Homebuilders worry about costlier kitchens after benchtop ban

After Wednesday’s announcement, suppliers such as Caesarstone and Consentino – which have both developed alternatives to the traditional product, with less than 10 per cent silica – argued that any prohibition should be based on silica content, rather than any one product.

A range of potential alternative materials can be used for kitchen and bathroom benchtops, from laminate and bamboo (cheaper than engineered stone), to hardwood timber and stainless steel (similar price range), to porcelain, granite, marble and polished concrete (more expensive).

The ban, which the country’s largest states said they would implement from July 1, followed the recommendation of a report by Commonwealth government agency Safe Work Australia published in October.

While the stone was widely used for kitchen and bathroom benchtops, the dust emitted from cutting it causes silicosis, an often-fatal lung disease, and workers of engineered stone were over-represented among people diagnosed with the condition, the report said.

But the lack of clarity around the ban announced last week meant it was not possible to count on, or make plans for, any particular substitute, suppliers said. The ministers’ announcement said Safe Work Australia would decide on additional products to be exempt from the prohibition, but gave no further detail.

“We have no information,” Caesarstone Asia-Pacific managing director David Cullen told The Australian Financial Review.

“We have no process, no understanding. The likely substitute is porcelain in the first instance and that’s a man-made product.”

The work necessary to establish the safety of any alternative manufactured product would also take beyond the July 1, 2024 date from which states such as NSW and Victoria said they would implement the ban, Mr Cullen said.

“By the time Safe Work Australia do their review of substitutable products, we would have banned engineered stone,” he said. “It will be well after June 30.”

NEX, which said “tens of thousands of customers nationally” were in a state of distress working out how their home would be built, said the requirement for substitute products – even if alternatives with similar colours to those already selected were available – could slow down the whole homebuilding process.

“It may be the case that signed customers will need to come back in and reselect their colours, as the replacement stone for their particular choice will not be like for like,” Mr Helmers said.

“This may trigger customers to not proceed with their build, either because of an affordability issue or simple frustration at the process. The end result is a negative impact on housing supply, which is counter-intuitive to the objectives of state and federal governments to increase housing supply.”

Caesarstone’s Mr Cullen said until there was clarity about what substitutes were acceptable, no producer would invest in capacity to meet demand.

“No one’s going to invest in porcelain manufacture or distribution while it’s a product we’ve got no certainty about in terms of government approval,” he said.