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Engineered stone

Engineered stone is a quartz-composite slab, historically up to ~90% crystalline silica. Its fabrication and installation is prohibited in Australia from 1 July 2024.

By Dan Waring. Last updated 3 June 2026. Verified 3 June 2026.

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Engineered stone is a manufactured quartz-composite slab, historically containing up to around 90% crystalline silica, used for benchtops and similar surfaces. Its fabrication, supply, and installation is prohibited in Australia from 1 July 2024, because cutting and grinding it generated extreme silica-dust exposures and an epidemic of accelerated silicosis among stonemasons.

The product was popular because it looks like stone, is hard-wearing, and was cheaper than natural stone. The problem was in the workshop and on site: dry cutting, grinding, and edge-polishing the high-silica slabs produced very high concentrations of respirable crystalline silica, and young fabricators developed silicosis far faster than the disease’s usual decades-long course. After a national review, Australia’s WHS ministers agreed to prohibit it.

What the ban means in practice:

  • From 1 July 2024 the manufacture, supply, processing and installation of engineered stone benchtops, panels and slabs is banned nationally (with limited transitional arrangements for contracts in place before the cut-off, which have since lapsed in most jurisdictions).
  • Repair, removal, and disposal of existing engineered stone is still allowed but must be done under the silica control framework.
  • Alternative low-silica and silica-free benchtop products have moved in to fill the gap.

For a builder the practical points are: do not specify, fabricate, or install engineered stone benchtops, switch clients to compliant alternatives (natural stone, low-silica or silica-free composites, laminate, timber). When working on an existing engineered-stone surface (removing an old kitchen), treat it as a high-risk silica task with full controls (water suppression or extraction, RPE, and the rest of the silica controls). Check the current rules in your state, because the transitional details have continued to tighten.

Also known as: Reconstituted stone, quartz composite, engineered quartz.

Category: Materials / Banned products.

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References

Last updated: 2026-06-03. Verified: 2026-06-03. Quarterly review for currency.

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