Oh marble can crack from thermals shock as well. (ANY stone can, theoretically.) I've never had that happen with marble to any clients in my experience mainly because statistically the sample is so low. Marble has only become popular in the last 5 years or so, and the handful of marble counters I've been involved with doesn't make a dent per cent wise in the thousands of granite ones. Most of my clients simply don't want to deal with the certainty of etching or possibility of staining should they forget to keep their marble sealed. Now that I work at a box store instead of as an independent, granite is 95% of counter sales. It seems that every other customer is "upgrading" their home for sale, despite having 40 year old grody cabinets underneath. But, that's another story...

According to all the major soapstone suppliers I called about this (I did a lot of research!), soapstone is so heavy it either needs no epoxy to hold it at all, or just something as simple as silicone. HOWEVER, my fabricator, who was not knowledgeable about soapstone, used a PERMANENT, rock hard drying epoxy. Francy what you wrote above reminded me of some research I did for a seam in my granite that had cracked. I posted a question on the stoneadvice forum, asking what the best solution would be for the seam. The responses indicated that polyester should be used rather than epoxy in my particular instance. The reasoning: earthquakes. Yes, I live in the Bay Area too. Here's probably way too much information, but it's relevant to the fact that your fabricator used epoxy to attach the soapstone to your cabinets. My fabricator repaired the cracked seam with polyester. Now, IF THERE WAS NO MOVEMENT EXPECTED, I think the proper solution to the problem would be to remove all the polyester, and re-seam with epoxy. But Antonio is correct in stating that if you did so, and the stone experienced movement (due to an earthquake, for instance)--the stone would indeed crack. The seam would hold, but the stone would crack elsewhere, probably within an inch or so of the seam. (We've done numerous lab tests to prove this). So you're faced with a conundrum--take a chance that there will be no movement and the seam will look good, but the stone may crack if there is movement; or use the "fuse theory"--just like a fuse blows in an electric circuit before there is more damage elsewhere, you can look at the polyester as being a fuse--if there is movement, the "fuse" (the seam) will break, but the stone will still be ok. Then you'd just have to re-seam. (posted by Mike Beckmann from Bonstone Materials Corp.) I hope this post doesn't add more stress to your life - if so I apologize. Best case scenario is that other people can learn from our experiences. Here is a link that might be useful: Stone Advice forum

We went with Sea Pearl Quartzite. Supposed to be very hard and they broke a number of blades cutting. So far six weeks in no issues. Looks great in my opinion but stone yard tried to sell me some marble first calling it soft quartzite. My fabricator went with us to purchase to make sure we got the right product. Also went with the thicker 3 inch stone slab vs 2 inch.

All materials have inherent properties and fissures in quartzite is one of them. If you think the cracks formed by the hole drilling will bug you, then yes, an engineered stone is probably a better fit. Most of the counters I spec are engineered, and on occasion I'll spec marble. I put Silestone Ethereal Dusk in my own bathroom and it's both beautiful and very durable. If the cracks are covered up by the escutcheon plates of the faucet and handles, and your fabricator thinks the cracks won't get bigger over time, you could just leave it alone. But if he can't guarantee the cracks won't get bigger, I'd replace the material with a different choice.