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Seams in soapstone- is fabricator right?

11 years ago

Hi everyone- I went to the fabricators to decide where the cuts would be made on our soapstone. We had reserved 2 slabs but when I arrived they had a suggested layout using only one slab (the island is marble so they actually were able to fit it). But, the one seam I'm going to have at the inside corner is being taken from another part of the stone and NOT immediately adjacent so the two parts would come together again when joined. They are telling me it's fine because the end of each has no veining and even if it did it would be ok because the nature of soapstone veining is very abrupt.I woke up this morning feeling like I'd been pushed into this because it would allow them to use only one slab. (This would not be saving me any money at all.) What do you think? I'm all about being economical and supporting business, but not at the expense of my hard-earned kitchen. Please let me know if I'm being unreasonable if I call them back and tell them they need to cut so the seam is matched up.

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Comments (7)

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Tom Carter
11 years ago
I just had our soapstone installed and this is how they did ours. I was fine with it and it looks great. The seam is invisible and you have to really look to see if there is a break in the patterning.
I think their ask is quite reasonable.
caspian
suzanne_sl
11 years ago
Perhaps it would help if you took photos of the proposed layout, cut up the photos and pasted the pieces together at the seam. Maybe it will be fine, but maybe you won't like it. Helpful to find out ahead of time.
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we have two seams in our countertop, and they're virtually invisible (esp. when I oil -- they show more when the counter gets lighter). I think soapstone seams are much more "invisible" than the seams in granite -- the seams are filled with epoxy, then the counter and seam area are sanded smooth on site (can't do that with granite, at least not when it's polished), so the honed finish is continuous, making the seam disappear.
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Florida Joshua installed our soapstone in May. We have a seam in our sink . . . . that you can't find. People have to search to find the 3 seams in our stone, because they are hard to see/feel. He used a black epoxy, it looks like your fabricator used white? And the bit about soapstone being porous and the water seeping in? Puhlease. False. Here's my sink. The seam is in the lower left hand side of the sink, about 3 inches in. Good luck trying to find it. This is freshly oiled. This is 3 months after install. We aren't oilers. As you can see, not having the stone oiled doesn't affect seeing the seam.
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Hi, here are my seams. I have one at the right corner of my cooktop: And one near the corner of my L: Here is a distance shot showing both: The 2nd seam shown above was the tricky one because of all the veining in that area. You don't see it at all from 2 feet away, and if it has been oiled you don't even really see it from up close. Your slabs are gorgeous - what variety is it? Anita
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Dorado Soapstone recently opened up a distributorship in Shrewsbury, MA. I was there the other day looking at their soapstone and will be back there again as they are getting in another shipment of the Minas stone I am looking at. They are really wonderful people. So helpful and so low pressure. I was there for several hours oiling different stones and comparing them. Here's what I can tell you about their stones. The Beleza has some green in it unoiled, but when oiled goes black. When unoiled there is a ton of movement going on in the stone but no veining. When oiled there is very little movement, some green, but mostly black. The very green stones even when oiled are Porte Alegre, Sao Luis and Iguazu. Porte Alegre is a very soft stone and scratches easily. It has a ton of wide white/green veining. Sao Luis has no veining and a consistent green pattern to it. Oiling seemed to bring out the green. It is a very hard stone. The Iguazu is another very hard stone. It is gray when unoiled , but when oiled very green with some black and white veining. If you like green it is very pretty, but you would have to want green. Jucca is a light gray stone that turns darker gray/charcoal when oiled. It has hardly any veining. The Minas is gray unoiled, no sign of green. When oiled it is black with white veining and a slight hint of green in some parts of some stones. I oiled one slab of Minas and it was pitch black with only one white 4 ft. thin vein running across it. It was a very quiet stone. The slabs I am waiting for have more veining. All of the slabs were very large for soapstone and would never need a seam in an island (unless you had one huge island) except the Iguazu. Those slabs were on the smaller side. I personally would never want my island to have a seam, but I know several people on GW who have seamed soapstone islands and you would never know if they didn't tell you. You might want to see if you can get a quiet Minas slab shipped to you. They are a nice size stone with either very quiet veining or a medium amount of veining and a dark black color. Good luck.
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Jumpilotmdm
11 years ago
If it's real stone it will have seams. No product is perfect. If you don't like the layout with one slab, find the original quote and refer to that when negotiating alternatives. You are probably right about the savings [for them] when using fewer slabs.
jscout
11 years ago
It sounds like you're paying by the square foot, since you say that using only one slab won't save you any money. In essence, you'd be doing them a favor. If that's the case, perhaps you can ask for a reduction in price. They can justify the discount to you, because they can make more money with that whole slab you saved them. Without benefit of a discount, I'd press for using the two slabs since that's how they priced it from the beginning. The cynic might accuse them of bait and switch.
camphappy
11 years ago
I had a similar situation but it was me who was trying to save money. My fabricator said he could fit everything on two slabs but it would be tight with no room for custom templating (there was only one way to make it fit.) We saved quite a bit of money not having to purchase an additional slab but we ended up with one seam that doesn't quite match. The tones of the granite are just different enough that the seam really stands out. Fortunately the seam is at the cooktop so it is short. The veins may not matter but you may want to check if there is any color variation, ever so slight, from the two different pieces.
sayde
11 years ago
Mine are marble but similar kind of dilemma - I had a choice of two slabs. The slab I preferred would have required a corner seam. The other slab would not. At first I planned to take the slab I preferred (it had slightly more markings) but slept on it over night and in the morning changed my mind. Am really glad I did too, as I love the marble and very happy not to have the seam. My opinion is: Try to avoid the seam if you have a choice to do so.
Lake_Girl
11 years ago
I'd try to avoid the seam if possible. Our perimeter was small enough, that there was no seam at all. I've thought about how glad I am about it. The whole time we were looking at soapstone, I assumed we would have one. Someone posted their soapstone island a few months ago, with a seam down the middle, and the veins totally didn't match up. If you have to have the seam, make sure there's minimal or no veining. All the best to you.

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