Laminated and Mitred Edge Build Up

Making Stone Look Thicker Than It Is

Quartz and most engineered slabs arrive at three centimetres, a little over an inch and a quarter. The chunky two inch or three inch apron you see in magazines is almost never a thicker slab. It is a second strip of the same stone fixed underneath the front edge, or a mitred return folded down from the top face, and then the joint is made to disappear.

That is the whole trick, and it is also the whole cost. No extra square footage of slab in any meaningful sense, but a significant amount of bench time, and it is the single largest line item on most of the quotes we write.

Laminated Versus Mitred

A laminated edge glues a strip of stone under the front lip and then profiles the doubled thickness as one piece. It is quicker, it is cheaper, and on a stone with a fairly uniform colour it looks entirely convincing.

A mitred edge cuts both pieces at forty five degrees so the top face wraps down the front. The advantage is that the pattern continues around the corner instead of stopping at a glue line, which matters enormously on a marble look quartz with strong veining. The disadvantage is that a mitre is unforgiving. The angle has to be right along the whole run, the two faces have to close with no gap, and the arris at the corner is fragile until it is glued and cured.

We will tell you honestly which one your stone needs. A quiet speckled granite does not need a mitre and you would be paying for something nobody will ever see. A dramatic veined quartz on an island absolutely does.

The Waterfall Island

A waterfall runs the top face down the side of the island to the floor. It is a mitre at the top corner, usually over a run of thirty six inches or more, and then a panel that has to be dead plumb because it sits next to a cabinet run that is dead plumb.

Two things decide whether it will look right. First, whether there is enough slab left with the grain running the correct direction, because the vein should appear to continue over the corner and down. That has to be laid out on the slab before cutting, and if the yard only has one slab left it sometimes simply cannot be done. Second, the floor. Waterfall panels land on the finished floor, so tile that is laid after the stone will leave a gap, and tile laid before it has to be flat where the panel touches down.

We say no to waterfalls fairly often. If the grain match is not there, the corner reads as two different pieces of stone stuck together at ninety degrees, and no amount of joint work fixes that.

Colour Matching the Joint

The glue line is where laminated and mitred work is judged. We tint the adhesive to the stone rather than using it out of the tube, close the joint under clamps, then work the cured line back flat and polish it with the surrounding face. On a light stone in the flat inland light coming through a west window, a lazy joint shows as a grey hairline from across the room, so this part is not optional.

Reinforcement While We Are There

If the edge is being built up, it is the right moment to deal with the weak points. The rail in front of an undermount sink is the thinnest, most heavily loaded piece of stone in any kitchen, and on a long run it gets rodded or backed with a support strip. Seating overhangs get their support planned rather than improvised. None of this is visible afterwards, which is exactly why it gets skipped by people quoting on price alone.

Call (951) 672-3524. Tell us the stone you are looking at and whether the island is a waterfall, and we can put a range on the build up before you commit to the slab.