photos for a GW reveal....

Indeed, I did have to go with the pony wall. Would not work any other way with the plumbing and electrical and local building codes. This totally screwed up the cover on the end of the island because the width of the island now exceeded that of the cover panel I was going to use. I ended up waterfalling the Corian on both ends of the island to solve it easily. I originally had a set of cabinets facing out into the LR on the back of the island, but realized during install the island would be far too big with these and the overhang so I deleted them and had to figure how to cover the pony wall. I considered a number of different options, including "backpainted glass" someone on this site turned me on to but in the end I decided to drywall it and paint it a color that matched the backsplash. It turned out very bold, but if I don't like it someday I can just paint it white or something. Drywalling it gave me the most options later. Anyway, enough rambling about me on housebuilder14's countertop thread... :)

countertop options for 12ft island -- (no seams if possible)

Granite City Services

Comments (6)

Joseph Corlett, LLC

chrisinsd

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