I dont know much about granite and seams but to me the stone is directional. It appears the upper left corner area is not but the rest flows on the diagonal from right down towards left if that makes sense.

I don't consider it directional. Very little movement, so little that I could completely ignore it for counters. I would tell the fabricator to ignore any perceived direction - they will do that if you tell them to.

Not directional enough to need to buy 2 extra slabs, IMO.

I agree with vinmarks above, there is flow from the upper right on down across a diagonal.

But I also think you might not need extra slabs, and it is worth pressing for more info/detail. I can't really picture their plan clearly enough to definitively comment --- is it possible to get them to tape off on the actual slabs the sections and where they plan to cut? If so you can photograph and lay it out with the pieces on your computer to see what it will look like either way. Then you can see if the bits they plan to use will fight each other in flow or not. Sort of depends on what part of the slab and how they place it, IMO. There is *some* flow on your slab, but not a lot. With my directional stone, I wanted a very particular layout (I didn't want the sink to interrupt the flow of a particular patterning) so I had them tape it all off on the actual slab while I was directing.

I'd tread a bit carefully-- I think you don't need the extra slabs, but you don't want them to use this as an excuse to put pieces every which way and say this is what you asked for, iykwim...

Yes it is directional. Yes you need 4-5 slabs for your kitchen. Or to switch to s quartz with no pattern whatsoever. Granite has color shifts, color gradients, and graining patterns, and directional movement. That all has to be accounted for in seaming.

Unless you are OK with your kitchen looking like a patchwork quilt.

Franky, if I were your fabricator, I’d fire you on the front end for trying to tell me how to do my job. Because getting a result like the above wouldn’t be acceptable to ME, even if you wanted to cheap out and do that. I wouldn’t put my name on that.

I’m sure you can find some cheap Bubba hack who will put his name on it though. And good luck with that. You will fully deserve your $1.98 2 slab guy if you keep this up.

I haven't at all tried to tell the fabricator how to do their job; I simply inquired why we would still need 4 slabs with the bigger stone and they told me it was because of the grain, which truthfully, was something I hadn't considered with this stone (it's the reason we decided not to do fantasy brown). But they don't have the slabs and they don't have pictures of the slabs so it's puzzling to me why they're so sure we still need so many. I did their same layout with the new slabs, same seams, same direction for each piece and it fit on 3 slabs with lots of room to move around to match patterns. If they want to fire me for asking what I'm spending my money on, that's their prerogative. There's no shortage of great fabricators in our area.

(I agree that the fabricator who said they could do it in 2 slabs was probably running things every which way (odd because they come highly recommended).)

I'm also a little skeptical with this contractor because they have been so very coy about pricing from the start. I may get another quote and see what happens,

In the meantime, I'm making some last minute changes to the layout that will hopefully make this granite job a lot easier. Thanks for the insight!

Nothing is more important to a fabricator's business than the ability to gauge the sophistication level of a particular customer. You can do the greatest technical job in the world, but if you don't get the seams matched right, you aren't getting paid.

Fabricator's cannot be afraid to charge for the time they spend for the fussy. The stones with the movement cost more to sell. Put the extra work in the price or you'll pay the price at collection.

I see nothing wrong with the last picture posted, frankly. The color is exactly the same, all that is different is the grain, and I actually prefer that movement flow with the direction of the counter where it can be done without too much visual "disruption".

Perhaps a plain white quartz with little movement could work for you.

What you say is true, Joe. But could you give me your opinion on this stone? I have no idea if this would be considered difficult or easy to match seams.

When I laid out this kitchen it was going to be soapstone so no thought was given to seams at all. However, the room is darker than I anticipated so I don't want black counters. Now I'm running into problems looking for granite because there is no getting around the fact that there will be three long seams. Ugh! I'm seriously considering giving DH the gas range top that he wants instead of the induction cooktop planned just to fix this problem!

Cheri, it's directional and over the life of the kitchen if it needs an extra slab, how much will that actually cost for a nicely matched countertop?

In both my rentals (NY and FL), the seams are like the ones in Sophies' examples and it bugs me every time I go into the kitchens. And these are just rentals!

For them not to match might be ok for an inexpensive tract house or rental, but not for a new custom kitchen.

I am coming to that conclusion, Cpartist, but it's a lot of wasted granite! 278 square feet for 120 square feet of counter! For what seems like very quiet stone to me. I should just go with the gorgeous fantasy brown I saw. Seems like it would be same despite all of that movement. I'd do quartz as suggested but I like being able to take things out of the oven and put them straight on the counter. I'm really might change the cooktop just to avoid having 4 seams. :(

Even with granite you should never just put hot things down on the granite. Ask Joseph.

I feel your pain regarding how much granite. When I bought my stone, my GC insisted I need 3 slabs. I did like you and laid it out to ask why. And then I remembered how they cut the stone wrong in my last kitchen and how we had to scramble to find a matching slab.

But even better is with the new slab in my last kitchen, they wound up giving me a much better match than I would have had with just the two slabs.

In my new kitchen I'm planning on using the extra for my outdoor kitchen

"I'd do quartz as suggested but I like being able to take things out of the oven and put them straight on the counter"

Well that is one habit I would break, for sure. It darn sure is not worth messing up your stone, and not worth the waste you will be dealing with to get seams matched.

Wow, S Wheeler, poster came here with a question, not to get bawled out on the internet, maybe dial it back a notch? Please don't tell her she 'deserves' a hack job when she asks a question. That's not playing very nice. (yes, I know you don't have to play nice, you do willingly offer up your expertise, and I do like straight shooters, but come on...don't try to intimidate people!)

In my opinion the paying customer does get a *reasonable* amount of 'telling x person how to do their job', because the trades' idea of a 'standard job' does not always coincide with what the customer wants. Fabricators, good ones, obviously know their trade and their stones, and we should listen carefully to their expertise; I agree, a quality installer likely won't want to install a patchwork quilt and put his name on it. I certainly see your point. But stone fabricators are not designers or architects, and I wouldn't bow down to any trade's aesthetic judgments as something I should just blindly trust--especially with stone that is expensive and should be done to all parties' satisfaction on the first go round. I think OP deserves to understand what's happening with her install.

I was the one who said I went to the yard and taped off the cuts on my slab to make sure the fabricators and I were on the same page. I wanted to make sure there was complete understanding on both sides as to how things would go BEFOREHAND. And then, I wasn't even there on install day, and I came home pleased as punch with the job. Fabricators/installers are happy, I am happy. There now, that wasn't too painful, was it?

In my experience, it is the quality and experienced outfits that can explain their recommendations well and clearly and are transparent and open to questions. A person doesn't need to be temperamental to be good at what s/he does.

If your first picture (showing the pieces on the slabs) is to scale, 4 slabs looks right. I tried moving the island piece to the slab with the L and it was too big. In addition, I think he's trying to keep the upper island and lower island pieces from the same slab, which makes sense to me.

Try laying it out, to scale, on graph paper to see how things fit. But even if you can get it down to 3 slabs, that doesn't mean you'll be happy with how things line up. "I had another fabricator tell me I could do the kitchen in 2 slabs." I just can't see how all those pieces would have fit on 2 slabs if this drawing is to scale.

You'll want to be there at templating to see how each piece is laid out. You might decide that you want the small piece from the sink run cut from the same slab as the L shape. Having some wiggle room for that is nice.

Good fabrication is as important as the cost of the slabs. If you think this fabricator is good (check references and seams from previous work) then it makes sense to listen to his advice (still OK to ask questions though!) Then if you have to pay per slab, come up with some ideas for the extra. Maybe a table top, vanity top, hearth, or just a spare in case you have a need later.

It sounds like you might need the 4 slabs so I totally agree with you - go for the fantasy brown. I have it in my bathroom and I love it. My kitchen is antique brown (I didn't want to deal with etching) and I love it, but sometimes I wonder just how fabulous it would have looked in fantasy brown!

Especially when there's an enormous thread on the stuff and a lot of people have popped back in years later to say their slabs have held up and performed flawlessly.

The initial layout of the pieces on the slab appears to be from Slabsmith (a 15K bit of software), or another granite templating program. That allows customers to see exactly how the seams will match up without even physically being there. The program was developed to be able to help customers visualize the end product easier than taping off slabs. It's quite an investment to make, and generally the less expensive places don't invest in technology or machinery all that much.

When I laid out this kitchen it was going to be soapstone so no thought was given to seams at all. However, the room is darker than I anticipated so I don't want black counters.

Not to throw yet another wrench into your thinking, but did you consider getting soapstone and not oiling it? There are many beautiful soapstones that are light gray and would not contribute to making your kitchen darker. I only mention this as that is what we did. We really wanted a light colored counter, and were not too interested in quartz or any granites we saw. So we found a soapstone we loved, and have not oiled it. (Actually-full disclosure-I did oil it for about a year just for something different, but then this spring took it back to the original light color.) Also, I put hot things on it all the time. They do make fireplaces out of it, after all. Just a thought.

If your first picture (showing the pieces on the slabs) is to scale, 4 slabs looks right. I tried moving the island piece to the slab with the L and it was too big.

The second set of slabs I chose were considerably bigger that the ones you see laid out above. Truth is, the layout shown might not even work with the first set because the vertical grain cuts just fit. There's really no wiggle room at all. I asked them to get the exact measurements from the supplier before we commit. I'm sure they used sophisticated software but I'd really like to know what they based it on with no pictures of the slabs. The slab pictured above is not the one for their proposed layout.

Not to throw yet another wrench into your thinking, but did you consider getting soapstone and not oiling it?

I did consider not oiling but everything I read here says you get oil marks with regular use. We do cook a lot and since it's a beach house, people are pretty relaxed, if you know what I mean. LOL!

The granite isn't the look I'm going for in the bathrooms, which is too bad, because I have a few small vanities that could use the remnants. Right now I'm waiting for a quote on the 2nd set of slabs and for a quartz I picked out. I'm really beginning to think that quartz is the way to go because of the long runs. Or some low level uniform granite. Everyone keeps telling me I can do better, but is it really that bad? I was delighted with it in my first kitchen so why not now? Sheesh!

Thanks for the help.

Which type of granite is this? Its beautiful?

@MoJo4355 The granite is Colonial White but it was a very special group of slabs because it didn't have any deep red spots and had lots of greenish-blue in it, which I've never seen before in Colonial White. We did use it and it looks great.

I love it. I looked at colonial white but the slabs i saw looked more like cookies and cream ice cream.  Yours has more white. Exactly what I'm keeping an eye out for!

Most "white" granites will have the reddish wine-colored flecks all throughout - that is the nature of the stone. It's why most folks that want "whitish" counters don't end up with granite. But there are some out there, I have seen some granite slabs online that looked amazing, but never saw any in person that were not full of the red spots. Here is an article on white granites - keep your eyes peeled at the slab yard. :-)

https://www.archcitygranite.com/12-trending-white-granite-colors-in-2018/