Question about kitchen countertops

I would think that the google ahr archive is full of opinions on the major countertop surfaces available. A little creative searching criteria and oila!

Reply to
G Henslee
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Who knows of an unbiased discussion of countertops I could access? My wife and I are going to remodel our kitchen, and the big question is what material to use... Corian? (My wife likes it), or some other substance? There's SO much hype out there, it's hard to know what's hype and what's good info.

Thanks,

Steve Henderson

Reply to
Steve Henderson

Have a look at the August 2005 Consumer Reports (CR) magazine. A countertop comparative review is one of the featured articles this month. It looks at countertop types, not brands, so it is a useful primer for the subject. This and other newsgroups have interesting and useful opinions, which we often seek, but each person has his own set of experiences, kitchen demands, and anecdotal but not necessarily objective views. (I include myself as one of these less-than-objective DIY-ers). CR rates granites and engineered stone "excellent", and Corian and similar solid surface plastics as "good", but read the article for particulars. I have friends who have had poor experiences with engineered stone (plastic impregnated crushed quartz, or similar minerals), yet over the years CR has favored engineered stone slightly, vs natural granites. We just did our kitchen in granite, and so far we love it.

Reply to
Roger Taylor

I agree with R.T.. But I would take it one step further. Consider moving your cabinets 6" out from the walls. "Sleeve" the ends of them that 6". Add a second row of shallow 3" drawers to the top before installing your new countertop. That should give you a 39"+ finished heighth and 30" depth. You've just doubled your storage capacity. Add a 6" back shelf to the standard countertop with slots in it at appropiate food prep areas: out of the way knife holders. Wiremould strip as a capping around the other areas: shallow appliance ledge. Undermount your sink and route 3/16" drainage grooves to the sink. If sink has predrilled faucet holes mount high gooseneck type faucet. If it doesn't, mount the faucet on the back ledge. Winged levers would work best.

Reply to
jjfxcfc

An interesting arrangement. I've used similar arrangements with good results.

I don't agree with 39 inch high counter top, unless the user is tall. The "standard" 36 inch high counter top is, in practice, a reach for my wife and daughters.

TB

Reply to
tbasc

I totally agree with you, the taller cabinet sucks, and I'm 6'-3". I bought a place from a guy years ago who was about my height. He had installed new 39" +/- cabs throughout on a remodel a year before. It was fine for me but screwed for the rest of the family.

Reply to
G Henslee

Reply to
Frank Boettcher

I reccommend stainless. Maintenance free, looks great, seamless (integrated sink and backsplash), and is great for small kitchens, since it is reflective (makes it look bigger). But go with an random orbital finish (sctraches, blemishes don't show). And it is (usually) slightly cheaper than granite.

Here's the website that originally steered me to stainless, but discusses other choices too.

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As the other guy said, do a google search on kitchen countertops materials. For example:

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Steve Henders> Who knows of an unbiased discussion of countertops I could access? My

Reply to
chester

I know it is seen as old fashioned but regular laminates are probably the best choice for a real working kitchen. If you want one of those show places where nobody actually cooks then granite or corian clones is probably for you. I went for stainless and maple but it is a little too "industrial" for a lot of people's tastes. The "L" shaped SS 20ga counter skin (58x80) cost me $1200 from a local metal fabricator but I got the rest of the

5'x8' sheet to play with
Reply to
gfretwell

We are currently remodelling our kitchen, and countertops are the next big decision, probably last one to make. I too favor corian, except for the price. My kitchen would cost about $3500 with the undermounted seamless sink in Corian/LG Hi-Mac. That's roughly 25 linear feet of counter. Granite is lovely, but too pricy for me, and wouldn't fit the status of the house or neighborhood. I don't care for the upkeep of tile, or the industrial look (or cost) of steel or concrete. Laminate is great for price, but I haven't seen a pattern I like as much as the corian. I may end up going with laminate for price, we'll see. One plus to laminate that I read recently was, if you use laminate in your kitchen, most times you can replace all of it for under $1000, so if you really want to change the decor of your kitchen, change the paint and the laminate and it will look very different, and if you have linoleum, that's pretty inexpensive to change as well. That's a big selling point for me. But of course you weren't asking about my kitchen. :)

Consumer Reports has a review from about a year ago available on their website.

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has lots of info, so does
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both are heavy on the pop-ups. Even the Lowes website has a simple pro/con list:
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Good Luck!

Melissa

Reply to
Melissa

Melissa wrote in news:RkUHe.47657$ snipped-for-privacy@tornado.tampabay.rr.com:

I'm in the middle of planning, and it sounds like we went through the same thought process. While all of my neighbors have been doing granite, which I think is out of place for the rest of the home, I am coming down on Corian or laminate. I tend towards Corian because there's a larger choice than laminate. Marble is too also too cold of a look, even when using warmer colors. Corian feels warmer and looks warmer. Yep, I'm aware of Corian's pros and cons.

Sincerely, Bruce

Reply to
Bruce

Surely you jest...there are 100s and 100s of laminate variations both in color and texture.

-- dadiOH ____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06... ....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

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Reply to
dadiOH

I have the Ubatuba (solid surface - not tiles) as well on several of my own tops. I used a biscuit colored 12x12 polished porcelain tile for the splash(s). I used about a 1/32 joint and light grey grout, keeping the joint fairly non-conspicuous. Dynamite look mixing the solid top with jointed splash. So much that I've done near to the same thing on quite a number of other projects.

Reply to
G Henslee

On 8/7/2005 5:35 PM US(ET), Bruce took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

I just finished redoing the kitchen countertops. About 70 sq ft of 12" x

12" x 1/4" Ubatuba granite tile. Looks great.
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Reply to
willshak

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