We have had composite stone bench tops for many years. First was Askilan (not even sure this is around anymore), then caesarstone which we had for over 15 years. It had one tiny chip at the edge of the under mount sink. It had a gloss finish in a white fleck and never showed a mark or stain. Replaced with a new caesarstone when we renovated the kitchen, this one has a Matt finish and shows more marks but us just as easy to clean - I love it.

I have a top Mount double bowl sink in my kitchen with stone bench tops. I don’t think it looks cheap.... AND, the second unused hole is not just “filled” by the plumber, but a “faucet hole cover” is installed and will sit almost flush with the sink surround. If you have under mount sink in your kitchen, how are you going to have dishes draining, before immediately hand drying. You will have to put some kind of draining board on the STONE, and that will look cheap. But if under mount sinks are included in the build, then go with that. But they don’t include somewhere to place pots and pans after washing and before drying by hand. Because you have stated that you are only having a single bowl sink in the kitchen.

I have Neolith porcelain benchtops and splashbacks in the kitchen, laundry and bathroom (and full height sheets in the shower too) and benchtops in the living room. I have had no trouble and love it. I am not rough with it, but have found it very easy to maintain. My stonemason was adamant that I not have undermounted sinks (so the kitchen and laundry sinks are minimal thin edge top mounted and bathroom is a vessel sink). My stonemason also talked me out of having a shower niche. It is really important to have an experienced and talented stonemason for porcelain and to listen to them on what you should and should not do. I found that the experienced and confident stonemasons were actually significantly cheaper too as they were not padding their quotes to cover an expectation of ruining sheets on the cutting and get the most possible out of every sheet. I am in Melbourne and used Moorabbin Marble who were fantastic.

The prices advertised are usually retail, but they don’t include cutting for sink etc. waterfall edges, labour for installation. Waterfall edges add a lot to pricing, for the extra stone and labour. I would say the excessive cost would be labour costs. As with the current building industry labour costs have increased greatly. Ask for an itemised break down, so you can see what the labour component is. Increasing the stone cost, should not, in theory, increase the labour cost. The labour is still for the same work.