What is sintered stone?
Grillo Plateau™ worksurfaces are made from sintered stone. This article explains what that means: how sintered stone is made, how it compares with porcelain, granite and quartz, and why it’s uniquely suited to outdoor kitchens.
Sintered stone is the most durable, impervious surface you can put in a kitchen – indoor or out.
Sintered stone is a dense mineral slab, made by compressing natural and recycled minerals and firing them at extreme heat until they fuse and vitrify into a new material. Unlike porcelain or engineered quartz, it contains no binders or resin – just minerals, pressure and fire. That puts it somewhere between a natural stone, advanced ceramic and porcelain.
Think of sintered stone as geology, accelerated: a manufactured stone that borrows natural rock-forming processes, compresses them to a much faster timescale, and is designed specifically for large-format architectural use. You’ll have seen it without knowing the name – it’s turned up everywhere from worktops to façades, under brands including Neolith, Dekton, Lapitec and our own Grillo Plateau.
Sintering, stone and inherent resilience
The manufacturing process mimics geology, just on a compressed time frame. Natural metamorphic stone forms over millions of years under heat and pressure underground. Sintering compresses that into a factory process: minerals ground and blended, pressed into a slab and fired until they fuse – technically without fully melting, which is what separates true sintering from simply casting molten material into a mould. The process is, then, conceptually similar to metamorphic rock formation – just on a shorter lead time.
That combination is the actual point. Many architectural materials are excellent at one or two of these properties. None do the combination as well as sintered stone does: It outperforms all other architectural surfacing materials for UV stability, heat resistance, stain/chemical resistance, scratch resistance, porosity and weatherproofing.
The combined pressure and heat closes up the microscopic gaps between particles. The resulting slab is dense and non-porous, giving stains, grease and bacteria almost nowhere to get a foothold, along with offering excellent resistance to heat, frost, UV and abrasion. It’s the kind of surface that shrugs off freeze-thaw cycling that would eventually open up a more porous material.
Indoor worksurfaces won't work well
Few indoor worktops are suitable for outdoor use. Indoor worktops exist in a clean, dry, temperature-controlled environment. Outdoor ones do not, meaning they are subjected to the same weathering forces that turn rock faces into scree slopes. And they’re still expected to cope with the same salt, chemical, and acid exposure that indoor surfaces get.
Sintered stone excels at all of this. Extremely low porosity keeps stains and water out. UV stability keeps the colour from fading. Heat and frost resistance mean the surface isn’t slowly degrading every time the weather turns. Sintered stone does it all at once – and cleans as easily as an indoor worktop does: wipe it down after cooking. Or in a Grillo kitchen, the worksurfaces and cabinetry can even be carefully pressure washed.
How sintered stone compares
Porcelain is a conceptually similar pressed and fired ceramic. But porcelain typically contains a significant clay component, whereas sintered stone is generally formulated from mineral raw materials. The clay gives the unfired porcelain body cohesion, making it easier to form and handle, but it also contributes to shrinkage as the body dries, which can introduce stresses if that shrinkage is uneven. "Porcelain" is a broader tile category; "sintered stone" generally refers to the more premium, large-format, high-performance slabs used for worktops and façades.
Granite is natural, characterful and renowned for its durability. But "granite" spans a huge range of rock, with significant differences in density and porosity not just between varieties, but sometimes across a single surface. Some of the densest granites approach sintered stone in porosity, strength and UV stability, but sintered stone has the edge in stain and chemical resistance, and especially in uniformity: it’s engineered to be homogeneous and virtually non-porous throughout, whereas granite’s natural pore structure and fissures can introduce local weak points. Less-dense granites therefore require periodic sealing to resist oil staining, with suitable sealers for outdoor use being notoriously tricky. Lastly, because granite is a naturally variable, brittle material, it generally requires a much thicker section than sintered stone when spanning unsupported areas, limiting design flexibility and adding weight, cost and complexity to outdoor kitchen installation.
Stainless steel is hygienic, heat-resistant and low-maintenance in the ways that matter most outdoors. But it also shows fingerprints and grease marks, scratches with use, and reads as more commercial than domestic in many gardens. Its corrosion resistance is genuinely strong, but the clue’s in the name: it stains less than regular steel. Even premium ‘marine-grade’ 316 stainless can stain. And whilst it's plenty tough, its hardness can’t match most stone or ceramic surfaces, so it will scratch – and show those scratches – quite readily. Stainless steel is great in a gas BBQ, where its combination of corrosion resistance, heat tolerance, structural strength and ability to form a thin, durable, weatherproof skin plays directly to the material’s strengths. It’s less great across large, flat areas that you expect to stay easy-cleaning and blemish-free.
What makes Grillo Plateau™ different?
Every Grillo worksurface is our own sintered stone, Plateau: a 20mm slab made from a blend of raw and recycled minerals – quartz, glass, zircon, haematite and albite – rectified for consistency and finely bevelled, with a neutral through-body colour. Its hardness is such that a knife won’t scratch it, though it will blunten the blade.
Designed as part of our outdoor kitchen system, Plateau can be simply cleaned with anti-bac spray, warm soapy water, or pressure washed. Full steps in the care guide.
So, what is sintered stone?
Nature takes millions of years to metamorphose minerals into stone. Sintered stone borrows the idea, takes some of the same minerals and a little less patience, and produces a material with the feel of stone but the reliability of ceramic. Geology, accelerated, into a surface built to live outside.
Sintered stone FAQs
Is it natural or manufactured?
Both – a manufactured slab made from natural and recycled minerals, fused into a new mineral body rather than cut from a quarry.
How is it different to porcelain?
A close relative with real technical overlap, but without the clay binders typically found in porcelain (these introduce shrinkage at the drying stage, increasing stress). Think of it as porcelain turned up to 11.
Can it stain?
Hardly. It’s highly stain-resistant, thanks to its low porosity. Still worth wiping spills before they dry, though. In a decade, we’ve never had to replace a worksurface due to staining, or even heard of it happening.
Can it chip?
Sintered stone doesn’t easily chip, especially when properly bevelled and polished, as on Plateau.
Can it be pressure-washed?
Grillo Plateau worksurfaces can, as part of a full Grillo kitchen – electrics off, sensible distance, never straight into a barbeque. See our Care Guide.
Are some engineered stones banned?
Yes, but not sintered stone or porcelain, and not in the UK. Australia’s 2024 ban specifically only applies to resin-bound materials like quartz – it targets silica dust released when cutting quartz. The UK has applied restrictions only on the dry cutting of resin-bound materials. So it’s not a concern here.
We parked a car on it
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