Where to Place the Seam In Your Countertop

Since an average granite slab is typically less than 10 feet long, most countertops will require at least one seam. The visibility of the seam is affected by the pattern and color of the stone. In general, seams are less visible on dark granites with a small, uniform grain and more visible on lighter color granites with veins and swirls of color.

The choice for the seam placement is largely dictated by the design and layout of your countertop and cabinetry. We hope that the illustrations and descriptions on this page will be helpful to you in understanding how the decisions are made regarding the choice of the seam placement.

	Seam in the Sink Area To make the seam less conspicuous it can be placed in the sink bowl area as shown in Fig. 1 on the left. The drawback of this configuration is the waste of the part of the slab shown in gray in Fig. 1 on the left.
Fig. 1: Seam is located in the sink area.

Fig. 2: Shivakashi granite countertop, the close up of the back seam placed in the sink area.	Fig. 3: Shivakashi granite countertop, the close up of the front seam placed in the sink area.

Fig. 1 and Fig. 3 show close ups of the Shivakashi granite countertop with seam placed in the sink area. Notice how close matching of the granite pattern makes the seam barely visible.

Fig. 4

Fig. 4 shows the seam in the sink area on the countertop of a vividly veined Kinawa granite. Notice how careful matching of the granite pattern and the color of the grout makes the seams nearly invisible.

End Joint
Fig. 5: End Joint	Fig. 6: End Joint

Fig. 7: Countertop of Black Galaxy granite with an end seam.

Miter Joint
	Fig 8 shows miter joint in the corner. Though this type of joint results in the longest seam, it may be the least visible seam in some kitchen designs, i.e. when there is an appliances garage in the corner as shown in Fig. 9 below.
Fig. 8: Miter Joint

Fig. 9

In this kitchen design shown in Fig. 9 above an appliance garage located in the corner covers up a large portion of the countertop surface in the corner area. With such a design, a miter joint with the seam in the corner may be the optimal solution.