Stone notes
Notes from the shop on picking stone, caring for it, and what we have learned templating and installing kitchens across the Midlands. No sales pitch, just the truth as we know it.
There are two flavors of bad information about silica and countertops: the version that terrifies homeowners and the version that downplays a genuine worker hazard. Both are wrong. Here is the straight line on each.
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Different stones carry very different amounts of crystalline silica, which matters a lot for the people cutting them and not at all for the finished counter in your home. A straight, brand-neutral rundown.
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Respirable silica comes from disturbing stone, not from stone sitting still. That single fact explains why fabrication is the exposure point and a finished counter in your kitchen is not, with one honest caveat about DIY.
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Silicosis gets used as a scare word without much explanation. Here is what the disease is, how someone actually gets it, and why it concentrates among fabrication workers rather than the people who own the countertops.
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Silicosis from cutting stone is real and serious, and it has a specific cause. Here is the straight version: who is actually at risk, why it is a fabrication issue and not a kitchen one, and what a responsible shop does about it.
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