Pick quartz and you can cantilever 14" with no supports in 3cm. A fabricator can bury 1" square tube steel in solid surface with a 1" edge build-up.

Properly done solid surface seams are highly inconspicuous. I wouldn't worry about that. If he's following the manufacturer's instructions, your solid surface fabricator is required to support overhangs over 6". If he gets $300.00 for doing so, he's making good money.

Thanks again Joseph! The "highly inconspicuous" seams on solid surface are one reason why I initially leaned in that direction. It's more the quartz that I initially worried about with regard to visible seams. BUT, then I found out that the solid surface slabs only come in 30 inch widths and so there would need to be a seam down the entire length of the peninsula. I plan to use Livingstone "Shoreline" which looks a lot like quartz. Given the pattern, I wonder if a the seam, even if "highly inconspicuous", would still shout "SEAM". Do you (or anyone else) have any pictures of long seams using that or a similar solid surface pattern pattern that you can share?

FYI, I looked into Livingstone solid surface based on Joseph's recommendation in another post here on GW - and the quote I got was indeed very reasonable! The fabricator I found through the Livingstone site only does solid surface work, and it looks like much of it may be for commercial applications - his website shows a lot of inlay designs and such, so gives me confidence in his work. I hope I'm right - this is a long distance remodel in a fairly rural area so its hard to get referrals.

numbersjunkie:

Like a lot of fabricators, you may be mistaken as to the direction of the seam. It does not need to necessarily run parallel with the peninsula; it may be better to run them perpendicular.

Shorline Livingstone will seam up very nicely; especially if not done in one long run. Post your layout with dimensions, please.

Here is my layout - curious about where the best location for any seams would be.

Beachem - I never thought about about adding blocking inside the cabinets - but I know there is dead space behind the drawers so thank you so much for that idea!

numbersjunkie:

Your peninsula could be roughed out as shown with no loss of yield, although it does make for 110.5 inches of seam instead of 95.5 inches of seam. From a fabricator standpoint, this not a big tradeoff considering how much easier the pieces would be to transport and install. After the 48.5", you need two more saw kerfs so you could extend the overhang 5" more by not leaving the 11" drop off the 145" sheet. The other advantage is your seam supports remain uninterrupted by your countertop supports because they are parallel instead of perpendicular. You may want to consider how lights from windows, skylights, or cans may effect how seams appear regarding their directionality.

This thread prompted me to call our fabricator. She said the guys who come to template will make the determination if we need supports for the 15" island overhang. If we do need supports, they provide them...something like these: http://www.wholesalecountertopbrackets.com/island-countertop-support-bracket/

Katrina Tate:

Unless you're installing 3cm engineered stone, you need supports. You've linked to some of the better brackets I've seen.

Thank you Joseph for the layout suggestion! I certainly have a lot to discuss with my fabricator. With regard to your comment on the lighting and how it will affect the seams - I assume that pot lights should NOT be directly over any seams in order to minimize their viability?

The recommended adhesive for solid surface, methacrylate, is shinier than the surrounding material when finished which makes the seams show. Pick a less glossy final finish if that's a big concern.

If a light is perfectly centered over a seam, it seems to obscure it as well as if it is well off to the side. It's the just off center light that catches and reflects the seam that makes it show.

This has really turned into a mixed topic thread - but I'm back to the original overhang support issue. I checked out the supports in the link Katrina posted and Joe said he thought were good. They all require notching the top edge of the cabinet. With IKEA, there is that metal bar that spans the tops of their base cabinets from side to side in the front as well as the back. That's what actually supports the counter and it obviously can't be notched.

So I'm back to my original idea which was to run a steel tube bar across the span supported by pony walls on each end of the overhang. (Joe said the fabricator could even embed this into the solid surface but I'm not sure I would bother with that). I would put bar about 6 inches from the edge of the counter - midway of the 12" overhang depth. I understand that we need to be sure the top edge of the bar is perfectly flush with the top edge of the counter supports on the cabinets (those pesky metal bars that IKEA uses on top of the base cabinets). Is there any reason that wouldn't work?

I am trying to contact my fabricator to discuss this, but in the area where I am doing this kitchen, there are no nearby IKEA's so I'm pretty sure he wont even understand how IKEA cabinets are made.

Remove the IKEA bar and replace it with 1" aluminum square tube, or a 1x3 that you could notch. Just ran into this on a job today.

You can ditch the metal bar and use a 2x4 that runs along the cabinet width with the 4" side facing up. Use a router to cut into the flat surface of the 2x4 for the depth of the bracket. Then set the 2x4 into the cabinet so the top matches the height of the rail.

The back on an ikea cabinet is unfinished in any event, and a pita to install. Another thing you could do to gain structure would be to consider backing the exposed cabinets with plywood and then cover the ply with cover panels. Whether or not I'd do that too would depend on how many people I think would bang the stools into the cabinets or sit there idly kicking the back of the cabinets while thinking.

Another support bracket that is flat and inset. Not saying anything about whether its better than the other - I wouldn't know. These are great pictures using 3/4" ply over particle board rather than a 2x4.