I don’t know much about stone, although fissures sounds to me like every cut he makes he risks craking the stone even more.

The real question is, do you trust your fabricator? If you do, listen to him, find other slabs, wait for what you want if you have to. If you don’t trust his judgement, find another fabricator.

What you end up with to look at everyday depends on the layout. You can look at a slab with how the counter pieces and island along with the slab backsplash will use any patterns in the stone. You can determine what will look best. A fabricator isn't a designer. He should explain problems in fabrication to you. Do a layout of your cuts on the slab to see how the fissures come into play. You can do it with masking tape at the yard. You can take a picture and do it on computer. You can get a picture printed out or blown up to an 11 x 14 from Walmart and do the layout.

The more you tie down and communicate to your fabricator with inspection before delivery, the more likely you'll get a good outcome.

That's just Taj. It's a very hard, very brittle stone, that has a lot of fissures in it. Many quarries just resin the whole slab, to be able to transport it to market. And it's why you see such a huge price swing on the materials people throw around. The more expensive options have fewer fissures and resining. It's good your fabricator pointed that out, and is letting you make a judgement call between price and quality.

But, if the counter is 3cm and well supported, even a slab with breaks through the fissures everywhere will be suitable for use as a horizontal place to make a sandwich. The key is to accept that you may have additional breaks and repairs during the fabrication. IF you are good with that, and your installer is good with repairs, then there's no reason to not accept that slab, if it's priced well.

Almost all real stone has fissures , they do create issues with fabricating and IMO if the fabricator is not comfortable doing the job maybe keep looking for a better choice . Dan has great advice and a really good talk with the fabricator is a must . Fissures are not a deal breaker for me .

All Taj has fissures. How many are you willing to accept?

Keep looking for a better slab of Taj Mahal. I helped a friend looks for some slabs a few weeks ago in my area and several of the slab yards had plenty of different Taj Mahal lots with many slabs in each lot. There isn't a shortage, but you might need to expand your search area.

Thank you all. Each of you has valuable advice to help me make a decision. The slab with the many fissures was a very unusual slab in color and design (which is what I really liked about it). I did ask the fabricator to do a visual layout of the slab to see how it will work out on the counters/backsplash but wanted to understand the risk. You have helped me understand why the fabricator was hesitating - as it seems like it can lead the stone to crack more while fabricating- that would be a bigger issue for me.

Another question - I have a U shaped kitchen with a range in the center of the U on a 16ft wall. The fabricator mentioned he thinks the best place for a seam is the center of the sink (on the short wall) - do you all agree with that? i am worried that a seam at the sink could make the stone vulnerable to water stains potentially? is that better than seems in the corners and each "leg" of the U its own slab? any thoughts or advice on this...

As eam44 pointed out - bottom line is I need to trust the fabricator. He has a good reputation but this is my first kitchen renovation and very costly so just trying to be an educated consumer and make sure I ask all the right questions and understand the process as much as possible.

This forum and all of your help is amazing!

" i am worried that a seam at the sink could make the stone vulnerable to water stains potentially? "

Nothing to worry about there.

As far as the best place for the seam, impossible to tell without the layout but if that is what he suggests I would probably go with it.

Center of the sink is always best. With a 16' run, you are going to need multiple slabs, and you will have graining that either changes direction at the corners, or the short legs will have crosswise graining to match the long run. Sounds like a minimum of 3, and possibly 4 if you are doing a full height splash. Otherwise, the seams will not be optimum.

Thanks! yes i will need 3 slabs. i think he will do both corners and connected areas eqch as a piece and then seam by the sink. and another for the island and the third for the backsplash

Just the 16’ run will take 2 slabs by itself, if you are doing a splash. Slabs are basically 5x10. If the ”legs” off of the 16’ are deeper than 60” you will have issues and seams there too. And need more slabs than just 3.

My kitchen is a slightly larger U and I have seams at the sink and in the corners. I have a 48" opening for the sink, so the fabricator did not want to combine the long front and back sink rails with a continuous corner. Never notice any of the seams when they are done well and the pattern flows well across the pieces.

48" x 18" sink opening with seam.

Thanks for all the reassurance! Chispa that looks amazing! do not see any seams at all.

This is what i got from the fabricator - obvoobviously an approximation abd hard to really see the stone. theres only 2 seams which seems amazing to me. he is redoing it as the sink in thr left side will be centered under the window. the only plaxe it doesnt look like a grear match to me is the right side if the range counter and backsplash dont match up well in coloring - waiting to get the fabricator feedback.

appreciate any thoughts or feedback on the below layout

Thank you lilmermer. that is very helpful. our project has act been delayed a few months so i havent yet finalized the stone. would you mind sharing pictures of the final countertops and backsplash. great greatly appreciated

Sure! It’s not totally done yet, but this shows the stone. The gorgeous, gorgeous ston

Wow, lilmermer, beautiful kitchen--love your choices and that backsplash is awesome!

Also, a bit off topic, but it's curious that they named this quartzite "Taj Mahal," since the actual Taj Mahal was created out of white marble.

@Diana Bier Interiors, LLC - I've had the same thought 😂

@lilmermer - your kitchen is going to look stunning when finished. The backsplash is going to look really unique!

Thank you @lilmermer. your kitchen is absolutely gorgeous!! your fabricators did an amazing job with the stone!

@tami977

@Diana Bier Interiors, LLC

@dani_m08

Thank you very much! I am so happy with how beautiful it is that I could weep. The parquet team, the cabinetry team, and the stone fabricators all did beautiful work. Skills abound.