Caesar stone join on island bench :-(

I can now see why you have three slabs (and two joins). The return would be more than the 1.44 metres of the slab short length, therefore it needs to be rotated giving you 1.44 m. This plus 3.06 m is only 4.50 m, so you need a third slab. Apologies for my previous statement, but I didn;t realise you have a (sizeable) return.

I think I read somewhere that the joins in engineere stome shoud be no closer than 15cm to any cutout ( Ie sinks/cooktops).

even instruction manual indicates that join should be full length of bench and not at sink or any other cut.

I just wish it was right by the sink and not in the middle of the bench.

Is Join 2 running straight through the bench? Your return should be one piece from wall to full length. If it is an L shape in any way, shape or form your warranty from the stone supplier (ie: Caesar or Quantum) is void. I'm only asking as where you've added your text it looks a little away from the internal corner.
I hope what I've written makes sense...

Most stonemasons, if you don't ask where your joins will be they will be placed where the stone mason wants them, but generally they would be centered.

It's an L shape piece. Join is in from the corner.

Looking straight on at join 2.

L shape stone bench voids the warranty as per instruction manual.

Actually the L doesn't VOID the warranty, it is just that any crack appearing where the L shape is is not covered by the warranty, there is a bit of a difference. The same also goes for sink and cook top cut-outs too. Refer to para 2, XII of the Caesarstone warranty.

The reason L's can be bad is because if you have a sufficiently long section any movement towards the end could result in mechanical stress at the corner of the L thus forming a crack. Now looking at this one however from a mechanical perspective the bit to the right towards the sink is so short that it is hardly going to produce any mechanical stress that may in the future form a crack. If the join was say 1-2m to the right then sure the possibility would be there. But as it isn't I wouldn't be too worried about the L.

I wonder why they did that join there instead of straight along the return. They didn't even give us the warranty paperwork. Shall I grab it from online and fill it out?

Someone from the stonemasons is supposed to be coming out for a look soon. Also because there is a stain in one spot that looks suspiciously like a coffee cup ring to me. Our cabinet maker has contacted them with our concerns.

Yes you register online. As to why they put the join where they did rather than in-line I would say because it looks a lot nicer to have the corner rounded out like that. With a join straight on it is not possible to get the corner as gentle, although yes they can still make it look nice.

Thanks AJW and everyone else for your opinions. We have our cabinet maker and the stonemason coming tomorrow to check it out. Our cabinet maker is keen to get it all sorted for us. We're more worried about this yellow stain than the joins at this point in time.

What was the outcome of the meeting with your cabinet maker and stonemason?

Caesarstone is great when it comes to stains. I'm pretty certain that will be fixed pronto.

The two yellow rings came out!!! They used Gumption and metho (?). They were concerned about too much rubbing though as obviously it will affect the finish. We weren't sure if the stain was under the polished finish but seeing they came out I guess not! I only noticed last night though that I can tell where they rubbed. This was looking across the bench from a distance away and with the lights on. When I'm standing at the bench looking at the area I cannot see any dullness where they rubbed. I am happy with that outcome.

They also scraped out and refilled the join I was unhappy with and it is so much lighter now. Not sure why it just wasn't done correctly in the first place!

Here's a before and after pic - different lighting but it's a definite improvement.



As for why they placed the joins where they did... they did not want a join through the sink cut out (this position would have been a full 3.06m slab). Right beside the sink is our dishwasher and they said they don't like a join above dishwashers either - due to the heat and also the fact that the bench is unsupported (ie no cabinetry carcass). I was pretty happy with this explanation and combined with the lightened join mark, all is good and we can move on. Glass splash will now be installed next week and then I can share some proper photos in the kitchen thread!

Thanks so much for your help and also coming back to ask how it went.