Earthstone

[Guest]

Hi there,

Having a kitchen fitted with Earthstone worktops and finding that they seem to be showing 'scratches' from the buffing. Its the black coloured Earthstone - is this usual? Also joints are visibile - salesman said we'd never see the joints, but now reading the catalogue blurb it says inconspicuous!!

Also we've having the Earthstone upstands, which we've noticed say on them do not have within 150mm of the hob, jet fitters are saying will be safe to run behind it, and they won't catch fire etc etc.

Any thoughts and Clints welcome

[cbkitchenfitting]

Hi, i cant comment on the joint or scratches, but as for having 150mm clearance, that's usually to the sides of the hob and not to the back

[marc1106]

Hello guest, its not advisable to run any upstand behind a hob due to the heat diversion when you place a pan on the stand and seeing as most hobs are set 60mm forward of the wall this will give you maybe 120mm clearance from the wall to the burners, although iv never seen a case of burned upstand it is theorectically feasable!
as for the scratches and visible joints i couldnt comment cos i dont do acrylic tops as i dont beleive them to have the WOW factor for what they cost!

[Guest]

Thanks both - sorry yes i meant 150mm to the sides.

As for the Hob being 60mm off the wall - erm there's a discussion about ours being 30mm away, not quite what the instructions said!! The worktops may be coming out!! Is the lack of bang for bucks the only reason you don't like acrylics? Is Apollo quartz any better, or should we even consider reverting to good old laminate which seems to ahve gone on in leaps and bounds if the tops are going to have be re done.

And whats the guidance if upstands shouldn't be there? We have got a splashback to go in (glass type), and it was going to sit on the upstand, but could that go directly behind the hob, and its not wode enough to fill the 150mm from each side of hob, making the upstand a total of 300mm away from a 900 hob - so a 1200 gap to fill. Thoughts advice and guidance welcome!

[PREM]

not fitted apollo yet so cant advise. if it is solid surface, black is to be avoided. the amount of money you have spent on earthstone and the extras with it( installation kit end caps and the fitting of it) you could have had stone.

could not see in the installation instructions where it states this 150mm away from hob. which to me is a nonsence. this product will not burn, have a go with some scrap. i have fitted lots with the stainless or glass heat shield behind the hob either wider for looks or the same measurment as the hob. then upstand 2mm off the shield, not to touch. have a pic somewhere i will dig it out.

[marc1106]

Thanks both - sorry yes i meant 150mm to the sides.

As for the Hob being 60mm off the wall - erm there's a discussion about ours being 30mm away, not quite what the instructions said!! The worktops may be coming out!! Is the lack of bang for bucks the only reason you don't like acrylics? Is Apollo quartz any better, or should we even consider reverting to good old laminate which seems to ahve gone on in leaps and bounds if the tops are going to have be re done.

And whats the guidance if upstands shouldn't be there? We have got a splashback to go in (glass type), and it was going to sit on the upstand, but could that go directly behind the hob, and its not wode enough to fill the 150mm from each side of hob, making the upstand a total of 300mm away from a 900 hob - so a 1200 gap to fill. Thoughts advice and guidance welcome!

ok id have sold you the quartz (slightly dearer) superior product to acrylics!

fit tops, fit hob (correctly) install splashback, bring upstands to edge of splashback( avoid any dishes that flambe) and you should be ok

[kitkat]

150 mm mm is a gas reg ..30 mm or 60 mm from the back is neither here nor there , if its 30 mm off the back its safer to kids etc ..handles don't protrude etc on the front edge , unusual i would say to put splash back on top of upstand ...just not the way it works and causes problems , ie ..the splash back is designed to provide correct height for extractor ..another gas reg kicks in here ...in general I aggree with the rest of the guys ..black is a bad colour /shows everything , personally I perfer stone , maia is probably hardest wearing and comes in a matt finish which is usually easiest to live with , all acrylics scratch ..slab tec most of all , your joint in crylics is always "inconspicious" ,the reason being , even with a perfect joint ..the particulate can be seen to be chopped in part ? and so the joint becomes visible ...earthstone needs to have batch codes matched or you ll have a colour variance ....the batch code is different to the sku !! as Ive had to explain in the past ..in so far as they do scratch ..its easy to polish out .....

[perfit]

try finishing the joints again ie sanding as sometimes if the resin joining the tops hasnt chemically set the sander can 'burn' the resin and change its colour.also have you used a decent random orbit sander with a 3mm orbit diy sanders have a larger orbit and as such dont give such a good finish.

[marc1106]

KK 150mm of clearance either side of the hob is a gas reg your right, but the OP was saying that his upstand continues through behind the hob against the MIs, also when installing gas hobs 99% of MIs state that the hob should be no closer than 50mm to the wall behind it! and any gassafe/corgi man will tell you that MIs overide regs!