Unless I'm confused, you don't say how thick was the sample?

debrak - Hi "the sample edge that he brought was about a 1.5 inch overhang with a mitered edge." So the top was 3/4 inch, with the portion that hangs down over the edge being 1.5 inches in thickness.

Why do you need a mitered edge? Are they keeping the plywood? Our Caesarstone is a 3 cm slab siliconed onto the cabinets. It looks like smarge's. I'm not saying yours is wrong, just trying to understand why. Is it a 2 cm slab?

mayflowers - Hi! Yes, they are keeping the plywood. I live in So Cal and they said I need to have that. I could reduced the plywood from 5/8 to 1/2 but why bother.

The slab is the thickness of the sample that I got from Caesarstone which I believe is 2cm.

I guess I may need the amount of overhang he is offering to cover that plywood. (Thickness of the slab + thickness of the plywood + a little more.)

It's still early, I am running on lack of sleep, no coffee and I am stressed so forgive me if I am not making any sense! :)

Thank you!!!

Ok first mistake is making decisions on lack of sleep/caffeine/food/chocolate/sugar. There was a thread about this once!

Please relax! You are over stressing about your kitchen. Please get some food/coffee, what ever you need. Take a nap if needed. If you need to, call the place and tell them to hold off for a few hours or maybe till tomorrow.

Personally the counter sounds great to me but I'm not exactly sure what you are looking for. Have you seen actual displays with this edge?

My Caesarstone is 2 cm on 5/8-in. plywood. That's how they do it in the Bay Area, maybe in SoCal too. I have an eased edge and a piece attached to build up the edge. I don't think it's mitered. Because of the pattern of my quartz, you really can't discern the seam unless you look for it.

My edge is 1-1/2 inches and it doesn't look too thick to me.

I live in CA and our Caesarstone edge is 1 3/4 inches thick. It is an eased edge. I wanted a thick edge and am very happy with it. Here is a pic:

Hope that helps.

Right, you need to cover the plywood. Is it an earthquake requirement to have plywood under stone?

1.5 isn't too thick or contemporary imo. It's just 1/4 inch thicker than my eased edge.

I've been following your kitchen and it's exciting to see it almost finished! I understand how nerve-wracking the process is. I was fortunate that we went through a kitchen shop with a great KD who GC everything and answered my thousand questions. Even so, there will always be a few glitches along the way. You're doing good!

I don't know if it's an earthquake requirement. I do know that the weight of the counter is better distributed by the plywood underneath.

Another thing I don't know is what came first, the plywood or the 2 cm thick counter material? If you have 3 cm (as in other locales), you don't need the plywood, but with 2 cm you do. Perhaps the need for the plywood means the top doesn't have to be as thick.

I had 3/4-inch plywood under my original tile counter. The GC said it was fine and wanted to reuse it for under my quartz. I was not happy because it was ratty looking. The counter people had a fit and said it had to be 5/8-inch. Had I paid more attention I would have seen it was on page 1 of my contract.

debrak - Calm ... I am calm now. Thank you! I do get these moments of panic especially finalizing all these details that are so permanent (unlike paint). So thank you for reminding me to breathe! :)

Linelle - Hi and thank you! That's right. I think our kitchens have a lot of similarities. And your counters do look great! I feel more comfortable. That is exactly what I am doing.

Ann - Hi and thank you! Your beautiful Pebble! I love that color and was very close to choosing it. That look is what I am going for. Seeing it again I feel good about my decision.

Mayflowers - Thank you! Your encouragement (and that of others on GW) means alot. I don't have a KD and just going at this alone. I don't know what I'd do w/out GW. So very grateful for all the knowledge, advice, suggestions, encouragement shared here! p.s. your cabs and counters - so pretty!

I also live in CA and 2 cm slabs are pretty standard around here. The 2 cm require the plywood support and most people/fabricators will laminate the edges to give them a thicker, more finished look. I find that most houzz type pictures are from parts of the country that use 3 cm and don't laminate the edges. When you look at these pictures all day the laminated edges can look excessively thick.
When I first started seeing pics with 3 cm granite I thought how wimpy the slabs looked. It's all what you are used to seeing.

I live in NorCal as well and 2cm slabs are standard here. However I bought Caesarstone Arctic White for my kitchen and was surprised to find that it was only available in 3 cm slabs. My contractor had to remove the 3/4" plywood top he'd put on my cabinets so the Caesarstone could be installed, otherwise it would have made the counter too high and the stone wouldn't have hidden the edge of the plywood.

The downside to the 3cm with no laminated edge is that the top drawers seem to be closer to the slab and the finger pulls that I installed on each drawer had to be inset a little into the top of the drawer so that they wouldn't rub on the stone above. I have 2 cm marble on my island and it seems the drawer pulls aren't as close to the stone. This wouldn't be a problem if you used drawer pulls that were screwed into the face, rather than the top, of the drawers.

I don't think its too thick. Honestly I didn't even think about it. The slab is 2cm in thickness, so the edge, which is usually laminated is twice as thick, 4cm. Here is my countertop with 4cm (1.5 in) eased edge. My kitchen looks contemporary, but that's because of the door and the minimal amount of molding.

Thanks Lily! Which counters are those? I can't recall. Pebble, Shitake, or Wild Rice? I don't remember seeing pics of your kitchen! It's so nice! And I think we have the same faucet - Hansgrohe Talis C? Do you like it?

That looks just like my Hansgrohe Talis C. I like mine, works very smoothly. Not sure I'd choose it again, I think I prefer something with less flare at the end.

This is wild rice. If my fabricator just straight told me that wild rice will take 5 weeks instead of keep pushing back installation date every week, I think I would have choose another color like Raven. You kitchen is going to be very pretty. The faucet is Hansgrohe Allegro e that I got at Costco. They also have the Hansgrohe metro at Costco, but the spray head would fall with the slightest touch. So far, everything is working beautifully. I baked my first batch of cookie in the new oven, wow, it came out so even without any dark spots on the bottom.

Lily - OT - The Wild Rice is really pretty. As you know I was considering that one, but it was too close in color to my hardwood floors and I didn't want so much brown. But I so loved the mottling in it. It's a great choice! Just curious what color white are your cabs?

I'm in So Cal too. A 4 cm (1.5") countertop edge is what is most common here. It does not look comtemporary if you put it in an otherwise traditional or transitional kitchen. I think what does look very contemporary is using either a very thin (2 cm) or very thick (over 2.5") edge.

Dura supreme has 3 white colors. Its the one in the middle call classic white, not as stark as white, but whiter than the antique white.