Jumbo slabs available, length to approx. 130 inches...width to approx. 65 inches. Modify your design to allow for these limitations.

How would you even clean an island that size? Are you sure you cannot modify the size of the island??

Measure your reach before making an island that deep. Unless you are about 7' tall and have arms like an orangutan, it will be a challenge to wipe that off. My eating island is 50"x50" and it's enough of a reach to clean the center of it.

Bad design. Reduce the size to fit the materials.

Exactly in this case modify the island it is too wide anyway.

This design mistake is one of the first things that a novice designer gets chewed out over from their mentor. The design always has to start with the materials and their limitations. If you’re designing in stock cabinets, you don’t design 48”H cabinets. If your designing with concrete counters, you don’t pick wimpy stock fall apart cabinets. If you’re designing with stone slabs of any kind, you create something a couple of inches smaller than the maximum size.

Redesign. And slap yourself with a wet noodle in lieu of a design principal rapping your knuckles with a ruler.

Island is too wide. Please post design so we can help further.

So the problem is, is that the island is built. My husband is doing all the work and I originally wanted quartize which would work but its getting to be very expensive. The house is a split level with an addition so during the remodel we converted the small kitchen, small living room and dining area into one. I will post pics.

Your island is bigger than some bathrooms. Agree with others...scale it down.

If your island base is already built, and it’s already too big for a jumbo slab... you might need to consider using more than one slab, or perhaps use other materials.

If you cannot get a slab that size, noticeable seams strike me as unavoidable. Would you consider tile?

If you are set on keeping the island this size I would think about combining the quartz with wood. Just make sure that you have the proper support for whatever you decide. Here's an older thread with a combined island.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3702196/nightowl-s-2016-kitchen-reveal

A new home in the New York Suburbs · More Info

I agree with the above poster about adding wood to your island as a potential solution. I would add it where you'll have seating. Quartz is 15% cooler than the air around it, which can make it uncomfortable for resting your arms which is what people tend to do when seated at an island. So adding the wood here, similar to the picture shown below, could be a great option.

It is built, but he will fix it if need me. PS- i have been living on a construction site for too long!

And thank you all! I am so afraid of making the wrong decision.

rossi76:

I'm hoping the wavy knotty roof sheathing on your island is a temporary top only as it is unsuitable as stone underlayment especially with what appears to be your large cantilevers.

The width of the island is the biggest issue to fix. Remove the framing (aka knee walls) and the square boxy framework thing on the LONG side of the island. Push in and Rebuild knee wall so "INLINE" with the 2BD36. May need to order black paneling to finish it off. Then do 10-12" overhang and look for a slab width that has USEABLE material of 62.5"-64.5". Look for jumbo slab sizes. The length side, you have options there too. The 97" length is fine. The overhang is OK too based on the 2/3 rule but to be safe you can always install a few metal plates. (ie. Counterbalance metal countertop supports....can buy online).

I agree with whomever suggested a wood top where you will be sitting. I don't have quartz but I do have quartzite and it is COLD. We have a wood top and we love it, might be a good option for you.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but cold granite and quartz tops have never bothered me. As a pro, think I'll put a poll out there on this issue. I need to know :-)

megs1030, funny that you mention that your quartzite is really cold. Ours is too but at first I thought that is was my imagination. I feel like it is much colder than our old granite. Even my husband has noticed it. When I use my computer at the island, I put placemats under my arms.

Stone is not colder than the ambient air temperature. That’s physically impossible in a temperature stabilized dwelling. It will be 70 degrees if the house is 70 degrees. The only time that stone will actually be colder than the home’s temperature is if you do a temperature setback to 60 degrees at night, and touch it first thing in the morning. It can take several hours for a large thermal mass of stone to reach ambient home temperature.

Stone feels colder because it conducts heat better than wood. Thermal conductivity. You lean on it, and it transfers heat away from your arm rapidly, and into the stone. Your arm cools off, and feels ”cold”. But because of the large thermal mass of the stone, that little bit of heat has a negligible impact on heating the stone as a whole. You lean on a thin piece of metal, that also has a high thermal conductivity, and in a minute or two, it will feel warm, because of its low thermal mass. Your body warmed the smaller mass of steel.

Wood has poor thermal conductivity. It actually has insulation power because of that. 1 R per inch. (Which is why wood is a poor choice for radiant heated floors.) That means that it resists heat movement. Heat transfer occurs at a much slower rate. You lean on wood, and it doesn’t pull very much heat away from your arm. It feels warmer. Because of the poor conductivity of the wood, the surrounding wood still won’t be quite as warm as the spot under your arm. But even it will feel warmer than the exact same temperature stone. Because it’s insulative, not conductive.

Honestly if you can move some of the cabinets I would. The layout is not very functional. You have a huge area to the right of the sink that will wind up as a dumping ground instead of as useful prep space. Your prep space in this large kitchen is way too small to prep. What you created was a workspace for a small 12' x 12' kitchen, not a kitchen that is 12' x 20'

Here's what I'd do and it includes cutting down the island.