Solid Surface : What is it?

Solid surface is all over the place. Solid surfaces can be found almost everywhere, in kitchens as countertops, in stores either as flooring or counters, in shopping centres, at airports. Solid surfaces, engineered stone, man made stone, conglomerate stone, agglomerate stone, many professionals use different terms to name the same type of product. What is a solid surface?

In reality they are similar, solid surfaces are man made materials, that form a solid surface looking like a stone type of application. The bonding agent in these types of materials are generally resins, acrylic or polyester. Polyester is associated with engineered stone, it's very resistant to traffic and gives the end product very good mechanical characteristics.

Well, we are talking about plastic .... that was the first thing that popped into your mind. No, these solid surface materials have a very high percentage of filler, and this describes them as solid surface. In truth about 90-95% of the composition of these materials are from fillers. The physical properties of the fillers used give the solid surface it's properties.

We can find different types of brands and materials in the market, I'll just name a few.

Some top brands:

• Silestone
• Corian
• Quarella
• Compac Quartz

Some different types of Solid Surfaces:

• Quartz based solid surface
• Silica based solid surface
• Marble based solid surface

Even though we have different types of technology in the market that make solid surfaces with different physical properties. For example Corian has a bigger percentage of resin and can be welded together and shaped accordingly. Silestone is done in vacuum and with vibro-compression which gives it a very solid constitution, it will use less resin than a Corian product.

So when people say solid surfaces, engineered stone, agglomerated stone, man made stone .... they are probably talking about the same product or type of product.

If you want to learn more about these materials, you can visit my blog.