Countertops

Red Horse · Jan 22, 2018

Late to the thread, but my two cents- good options are granite, quartz and solid Corian.

I think in most areas, the sq. ft price on all three is the same. I think the quartz products are the best in terms of durabiity and cleanliness as they are non-porous. there are many different names for quartz- Silestone is one that I saw s0meone mentioned earlier. From what I read someplace, an Italian company licenses the production machinery as they invented it-so different companies produce "quartz" using the same process equipment.

Having said that when it came time to redo our kitchen my wife liked a particular Corian color and that is what we did-it is a solid product much like quartz but I don't think it uses the same production machinery. We had one chip in an edge and theycame back and fixed it in 5 minutes-never know it was there.

Just bought another property and it has corian and wife doesn't like color-so stay tuned-will do a post on refinishing to change color:confused3:

goeduck · Jan 22, 2018

buickanddeere said:
Anyone aware that a granite or marble counter top is a wee bit radioactive ?

So is my water. Uranium. With the glow, I save on flashlights at night.

zmountaineer · Jan 22, 2018

We did quartz when we remodeled our 100 year old house in 2010.

Then we we built our house in 2016 we went with quartz again

I, personally, do not like any granite that I have seen.

Stimw · Jan 23, 2018

All nice pics of granite and quartz but no one is talking about their cost!
I can without question tell you that I have about $7200.00 STILL in my pocket (not counting tax!!) by going with laminate.
I admit that it comes down to what ever makes you happy so lets all enjoy our choices.
BUT I can always change my mind and upgrade without much pain.

zmountaineer · Jan 23, 2018

Our remodel house cost $3300 for the quartz (including installation). Our new house had an "upcharge" of $4200 for the quartz over the included laminate.

kcflhrc · Jan 23, 2018

We have a very large Kitchen in our 1970 2500 sq ft home. Cant remember the break down exactly but our Semi Custom Cabinets, under mount composite sink, tile back splash, Large Island with Granite on everything was $11k installed. I thought that was very reasonable. Chinese guys did the cabinet install, Mexicans did the granite and a black guy did the back splash. They were all fantastic at their trade. The Chinese guys were hilarious, only 1 spoke English, well, kinda. I was impressed by their work.

tjkubota93 · Jan 24, 2018

kcflhrc said:
We have a very large Kitchen in our 1970 2500 sq ft home. Cant remember the break down exactly but our Semi Custom Cabinets, under mount composite sink, tile back splash, Large Island with Granite on everything was $11k installed. I thought that was very reasonable. Chinese guys did the cabinet install, Mexicans did the granite and a black guy did the back splash. They were all fantastic at their trade. The Chinese guys were hilarious, only 1 spoke English, well, kinda. I was impressed by their work.

We got some Chinese folks in the granite trade. Very good and very competitive on price.

tjkubota93 · Apr 8, 2018

finally got countertops. Have done every bit of tear out and replacement myself, all the way to studs (and replaced a bunch of those).

They did kitchen, 4 bathrooms and made some pieces for the shower im building (corner seat, entry step and window sill) for $4560. With tear out and everything.

Wife drove all over everwhere getting samples of colors. Ended up this place had the colors she picked somewhere else.

What we got was considered "builder grade" because the small patterns. We didn't like the big crazy looking stuff.

tjkubota93 · Apr 9, 2018

tjkubota93 said:
View attachment 547706finally got countertops. Have done every bit of tear out and replacement myself, all the way to studs (and replaced a bunch of those).

They did kitchen, 4 bathrooms and made some pieces for the shower im building (corner seat, entry step and window sill) for $4560. With tear out and everything.

Wife drove all over everwhere getting samples of colors. Ended up this place had the colors she picked somewhere else.

What we got was considered "builder grade" because the small patterns. We didn't like the big crazy looking stuff.