I'm not an Quartz installation expert, but this does not look good to me.

I had Caesarstone Quartz installed recently and I can barely see my two seams.

I would not accept this. I'm sorry this happened to you, your general contractor picked a bad fabricator.

Chipping happens when it's cut too quickly. In order to fix it, they'd have to give you all new quartz and start over again. Ask yourself if your up for that battle...

That would be unacceptable to me. I hope you have not paid for it already. They need to correct it.

Bad on so many levels. It's such a shame after all your work. They have to do a redo, hopefully with an expert on Quartz.

I would send pics and a complaint to the Mfr to let them know what their fabricator is producing.

That looks awful, I'm so sorry. Like mayflowers my seam is also hard to see. That needs to be fixed, it's unacceptable.

Kent A.:

As a Certified Zodiaq Installer, those seems aren't even rookie grade. It looks like they scraped the seams flush before the adhesive cured. The adhesive shrank below flush when it cured, as two-part adhesives do. That's why you overfill and scrape to flush.I don't know how else to get adhesive below flush.

Do not pay until these are done over.

Kent A.:

The spectacular seams pictured above were dressed on a CNC machine. Your seams will never look like those unless the tops are pulled and put on a CNC machine or at least a Seam Phantom.

I have LG Viatera Rococo. My seams don't look anything like that. I'm glad Joe Corlett spoke up. You need a redo. This is a mess.

Here is a picture of the only seam in my kitchen. It's in the middle of the sink.

I was skeptical about placing the seam in this location, but I was convinced by a number of posters here at GW and by a relative who is a contractor. The theory is if you have an active pattern such as your Minuet you place the seam in the area where there is as little seam as possible. In the middle of the sink or a cooktop would be ideal places. Corners are good, too.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. It's nice to know that I'm not being unreasonable for complaining about the quality of those seams.

We've gone back to the general contractor expressing that we're not satisfied with the seams and the cuts in general. I also noticed yesterday that the inside corner of the kitchen counter wasn't done properly: the front edge isn't square, slopes from top to bottom instead of being vertical, and the inner part of the corner wasn't polished. The GC has recommended that the installers try to fix things but from what I'm hearing in the comments above there isn't a way to fix this as the incorrect equipment was used to make the cuts.

@homechef59 that seam looks amazing and was along the lines of what I was hoping for. If only!!!

" I also noticed yesterday that the inside corner of the kitchen counter wasn't done properly: the front edge isn't square, slopes from top to bottom instead of being vertical, and the inner part of the corner wasn't polished."

Again, this reeks of inexperience. A do-over is not only the best thing for you, believe it or not, it's the best thing for the fabricator. He needs to know the standards of the industry and marketplace in which he's dealing. Nothing brings this into focus more clearly than a good economic spanking.

Get out your level and check, especially over seams. No dips and no rocking.

This is your GC's problem. He should have it corrected without your saying a word.

@Joseph Corlett: thanks very much for your advice - it's great to hear from someone that's actually in the business. With regards to the corner cutout I mentioned earlier, here's a picture showing the non-vertical edge. Also, do you think this inside corner is too square in terms of creating a stress point? Should it have some kind of radius on it since there is no seam at the corner?

I think so, but more important is the opinion of LG who requires a 1/4" radius on inside corners without seams. LG recommends a French miter, not the miter you're showing. Page 21.

There should be no seams at your cooktop to begin with. I can tell from the pictures that your tops are less than 120" long.

Every time you post I have another reason to believe these guys are clueless. That corner is out of manufacturer's specifications and therefore out of warranty. It's a slam-dunk do-over; you can't fix this.

Check for level and plane, please.

@Joseph Corlett: the kitchen counter is 97 7/8" on the cooktop side and 104 3/8" on the sink side. Ideally they could have made the whole counter out of a single slab, but the largest LG Viatera slabs are 130" x 63" so we needed at least one seam. To minimize the visible seam area, we went with a seam at the drop-in cooktop as shown in the diagram below.

There is no seam at the corner so I don't think the French miter applies here, does it?

With regards to your link about checking for level and plane, I think I understand what checking for level means, but how exactly do I check for plane?

Kent, send a link to this thread to your Contractor, so he can see photos of seams that are done correctly.

"There is no seam at the corner so I don't think the French miter applies here, does it?"

Kent, I was speaking about the miter in the last picture of your initial post. That looks like a corner miter to me.

First you check for level, front to back, side to side, then in an "X" fashion. Place the level over the seams and see if it rocks or if there is a dip. Adjacent tops can both be level yet not on the same plane.

Even with or without the use of a jumbo slab, yours is a two-sheet job. I would have ripped the first sheet into (2) 120" x 25 1/2" pieces for the "L", the second sheet would be for the island. I would probably have run the sink piece full length and put a French miter on the opposite piece.

I see what they were trying to do. They were trying to keep your seam away from the window and decrease its length by putting it at the cooktop.

@Josheph Corlett: the last picture of the initial post was actually showing the quartz in my ensuite bathroom. They were installing quartz on the shower curb threshold and also on a ledge in the shower. The miter pictured is where the two pieces of the shower curve meet. I had asked them to make the L-shape for the shower threshold out of a single piece but they said it needed to be two pieces so that they could both be angled in toward the shower to prevent water from pooling.

Here are two additional photos of the shower and threshold for reference:

As for the kitchen counter, they used only two sections for the back counter: one large L-shaped piece that is 104 3/8" x 46" that ends at the right-edge of the cooktop, and then a U-shaped piece that is 52" long and wraps in front and behind the cooktop. So the only seam in the kitchen is the one at the right side of the cooktop.

I'm going to head to the house today to check the level and plane and will report back.

Thanks again for your continued advice.

After checking the house today, everything seemed to be level and plane. It seems the GC did a good job putting the base cabinets in. I have a pretty old house (100+ years) with fairly uneven floors and walls so I'm impressed they got this right.