Can joints be avoided in granite and quartz worktops?

Joints are a necessary annoyance between different stone worktop runs.



Joints in stone worktops are needed because stone comes in fixed sheet sizes and most worktops go beyond these sizes. Alternatively, the size of the pieces must be restricted due to weight or access difficulty into the property.

How noticable are the joints?

Customer concern over joints is understandable, however the concern is excessive in many instances. Unless you are extremely unlucky in that the 'natural' run length of each piece in your kitchen is over 3 metres in length, most kitchens look very normal with appropriate joints. Most customers, however, tend to forget about the joints only a day after they see their worktops for the first time - so we suggest not to focus on this aspect of stone.

How is the joint filled?

Joints between two different stone worktop pieces are generally 2mm wide and are filled with a special stone glue. This glue is incredibly hard, like the stone itself. It is also perfectly safe for kitchen use and is not toxic in anyway once our installation is complete.

Will the colour be an exact match?

We aim to colour match the joint as best we can but it is impossible to hide the joint fully. Certain quartz surfaces such as Silestone have their own colour matched joint glue which we use whenever available for a best finish. However, even this glue will never match the worktop colour exactly, particularly if there are particular patterns in the stone.

Vein matching

For patterned stones, we always ensure that the vein in the stone is cut in the same way as an adjoining piece. Whilst perfect matching is not possible, this minimises the possibility of odd matching.

Finally...

I hear you say - "I have seen worktops without joints". This is true for Corian which is a different type of surface to stone. Corian is a 'solid surface' material that is closer to plastic than stone. If joints are your main concern, then you should consider this material, but we are obviously partial to stone in terms of beauty!