I think that has to do with the fabricator's inexperience. I have a 101" x 75" island with a large sink (45") and none of the fabricators I've interviewed had any issues at all. Typically, they build a support under the sink area for transport.

Mine is fantasy brown quartzite, it is over 6 long but not quite 6 wide, one Slab, no seams, no problem at all. Just need plenty of strong people to carry it in.

You clamp 2xs to stone to keep it from cracking in transport; I don't care how large the slab. Your island is too big to clean. Knock the width down, please.

One of my favorite shots from our new build. 500 pounds and a lot of muscle. I was holding my breath the entire time.

Mine is not installed yet, and granite, not quartzite, but our island will be 96"x42" and we are being charged an extra $300 for the seamless island.

I hope you have very long arms! The maximum dimension I would recommend is 60" in one direction so you can clean the counter. Most people cannot reach much more than 30" into the island, so 60" is really the maximum most people can clean.

The other direction can be longer b/c you can walk around the island to clean it and as long as one direction is no more than 60", you can reach the entire island from one side or the other.

So, if you don't have long arms, consider 60" x 72" (or 72" x 60") instead.

To find out what your reach is -- find someplace that has a very deep or open 36" high surface.

1. Lean over and measure how far you can reach comfortably.
2. Subtract 3" (b/c you will not be using your full reach with a sponge or cloth in your hand when cleaning).
3. Double that # and that's the maximum measurement you should have in one direction.

Trying this at a surface shorter than 36" won't be accurate b/c you can lean over farther. So, don't use your kitchen or dining room table for this (unless it's 36" off the finished floor).

I can comfortably reach all the way across my 36" wide island, but only on the side without seating. Keep in mind that you'll be reaching over stools on the seating side, so you won't be able to reach as far when stools are in place.

Our good friends have an island that is about 10 feet by 8 feet (the size of a small bedroom, the house is 5000 square feet). She is 5 feet tall. She hates it. She sends her pre-teens up to crawl across the counter to clean it (they are still under 100 pounds), Unused items on the counter get pushed into the middle of the counter where they accumulate until she gets motivated to gather them back. There can definitely be too much of a good thing when it comes to island size.

I'm 5'9" and can comfortably reach 30". 36" if I had to.

Square is hard, I would do a rectangular island, maybe 72 x 60. However, I don't get this reach issue, the fact that it is an island, so one can walk all the way to the other side to clean the area that cant clean from the other side. That is not practical? Are we that lazy now?

Rych, the point is not that you need to be able to reach all the way across the island, it's that you need to be able to reach halfway (accessing the other side, as you point out, by walking around and reaching from the other side). If you can't reach across half of the smaller dimension of your island, it's too big. That's all.