I'll bet this is going to be pricey.

We are planning to use Neolith for our counters for their durability. We scratched the sample with a key and you can't see the mark. Thanks for letting me know about the classtone. They look beautiful.

jstark: my friend's neolith counters are pretty nice and seem to be quite durable. Every time I go over he gets his sample out and bangs on it with a hammer. He's very proud of it. ;)

Do you know which thickness he has? Is it the 3, 5 or 10 mm?

I'm pretty sure it's the 10mm. If I recall he said the fabricator would only do 10mm for countertops. He left the edge thin and it looks pretty nice with maple cabinets and undermount stainless sink. It definitely seems to be an option worth considering.

we are checking out the neolith polished statuario and calcatta this weekend. we saw neolith last year but sadly only the non polished was available at the time. we were not crazy about those. they didn't look quite honed, just kind of matte. anyhoo, we are hoping we like the new polished offerings.

agk2003: excellent! If you don't mind, please let me know what you think after you see it. We checked out a sample of Fiandre's agata blue a couple of weeks ago and weren't super impressed with it. Hoping Neolith is better.

will do nels1678. we are also seeing another brand of porcelain slab on saturday. it's supposed to be new and is only available in 4mm so i'm not sure if that will be good for kitchen countertop application though they are peddling it as such. we've seen pics that look very promising but i'll report back how they look in person. has anyone seen stone peak? their pictures look great but i contacted a local distributor who basically told me it would be price prohibitive for a residential application.

What's the new material you're looking at agk? I started a Neolith thread back in October, and I've been back to see the three slabs they have in Seattle several times and liked them very much, especially Pulpis. ThinSlab (made in Italy, so maybe the same thing as Fiandre?) wasn't bad either, but I didn't like the sheen on the slate-like Dekton and the pattern on their marble version looked sprayed on so I'm not considering that material further.

I'm currently in LA, so I'm hoping to see more Neolith slabs, as well as Stone Peak Plane, if time permits and if I can figure out where it's to be found. I'm hoping they have polished slabs available to see--thanks for the photo Nels.

The place that had Neolith in Seattle also does the fabrication and, while my earlier post is truncated, I think their estimate was about $7,400 for for the following layout in an 11' x 19' room, which I didn't think was crazy expensive:

AvatarWalt: Pulpis is one of the ones I'm interested in. How did it look up close? Any idea if they have a couple of different slab patterns or is every slab exactly the same? We're in Minneapolis so there isn't a whole lot we can view locally.

I saw neolith in person, not sure which white/gray marble it was, but sadly, I didn't love it... It just doesn't look real. nothing can compare to the real thing :( which is impractical.

Nels, I think there's only one Pulpis pattern--both of slabs in the photo you linked are the same, and the one I saw in Seattle seems to be too:

As for comparing to the real thing, I figure that there's no perfect material so I need to decide what my compromises are. Granite can stain and needs sealing, marble etches and stains, soapstone scratches and patinas (not a problem in my book, but DH objects), manufactured quartzes shouldn't have hot pans set on them, etc. Neolith is billed as solid in all of those areas, so I want to see if there's a pattern I like.

Some of the samples and installations in the showroom didn't appeal, but while the marble doesn't look as good as the real thing, I liked it, and the pattern didn't look sprayed on like Dekton did. I don't know if there's a "real thing" that Pulpis is trying to mimic, but I thought it was really nice in person, with the light patches fading in a natural manner and some small almost yellow highlights in the veining.

Avatar: Great comments. Does the color (and veining?) go all the way through the slab? The biggest deal breaker on the Fiandre for us was that it's white under the glaze. The sample counter we saw at the store was a white marble copycat and it was pretty obvious at the edges that it wasn't a big solid piece of material. If it chipped you'd have very little recourse. I'm hoping that the classstone slabs are like the other Neolith slabs where the color persists through the whole slab.

As far as I know, the veining is only on the surface, but the color of the slab is consistent with the main color so the lack of veining is less noticeable to someone who isn't looking for it (i.e. anyone who isn't on GW daily). I took a couple of pictures in the showroom for other reasons, but they show some edges.

I took the following one to remind myself what the mitered edge/corner looks like (with the color only on the surface, they can't do a rounded edge), and there's a sample of estatuario sitting on top so you can see the side of a slab:

I took the following to show what an undermount sink looks like, and it too shows the side of a darker slab (one of the iron ones--I don't like the shiny bumps on the textured surface):

If I'm able to track down any more slabs while I'm in the LA area I'll take more photos.

Thanks! If they match the color on the pulpis that might be good enough even if the veins don't go through. Not sure if I'd like the marble without a mitered edge though. Definitely do share if you take more photos! Thanks!

Don't really understand the issue with the mitered edge and veining. The edge is the same material as the face so it has the veining in it. It's common practice in any stone mitering to have the pattern continue down the edge. Here's a Neolith Benton Island with integrated sink from the kitchen and bath show . And a Fiandre white marble.

Do you see on the Fiandre white marble how the corner of the edge looks whiter than the slab and the vein is discontinuous? It was really obvious when we saw it in person. Now with the white marble maybe it's sort of OK, but with any other color (we were looking at Agata Blue) that edge would stand out like a sore thumb.

Ok, I can see where that corner creates a white line through the grey veining. Wasn't looking that closely for that I was mostly interested in using it as 12mm (1/2") slab no miter for contemporary kitchen. I't doesn't seem to be as obvious on the Neolith there in the picture. I'll be looking at it again next week also here in LA. Where did you see it?

There's a tile store here in Minnesota called Tile X Design. They had a small Fiandre white marble counter in the store and got us a sample of the Agata Blue, but we ended up not really liking it in person. There's another place that we will check out that has Neolith, but they don't have any polished samples afaik.

Yikes, I hadn't considered that there would be a little vein-free line even with a mitered edge--that's probably why the finished counter example I saw in the showroom was white. I'd love to see some of the veined options with a mitered edge. jdesign--where did you see the Neolith in LA? Any other places in town that carry other porcelain slabs? Thanks.

They need to try a rabbet instead of a miter.

That could be better but much more work than 45 degree cut on your saw. I just priced doing a type of rabbet more or less. Ask to take a 1/4" by 3/4" notch out of the bottom face of a 2cm Caesarstone to give me a 1/2" profile edge and it was quite costly.

I may be misunderstanding your recent rabbet postings, Trebuchet, but wouldn't that kind of joint expose more of the un-veined slab edge than a 45 degree miter?

AvatarWalt:

It depends. Someone needs to try it in a shop.

ok so i saw the neolith polished calacatta this weekend in brooklyn. it was a full slab but just a sample for their future showroom and i was told it won't be available until late march/early april. no samples available yet. we liked the look a lot. the distributor told us that 12mm is the recommended thickness for countertops. below is a pic:

we also went to msi in edison, nj. they have 6mm thick porcelain and the two we were interested in were calacatta and statuario. pics below:

i am obviously concerned the 6mm may be more at risk for breaking or chipping. a fabricator we spoke with said that you would install by building it up with plywood so the plywood should supply support. the fabricator we spoke with does not have extensive experience in porcelain for countertop applications though. has anyone found a fabricator in the ny area for this material?

just wanted to also add that neolith will also be releasing a polished estatuario. we saw small samples of that as they did not have full slabs but i couldn't really see the difference between their calacatta and their estatuario.

agk2003:

Thanks for the pictures! Looking at your Neolith pic, it almost looks like the grain continues through on the side? If so, that's a big win IMHO vs 6mm porcelain. The other big one of course being the thickness. We have a home and garden show this week in Minneapolis so if I see anything interesting I'll take pics and share with the group.

hi nels1678, you can't see the sides in my pics but neither the 6mm msi nor the 12mm neolith's grain continued to the side. from what i recall they were just white.

Ok, that's sort of what I expected. I think the bigger issue with the darker counters if the color matches. I'm ok with no grain so long as there isn't a big white stripe at the edge.

avatarwalt,

If you are in LA area, the place to see Neolith and Stone Peak Plane is in Orange County. Olin's marble in Anaheim carries Neolith, and Bedrosians in Orange (their slab store, not their tile store) carries Stone Peak. I've been to both locations.

Thanks swguru, I did make it to both of those places, but unfortunately I didn't have much time so it wasn't an in depth look. I'm still much more interested in the Neolith since it's 12mm while it looked like Stone Peak only comes in 6mm, which I think would look even stranger as a cutout around an apron sink. Nice patterns though, and Bedrosians had a decent display of different ones.

Olin didn't have Pulpis, which is my primary focus, nor did I see any polished slabs. They did have quite a few slabs of other colors, and one thing that I DID confirm is that while the veining is only on the surface, the through-color of the slabs matches the primary field color of the surface, so the narrow mitered edge surface won't stick out like a sore thumb. I.e., no white stripe along a Pulpis edge.

I still want to find one showroom that has EVERY option on display! :)

AvatarWalt: I made it out to a local place here in Minnesota called Northwestern Marble & Granite Company. They didn't have any polished samples of Pulpis but did have a small unpolished sample we were able to look at. Unfortunately it was pretty tough to get a feel for it based on the sample, but it looks like it has potential at least. It sounds like Neolith should be sending out quite a bit more information/samples/etc in April.

I have to say though that after seeing some of the granites and quartzites they had it's going to be a tough decision. They had two slabs of blue river labradorite and it was pretty amazing (it better be at $200/sqft!). Kind of felt like it just sucked you into the slab. There were a couple others that were pretty nice as well at 1/3 the cost. I think the big question will be how well Neolith can recreate the subtleties of how light plays off the different surfaces it is trying to mimic. I think that's what we found most interesting as we walked around looking at different slabs.

Avatar Walt, the other distributor here in LA is Gem International in North Hollywood. Don't know if they have slabs of Pulpis to look at . I didn't spend too much time there but will go back next week of a better look because we are probably using this on an upcoming project,

So the Neolith polished actually feels like polished granite/quartz/marble? That would be a huge win! What about the other new texture, Silk? Maybe I should call around (SF Bay Area) and ask if anyone has got any of these new products in yet.

jdesign_gw off topic but what is that sink in the pic you posted? the stainless steel one with the lowered ledge for the faucet. thanks.

Don't know exactly. I took that picture at "KBIS" the kitchen and bath show in Las Vegas a few months ago. I know Blanco makes a sink with a retractable faucet like that it could be there's. They call it "Eloscope". This one was in the Fiandre booth.

Thanks for posting that edge detail. In real life, was the white line glaring, or only to the kitchen obsessed?

AvatarWalt: At the tile store where we saw the Fiandre countertop, it was very obvious to me (but my wife always complains I'm a little OCD). Once I pointed it out to her she hated it though!

I think what it comes down to is that the discontinuity is less important than the color. Based on your earlier shot of the estatuario and what I saw of the Pulpis, it seems like Neolith at least attempts to match the interior color to the top, while Fiandre doesn't do any matching at all.

I think with any of these products, it will be extremely important to see a finished counter example in person.

AvatarWalt:

This miter is about as good as they get, and even if it were perfect you've got to have the corner eased slightly or it would be razor sharp. Any time you ease a photographed edge, you're going to get a white line. This would be a small trade off for a top in a boat or plane where weight is paramount. If you can't get past this, it's not for you.

If Joseph Dirand can handle a white seam in his mitre joint , then who wants to tell him he is wrong! nels1678?

Hey, as far as I'm concerned, buy whatever you like and I'll do the same. :)

I just saw the calacatta and estatuario in person. Polished looks amazing and much better than the silk version, but the rep told me that the polished version basically has glass over the top of it to give it that shiny look and said that glass can scratch. She said she hasn't heard any complaints, but I saw a couple on various websites from people who said they took great care with it and it still scratched. I guess the silk version doesn't have the same problem, but in my opinion doesn't look or feel very real like the polished. I wanted it for my backsplash and island but am reconsidering using a quartz on my island since it will be my main prep space.

The rep in California said $2,400 for the 12mm 5x10' slab. They also have a 6mm for walls.

I don't know what choose between Neolith and Stonepeak as countertop...

Which one will better? Other products?

http://www.thesize.es/neolith/en/collections/modelo?modelo=01

or

http://www.stonepeakceramics.com/products-collections-tiles.php?coll=PLANE&linea=CALACATTA-VENA-CLASSICO