I am looking at having a granite countertop installed. I have seen both slab and pre-fab work with pre-fab being less costly. Here is my question. what is the max seam width I sholuld expect with pre-fab vs. custom slab granite. I have seen a noticable difference in the width of seams with custom being the smaller seam.

Jim

 

Can you define slab and pre fab? I have granite counter tops with 2 seams. The joints are less than 1/16", epoxy bonded and barely noticeable.

 

Just out of curiosity, given that the perception of pre-fab, is a stock Item of predetermined or undetermined length and width.
If it is it your intention to have one or more of these "custom" cut to length, then measure correctly and you will have a standard seam joint.

 

slabs are big pices of stone 2/3mm thick and are about 55 sq ft. Pre-fab is a granite stone 25 inch wide and 96 to 120 inches in length with a edge treatment all ready on. Normally 1 1/2 in full radius. Most of the pre-fab's I have seen come from China, but the stone is from Finland (Baltic Brown)

What is a standard joint width, I have seen 1/32 to 1/8 of an inch. depending on installer. Some good and some real bad

 

CDRJIM - Most of the granite slabs around here are a lot bigger. We picked our granite at a warehouse filled with hundreds of slabs that were probably 8' X 12'. I have a peninsula that has a single slab 10' long by 4' wide. As I said earlier my seams are about 1/16" and color matched so well that they are barely visible. The installer worked the joints for a couple of housrs to get them perfectly aligned.
The granite we looked at (a lot) came from all over the world. Most from India and Brazil with some really neat stuff from Africa.
Was the 2/3 mm you cited as prefab thickness a typo? I haven't seen prefab granite countertops. Is it just a thin granite laminate on a thicker substrate. If so that sounds like an affordable alternative to the thicker slab.

 

Out of curiousity...does anyone ever try to pulverize same granite and mix it in with the epoxy?