Caesar stone join on island bench :-(

Trendstone Quartz slabs are 3200 x 1600. Maybe a combination of using Trendstone and reducing the slab by 100 mm would have made for a happy customer.

Exactly right.. You can't buy 40mm solid. the thickest you can get is 30mm.

40mm is either a strip laminated or mitred.

Trendstone, never heard of it.

There is 40mm Caesar Benchtops in most of the PD displays, they look like a solid block, the edge rounded/squared off and there zero laminate on them, I aint a builder so I assume others know more, but if its 2 x 20mm put together I cant see the join.

Hi Everyone,

Firstly a big thank-you for all your responses. This forum is so great. I've accepted that a join is inevitable on a benchtop this size. If I had known, I would have just opted for the maximum 3 meters. I have learnt a lot from this forum and have asked many questions along the way. Unfortunately for me, this one just never occured to me. Its really hard to know what to ask if you don't know what you need to ask IYKWIM. I knew the 40mm would be joined, the builder (PD) told me that. The upgrade to this benchtop size was an 'option' that was offered. I must say even though the builder isn't obliged to say there would be a join, it would have been responsible as it makes a difference to the look of the bench. I've never noticed a join in a display home so its reasonable that I assume there wouldn't be one. Lesson learnt. First time building. I will feedback to PD they should disclose this to their clients in the future.

And Humble - I loved the kallara when I saw the floor plans. It was a tough choice but the Drysdale won for me.

We have a north/west facing block so the Kallara was the killer floorplan. Interesting, I just checked mine, its 2932mm long. 6.8cm under! Phew.

Just on the drysdale, if you look at the images on the website.. http://www.porterdavis.com.au/#/homeviewer/drysdale/30 that bench looks longer them 3m, and it has NO JOIN.

If it's longer than 3m, it will most likely have a join. Whether it's noticeable is different. Our marble slabs were even smaller, which reminds me that I haven't even noticed our join in the laundry

LOL it must be those wide angle lenses! Besides our eyes are kept busy at display homes with all the beautiful decor. I can just see the join on my 40mm edging if i look carefully in the light. Its there, more noticable in some places than others. The benchtop is another story - its quite obvious to me. Are there standards to what is acceptable and not? I'd like to post a photo if someone can give me a quick tip on how to do it.

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Thx humble, here it goes... ooh that worked well. Should've taken a ruler to take with that photo. Sorry its a bit crappy. took it with my phone. Its a pretty ugly join

When done properly you cannot see the join. I was out at a stonemason's the other day sorting out my own new tops and he showed me a job they were working on and explained how they do 40mm. When you looked at it you could see it was a 20mm slab, but on the dress face he had a strip about 50-70mm wide 20mm high laminated to the main part and on the unfinished edges a strip about 30mm wide. On the dress face you could not see the joint.

Must admit when I first saw this post I was wondering why, if they can hide the joins when they laminate two pieces together why they cannot hide the joint when they use more than 1 peice on a bench. Will be interesting to see if any joins are seen in mine, as I will have a few as my kitchen is a G shape, so need 4 separate pieces plus waterfalls etc.

That join looks terrible The stonemason company should have no problems coming out and fixing the join if the installers have not done it propery. If it is done correctly it should not be as visible as that.

Stuey I've got CS Nougat (light colour) but the joins in both benches are quite hard to see, in fact a few people have commented wasn't it great the L shaped benches didn't need to be joined...then I point out the joins!!

Sorry, but that wouldn't be acceptable to me either, if that's the best they can do tell them to get a professional to fix the join.

I am not a stone manson but have stone fitted by one of Sydneys biggest suppliers and that join is well within what is acceptable.

Sure it could be better but its not bad at all!

Unfortunately the only thing the building company has done wrong is not informed the customer that there would be a join there.
The problem is that its a building company organising the kitchen rather than a kitchen company or cabinet maker.
Building companys dont go deep into style or design. They just ask what colour your after and thats about it.

Unfortunately its customer beware with large building companys. They wont have any luck having it redone or changed as technically they have done nothing wrong.

I've seen a lot worse than that.

You can't always make joins invisible, it depends on the colour and how well the stonemason has mixed the colours in the glue to match the bench top.

Can you post a photo of your join?

Mine is similar to steuy's but my stone is a white, so quite visible. Would like to see what some people deem invisible.

I think there a are a few issues here:

The location of the join. Some say the best spot for a stone join is across a sick or cooktop as it means there is less physical area of join. Stone is also not an issue to join directly around wet area like laminate is

The color and pattern of the stone. This stone seams to (from the photo provided) have a very light/feint variation. If it was heavily flecked or had a lot of variation (a busy look?) the the join may hide better, depending on the ability to match the pattern in cut ends

The fact that the OP wasn't aware there would be a need for a join (more discussion below) Like I mentioned earlier, The builder didn't have to tell you , but they should have IMO, easier for all in the end and you get to make better informed decision. This places is also a great resource for questions to ask about all manner of building topics.

The fact we (anyone except the OP) can go and see it IRL. It could look very different in real life under regular lighting conditions. I Find it very hard to forget that something is there if I don't like it (like a scratch on my car) My attention will always be drawn the that area and I will always find it




You mention that the bench was an upgrade, but I get the feeling that it wasn't the stone you are talking about but the length of the bench? If this were the case and you got the stone as standard but the length of the bench was upgraded (extended) then I think it is very poor on the builders behalf they didn't inform you of the requirement for a join.

I always thought it was bad to put a join through a cutout, especially in stone as it then forms a weak spot, where with a cut out you require the strength of solid material all around.

I believe the OP said the cat. 3 stone and the oversized stone bench tops were both upgrades.

I don't think I would be happy with that join.

Are there any cleaning type products available to clean up/help disguise joins in stone?

the join adhesive should be close to bench top colour if not same. structurally is not wrong, workmanship is the problem.

You can also clearly see that the join is closer from one end to the other. This is the difference between a quality stonemason and one that employs a labourer to do the job. Where I work this would not happen, all joins and measurements are triple checked before they leave the workshop.