Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Caesarstone countertops installed

Below you can see the Caesarstone countertops arriving by truck. Our friends at K Group coordinated the process...overseeing the template, fabrication, and installation. (They partner with Master Countertops who actually fabricate and install the material). The second image shows the guys grinding the material after they scribed it on site so it will fit tight to our floors. This piece is for one of the 'turndowns' (where the end of the countertops turn and continue down to the floor) in the kitchen.























Below are a couple of shots of the countertops installed in the kitchen, a detail of the 'turndown' at the dishwasher, and a shot of the master bathroom sink and faucet. The install went off without a hitch and everything looks great. We were most concerned with the seam in the material at the ends of the counter where we decided to turn it and run it down to the floor. They did a great job at putting it all together. Our original plan was to mitre the corners but it was not feasible with this particular line of Caesarstone due to the fact that it contains glass and it began to chip and pop out after a few tests in the shop. We ultimately went with a 'butt joint' detail which still came out nice after they polished it up.

















One important green strategy we developed in regards to the Caesarstone (outside of the material itself- read more about that in a previous post) was the maximization of the slab dimensions. We actually designed the width of our two kitchen countertops and all of bathroom vanities to coordinate with the manufactured width and length of the Caesarstone slab. By carefully mapping out all of our counters to fit within the slab dimensions, we determined that we would only need to purchase two slabs for the whole project. After some shifting around and coordination at the fabricators, we were able to successfully provide countertops for the entire kitchen (including 'turndowns') and all three bathrooms...all within two slabs with virtually no waste factor.

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