Cabinet maker won't give me excess caesar stone bench tops

Bc23 · Sep 05, 2024 9:35 pm

I have some caesar stone left over from my bench tops, the cabinet maker told me I needed to buy complete slabs but doesn't want to give me the off cuts.

The cabinet maker is saying I can't have the cutout for the sink or the off cuts from the bench top due to health and safety reasons because of "sharp edges"

There saying they can make me a chopping board at 700x300 from the sink cutout and a piece thats big enough for a coffee table at 1400x600, they want $500 to "polish the edges so it isn't to sharp for me to handle"

I'd just like the sink cut out and a decent off cut to make a coffee table with in the future, but they won't give them to me with out charging me to polish the edges so I don't cut my self.

Is this the way all kabinet makers / stone masons work? I'd just like the stone I've paid for so I can make a chopping board / table top in the future if I want to.

chippy · Sep 06, 2024 10:11 am

Bc23

I have some caesar stone left over from my bench tops, the cabinet maker told me I needed to buy complete slabs but doesn't want to give me the off cuts.

The cabinet maker is saying I can't have the cutout for the sink or the off cuts from the bench top due to health and safety reasons because of "sharp edges"

There saying they can make me a chopping board at 700x300 from the sink cutout and a piece thats big enough for a coffee table at 1400x600, they want $500 to "polish the edges so it isn't to sharp for me to handle"

I'd just like the sink cut out and a decent off cut to make a coffee table with in the future, but they won't give them to me with out charging me to polish the edges so I don't cut my self.

Is this the way all kabinet makers / stone masons work? I'd just like the stone I've paid for so I can make a chopping board / table top in the future if I want to.

Technically speaking you didn't pay for the stone offcuts. You paid for a kitchen benchtop of the colour and specifications listed in your contract. The cabinet maker has supplied that so they don't "owe" you anything.
The stone mason has to buy the required amount of sheets to manufacture the benchtop and that often means that there is product left over but it's not yours.
The latest laws around manufactured stone mean that it's no longer allowed to be used and machined, so it's not something you could do anything with. Definitely not a DIY product and if you take the offcuts back to a stone mason, technically they aren't supposed to work with it and even if you find one that will it will probably cost you $500 to get them cut and polished.
The product has been banned from use with very tight laws surrounding it. Existing jobs can be finished so the cabinet maker can probably put the offcuts through as the same "job" but after that it really becomes redundant

chippy · Sep 06, 2024 11:29 am

I should add that the laws are around the old style manufactured stone. If you are using one of the new silica free tops then fabrication is still allowed, however my comments on the offcuts not being yours is still correct.

Pulse · Sep 08, 2024 6:07 am

I don’t have a lot of experience here but our stone mason gave us the off cuts and I previously got off cuts from a friend where the cut out were done off site. You paid for the slab already. This “sharp edges” is BS. I can’t understand why someone would be so obstructive.

Bc23 · Sep 09, 2024 7:50 am

It seems to me like there just trying to cash in. Because my bench was 3500mm long they told me I needed to purchase a second slab of caeser stone, which is understandable. I don't see how you can tell somebody you need x amount of product, but were only going to use 1/6 of it and you can't have the remainder. Its the new stuff with no silica so they can't use that as an excuse, hence the reason they're saying its to sharp to handle safely. Everything else thats excess gets left behind on a new build, paint, bricks, tiles etc.