Silestone

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Author Message Jerome J. Lazar, RA, CCS, CSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: lazarcitec Post Number: 725 Registered: 05-2003 Posted on Friday, June 18, 2010 - 02:43 pm:    Anyone specify this product in the past and can offer some insight into preparing a spec for its use as a counter top in a medical facility. Lynn Javoroski CSI CCS LEEDŽ AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 1064 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Friday, June 18, 2010 - 02:59 pm:    We just consider it to be another solid surfacing material with particular different components/resins: F. Solid-Surfacing Materials: 1. Homogeneous mixture containing over 90 percent quartz particles by volume, with polymer resin binders and pigments} a. Manufacturers: Subject to compliance with requirements, provide products by one of the following:} 1) Cambria; Natural Quartz Surfaces (Basis of Design). 2) Cosentino USA; Silestone Quartz. 3) E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company; Zodiaq Quartz. For example, the above was used for a hospital. William C. Pegues, FCSI, CCS Senior Member Username: wpegues Post Number: 818 Registered: 10-2002 Posted on Friday, June 18, 2010 - 04:43 pm:    Jerome, I will chime in with Lynn, its just another surfacing material. I don't do hospitals, but have it in restaurants and food preparation areas. I also have it (Zodiaq) in my house, great product generically. I do put it in a separate section, Quartz Surfacing Fabrications, as MasterFormat recommends. William William C. Pegues, FCSI, CCS, SCIP Affiliate WDG Architecture, Washington, DC | Dallas, TX Lisa Goodwin Robbins, RA, CCS, LEED ap Senior Member Username: lgoodrob Post Number: 77 Registered: 08-2004 Posted on Friday, June 18, 2010 - 05:19 pm:    I'll agree with Lynn and William; it's another commodity product, with color variations. I've not researched it for medical uses. We usually keep it in Interior Architectural Woodwork, with other countertop materials. I'd include Caesarstone as an equal, but I haven't specified Cambria before. Some of the colors/patterns now come with recycled content. I have Silestone at my house too. Lynn Javoroski CSI CCS LEEDŽ AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 1065 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Friday, June 18, 2010 - 05:29 pm:    Come to think of it, my kitchen sink is Silestone - and I like it. Kind of the reverse of "everything but the kitchen sink..." Sheldon Wolfe Senior Member Username: sheldon_wolfe Post Number: 415 Registered: 01-2003 Posted on Saturday, June 19, 2010 - 01:41 am:    Cambria in our kitchen. Nice stuff. Specwise, I treat Silestone, Cambriz, Zodiaq, etc. the same; whatever Interiors wants for a color drives the selection. J. Peter Jordan Senior Member Username: jpjordan Post Number: 426 Registered: 05-2004 Posted on Saturday, June 19, 2010 - 12:57 pm:    "Icestone" is similar product out there which is made in the NYC area and distributed by Daltile (at least in this area). It has a very nice appearance with a high recycled glass content; howevever, it is a polished concrete product with a cementitious matrix and a much lower percent aggregate than the quartz agglomerate products. While I would not hesitate to use it for certain applications, one of my clients wanted to use it in a fire station kitchen countertop application. Because of its composition, it is more porous than the quartz agglomerate products and not appropriate for medical or commercial kitchen applications. I thought this particular applications seemed to be more commercial than residential and strongly suggested that they go with a quartz agglomerate. After further evaluation, the decision was made to follow my suggestion. The range of countertop materials is relatively broad if you include the lab applications. You have stainless steel, concrete (precast and cast-in-place), marble, granite (reported this week as being the most popular), epoxy, phenolic (like Trespa), ceramic tile, chemical-resistant plastic laminate, HDPE, and plastic laminate. Like all product categories, each material is more or less appropriate for a given application, and the designer needs to assess the application in selecting a particular product. When I first saw Silestone about 10 years ago, I turned up my nose at it because it was a synthetic product (and a costly one at that). I now understand that quartz agglomerate materials may be a logical choice for durability and range of finish option.