Sintered Stone Disadvantages: What You Can Avoid and What You Can't

This guide covers countertops, where those edges take the knocks. Below we sort the common complaints by what you can actually do about them, starting with the ones you can't.

The Disadvantages You Can't Avoid

Does Sintered Stone Chip Easily? At the Edges, Yes

The flat surface rarely chips. An exposed edge or corner can, when something hard hits it. Sintered stone is fired at very high temperature, and there's no resin in it. That's why the surface is so hard. It's also why there's nothing to soak up a sharp blow. When something hard lands on a thin, exposed edge or corner, the force goes into a small area and a piece can break off.

The situations where this happens are ordinary ones:

• A cast-iron pan set down hard, or dropped, onto the countertop edge
• A stool or chair back knocked into the end of an island
• A heavy pot swung against the edge of the sink cutout

An eased edge or a thicker slab lowers the odds. Neither makes the edge immune. If one spot in your kitchen takes this kind of punishment every day, such as an island end where children pull stools in and out, expect that edge to chip at some point. Quartz has resin in it, so its edges forgive impacts better. Some households use sintered stone on the main run and quartz on the hardest-used island.

Years of Dragging Rough Objects Across It Will Wear the Surface

Our slabs measure 6 on the Mohs hardness scale. That's harder than a steel knife, so normal cutlery won't scratch it. It's softer than sand grit and the unglazed ring on the base of many ceramic bowls and plates. Drag those across the same spot often enough and, on a polished surface, you'll slowly see a duller patch where the shine has worn down.

In abrasion testing our slabs rate class 4, the second-highest of six classes. That means slow wear, not no wear. Lift dishes instead of sliding them, and wipe grit off before setting pots down. For most kitchens, that's enough.

Can a Sintered Stone Chip Be Repaired?

A small one, yes. A stone repair technician can fill it with colour-matched resin, then shape and polish it. A large missing corner, or a crack that runs through the slab, usually means replacing that piece. Ask your fabricator who handles repairs locally before you need one.

The Disadvantages You Can Avoid When Choosing the Slab

Thickness

The material is just as strong at 12 mm as at 20 mm. The slab isn't. In independent lab tests on our slabs, a 20 mm slab took 11,389 N to break and a 12 mm slab took 5,392 N, less than half. Thickness matters most where the slab has to bridge a gap or carry a load on its own: overhangs, around sink and hob cutouts, and on islands. A 12 mm slab is often fine when it's fully supported, or on walls and furniture. For a kitchen countertop with cutouts and overhangs, 20 mm leaves more margin.

Not sure which thickness your layout needs? Send us the drawing and the colour you like, and we'll check the options.

Edge Profile

Sharp square edges and thin mitered points chip most easily, because the force of a knock has the least material to spread into. An eased edge, a small rounding or bevel on the corner, spreads the force and holds up better. If you love a crisp square look, put it where it won't be hit, and ease the edges along walkways and island ends.

Finish

Polished surfaces show scratches and wear more easily under light. Matte surfaces hide fine scratches but can pick up grey marks when metal pans or rings rub against them. Those usually come off with the right cleaner. Pick the finish whose weakness bothers you less.

Sink Type and Layout

An undermount sink leaves the cut edge of the slab exposed around the bowl, right where pots get swung in and out. A top-mount sink covers that edge with its rim. When you look at the layout, find the corners that sit on a walkway or at the end of an island. Those are the edges that get hit, and the ones worth easing.

Does Sintered Stone Crack or Break Easily?

Not from daily use. A crack in a sintered stone countertop is often traced to support, cutting or installation:

• Cabinets that aren't level, or a base that flexes, put stress on a rigid slab
• Overhangs that run too far without support
• Cutouts with sharp inside corners, which concentrate stress
• Rough handling in transport or on site, which can leave damage that only shows later

You don't need to know how any of this is done. You need a fabricator and installer who have worked with sintered stone before, and who can tell you how they'll support the slab and cut it. See our guide to sintered stone fabrication for what that involves.

Stains, Acids, Sealing and Knives: Not a Problem

Some guides say acidic spills can damage sintered stone, or that it needs periodic sealing. Neither matches the test results on our slabs. If you're comparing another brand, ask for its stain and chemical-resistance results.

Heat is close to this list but not on it. Our slabs pass the standard thermal shock test, which cycles them between cold and about 145 °C, without cracking. A cast-iron pan straight off the burner is hotter than that, and the heat sits in one spot. We don't have a maximum-temperature figure to give you, so put very hot cookware on a trivet.

A Few Other Things Worth Knowing

• Price. Sintered stone countertops are often priced above basic quartz, and fabrication adds to that.
• Finding a fabricator. Not every countertop shop works with it. It needs the right blades and experience.
• Slip. A polished surface is slippery when wet. It's not a choice for wet floors.
• Silica. Questions about silica dust come up because of problems with engineered quartz. We cover safety in a separate article.

The Short Version

Sintered stone's real disadvantage is brittle edges. You can't get rid of it, but the thickness, the edge shape and where the sink goes decide how much it matters. Support and installation are your fabricator's job. Stains, acids, sealing and knives: you can stop worrying about those.

Excellent Stone supplies sintered stone slabs for kitchen countertops. If you already know which edges in your kitchen take the knocks, you're most of the way to choosing the slab.

Send us your layout and the colours you're considering through the inquiry form or by email, and we'll check the options.