The issues that a conscientious granite and quartz fabricator has to face are constantly changing with new materials and new trends in kitchen design.
Some of these trends and the issues to consider are as follows:
– Larger islands
– Big island overhangs
– “Floating” countertops
– Thinner countertops
– Handle-less doors
– Larger hob cut outs in larger pan drawer units
– Down-draught extractor cut outs
– Domino hob arrangements
All these things present some additional issues and combined mean that particular care needs to be taken with the installation of the kitchen cabinets.
Generally sound kitchen design and installation. The quality of a solid stone countertops installation is hugely limited by (or helped by) the quality of the kitchen design and then its fitting. Most breakage issues in quartz are down to design or fitting problems like the following…
Regular support:
– Ideally there should be no more than 300mm unsupported. End support panels in between and at the ends of the island really help.
– a large hob cut out above a large set of drawers can mean the weakest point of the slab where there is little support.
– Floating countertops above handleless doors – the metal front rail is not in itself a support – it might help tie the units together but not much more.
Levelling:
– This may sound a bit silly and obvious but it is quite easy for a large island to be out in level by quite a few millimetres. What might not have been an issue once in a 1500mm length is now exacerbated over a 3000mm length. There cannot be high points in the middle as this has a potential for causing stress on the slab.
