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Guides

Where should countertop seams go?

The best seam location is behind the sink, where the sink cutout already removes most of the stone and the joint is visually broken. Never place a seam at a cooktop — the thermal cycling and the narrow remaining stone make it a failure point. Fewer seams is always better, but a seam is preferable to a piece that cannot be cut from an available slab.

Seam location scoring (preferred → forbidden)

  1. Behind the sink — preferred. Cutout removes most of the joint; the bowl hides the rest.
  2. Mid-run on a long straight — acceptable when slab length or transport forces a break. Keep the seam away from appliances and corners when possible.
  3. At an inside corner / L junction — workable, but visible and harder to polish flush. Prefer a sink seam when the L can be split that way.
  4. At a cooktop — forbidden. Thermal cycling plus narrow remaining stone is a failure point. Do not place a seam through a cooktop cutout.

Transport constraints

A piece that nests as one on the slab may still need a seam if it will not clear the shop door, the stairwell, or the elevator at the job site. Max piece length is a shop constraint first, a site constraint second. Plan seams for the route that will actually deliver the stone — not only for the nest.

Why an unseamed L can cost you a whole extra slab

An L-shaped piece consumes a rectangular blank of width (leg A) × height (leg B). On the slab that blank often locks out neighboring pieces. Splitting the L behind the sink turns one awkward blank into two straights that pack. On a multi-unit job, forcing every kitchen to stay monolithic can burn an entire extra slab per handful of units.

Counterly applies seam rules when nesting so preferred sink seams are chosen over cooktop seams, and so an L that will not pack can be split rather than forcing another slab.

From the shop floor

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