What do I use for my kitchen benchtop now?

With the national ban on engineered stone… what can your kitchen or bathroom benchtop be made of?

There are a few products around that can be used for benchtops 

*Porcelain or sintered stone- providing it doesn’t have Resin.

The Porcelain looks lovely but is basically like a tile, it may scratch and is very cold to touch.

*Natural Stone for example Marble or Granite.

These look amazing but do stain, the marble can be coated every six months or so to prevent staining

*Xenolith- a Polytec product that looks like stone.

It is a 15mm premium coloured core composite laminate, it is hard wearing and doesn’t seem to scratch.

*Other stone products that have no silica composite-YDL Stone -have Crystalline Silica Free Stone suitable for benchtops.

If you have signed a Build Contract on or before the 31st of December 2023, you can have the standard engineered stone benches installed as long as it is before 31st of December 2024, and providing that the workers have adhered to all safety requirements.

Otherwise any contract signed after the 31st of December 2023, cannot have engineered stone installed after the 1st of July.

It all is a bit confusing but hopefully stone companies will start to bring out more products and ranges to fill the gap….and it is all for the greater good protecting our tradies.