bring it to the attention of your contractor and go from there. I have had granite installed by a stone artist, and he removed a piece on install day because he did not like the way it flowed. he wouldn't even let me comment, he just said he did not want it there. I waited another week then he completed the job. I have had granite installed by three other companies (four installs total) who either did not give a s***, or lacked attention to detail, and made me feel bad for asking about details. it doesn't hurt to ask, see what response you get. In three months, if it still bothers you, your request will certainly fall on deaf ears, if you ask now there is a chance to fix it.

Hi Pedimom, Wondering if you have had any luck with the grantie seam problem? I am shopping for granite and started to think about your seams. They have been just terrible to you. I am so sorry you are going through this. While learning all I can about granite I found some links on my search. Maybe this will help you on your discussions with the granite people. Thinking of you and hoping the installers fix this for you. Good luck. Boxerpups ............ http://boards.hgtvpro.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5081053852/m/7061072093 Better place yet is in middle of sink. short seam on each side of sink easy to hide. Other then that pick the end which is not seen as easy from outside the room. The lower the angle you look the easier it can be seen. so when your farther away the seam will stand out more because of the reflective nature of the stone. But any good counter company worth their salt should be able to seam this with little effort and is should hide quite well. Black is a fairly easy color to seam. Its the lighter colors that oftemtimes is harder. ............ http://www.stoneadvice.com/forum/search.php?fid[]=1 ..... http://tomcordova.com/24/seams-in-granite/ Granite countertop seams should be smooth to the touch and no more than 1/16ÂÂ wide. There is no written rule about this but this is the quality standard in the industry. The joint should be filled flush with epoxy in a color that best matches the general granite color. If you are not happy with the color, ask the installer to redo it. This is not difficult. Sometimes the joint can be made smoother with the epoxy as well. If the joint is still rough, then you will need to have the seams professionally ground down and re-polished. This is not easy to do correctly and even impossible with some homogenous colors. Best wishes, Tom Cordova .................... Q. How can I get the smallest seam possible where two slab countertop panels meet? A. Well obviously a good fit and straight cuts are key. But here are a few other tricks of the trade. Get some large soft rubber suction cups of five or six inch diameter and some turnbuckles eight or ten inches long. Attach one cup to each end of the turnbuckle. After you butter the edge of the seam with the epoxy that you have tinted the color of the granite stone you are using set them in place and squeeze them together gently. Then take your assembly of turnbuckles and suction cups and straddle the seam placing one suction cup on each side. Then spin the turnbuckle to gently pull the two panels together. You don't want to apply too much force here or you will break the suction of the rubber cups to the granite. Wedges are also useful in achieving a tight seam by forcing the panel in the direction of the seam.

"Does anyone have a seam on their island and does it distract the eye?" It depends on the "quality" of the seam. Is the seam material a good color match for the counter? Are the edges on each slab at the seam clean/sharp and smooth? Are the slabs the same thickness? This should be no problem b/c C-Stone is an engineered product and production quality controls should demand this. Is the seam tight and very thin? If the counter material has a pattern (regular or not), did the fabricators and installers do a good job at "matching" the two slabs? (Yours does not appear to have a visible pattern to worry about.) If all the above are done properly, the seam should be almost invisible. Regarding using a single slab - if you reduce the depth of your island, you should be able to use a single slab. 1.5" counter overhang + 24" cabinet + 12" cabinet + 1" door + 15" overhang = 53.5" (15", btw, is the minimum overhang recommended for counter-height seating.) This gives you full 24" deep cabinets in the front of the island plus 12" deep cabinets behind the island for seldom-used items. Caesarstone slabs are 120 inches (3.10m) long x 56ý inches (1.44m) wide By reducing your island depth to 53.5", you should be able to use just one slab - no seam! Is that your main/cleanup sink in the island? I'm asking b/c it has very little landing or work space on the right - for me, that would not be acceptable, but perhaps you're OK with it...? IMO, I think you should have at least 24" on each side of a cleanup sink. If it's just a prep sink, then it's fine...ideally, I would aim for at least 9" to 12" on the non-working side of a prep sink, but if you can't fit it, then it will be fine. Good luck!

I would have them seam it, take the money and buy something pretty - vase, rooster, fancy espresso machine - to sit on top of the seam. If the grain/pattern is truly directionless you won't even see the seam in a week. You can either inspect the slabs before they seal the seam, or you can actually take scraps and hold them next to each other, if you can turn the scraps any which way, and they still seem to match at a distance, it should look fine. Maybe someone here will comment on seam placement. My kitchen counters are seamed at the faucet, which is supposed to be an inconspicuous place, because the faucet base splits up the seam - at first it drove me crazy because I saw it every time I looked at the faucet, now I have to look to notice it.