Pick the fabricator first. That is THE mist important element. Lots of horror stories with bad installations. Use whatever brand the well experienced and successful fabricator uses.

That's probably the 2nd half of the question but first we need to find a color we like. But I am worried that our fabricator, who is hired by our GC, won't have any experience with either Neolith or Dekton.

You are putting the cart before the horse to color shop before you find someone skilled enough to give you a good result. Find the person. He will tell you what materials give the best results. Then color shop.

icenet333;

I make a living repairing bad installations. I cannot disagree with a word of Sophie's.

Yes, point well taken. But if we don't like the color of the Neolith, we won't be installing it no matter how skilled the fabricator is.

Then pick something else on the front end if you are not willing to do this in the correct order. You are just asking for heartbreak and trouble by falling for that bad boy that can't be had, and telling yourself that it will be OK. It won't.

Can someone answer my original question? Thank you.

I saw the estatuario today in person at HG Stone warehouse. I would say both calacutta and estatuario are fairly white toned with darker veining. Calacutta has more beige in the veining. The colors on the website are actually fairly accurate but the best way for you to judge is to find somewhere you can view it. Here are some pictures I took today. Same slab in different lights.

Anyone know any good fabricators in NY area? so far the two I have spoken to seem to want to talk me out of the product..one was very focused on chips on the edge. I have quartz countertops right now and dont have any chips. I dont baby them but I have a childfree home and we are pretty careful with our cookware.

You can't compare the chipping of the two. Estone can be reprofiled to eliminate chips and reduce the chances of future chipping. Sintered can't.

sorry Joseph, what is estone?

how much force are we talking about to chip the edge of sintered/neolith? wouldnt the chipping be minimise with 1/8 eased edge?

I saw the Estatuario slab (below) at Ollin Stone in Anaheim CA. Wow! Looked amazing! Much nicer than the Dekton. But we are going with Caesarstone White Attica for a few reasons. 1.) Ollin gave me a non-contractor price of $2800 for the slab. My guess is it would be at least $1000 more than Caesarstone. 2.) My general contractor told me his fabricator wants another $1000 for the install. So another $2k on an already over-budget kitchen. Plus I don't think the fabricator has done that many installs of Neolith. It's just too risky. I must say Ollin Stone did include sending out their in-house fabricator to train yours with the price of the slab.

I agree, I went to home depot to check out the Dekton Aura..it really wasnt worth it. I hated the texture and colors.

I think I am going to try and make the Neolith Estatuario work, hopefully the cost isn't crazy..I need 63 square feet approx of counter stone. Otherwise I guess Silestone has 1/2 inch thick stone or Corian/LG hi macs(which dont have a nice marbled look) which is my next option.

Our 2nd choice behind White Attica was Silestone White Arabesque. It's worth looking out. I don't know much about Corian/LG. There are plenty of marble alt threads on this site with very good info.

"sorry Joseph, what is estone?"

No, I'm the one who's sorry. I should have said "engineered stone" which is ground quartz mixed with a polyester resin. Cambria, Silestone, Zodiaq, etc., are all estone.

Neolith and Dekton are sintered, contain no resin, and are essentially large slabs of porcelain tile with a picture on the top.

Thanks Joseph, that makes sense now. I guess have to do some more research on this.

@Sush A, did you end up going with the Neolith? If so, what price did you pay for the slab and fabrication? Thanks!

No, we didn't not use Neolith. We were at the end of an already over-budget, delayed kitchen remodel when we looked at Neolith. It would have cost double our Caesarstone and the risk of our fabricator screwing it up was too great. Very happy with Caesarstone White Attica though.

Not even a year after our countertop in Neolith calaccata was installed, a crack is formed. Neolith's warranty is worthless and no action on their part to try to fix the problem. Our installer at least wants to work out a solution where we buy the replacement slab and they would be willing to install for free. They also recommended to use Dekton as replacement as they're thicker and stronger.

hgamy:

Where is the crack, please? This may be fabricator error.

Sorry to hear about the crack. Consumer Reports has issues with Dekton cracking during their impact test. Here is the quote: 1Cosentino's Dekton was tested. In our impact tests, pieces of the edges chipped off on samples that were the manufacturer-recommended thickness of 2 cm.

This may be a mute comment to all of the above but I absolutely LOVE my Neolith Calacutta Gold. It was expensive to do a 10 x 4 foot island, counter tops, back splash and the area behind the hood, but it is fabulous! Cost with three slabs and installation was about $11 K. (We waited four months to afford it but glad we did!)

We used a fabricator from a list of recommended ones provided by Olin Stone in Anaheim, CA. They are specialists with Neolith. Not one problem after three months of family use...now I'd like to use it in the guest bath!