Stainless and granite soon to be "...so 90's"

[HeyBub]

"By that metric, stainless steel and granite have to be on their way out; the only thing more ubiquitous in the American kitchen is the George Foreman grill."

[notbob]

Pointless blather and half truths. Jes another word hack trying to make a buck.

Granite always has been useless in the kitchen and SS is for utility and sanitation, which the author correctly notes. OTOH, the cheap SS we are getting from China is crap. Rusts easily and early.

nb

[Hell Toupee]

She's right on. Every fad is trendy at the beginning, which motivates more and more people to climb on the bandwagon. That very success spells its doom, because the whole point of being trendy is being _different_ from everyone else. When everyone's got what you've got, you don't want it anymore. So you eventually move on to the next new thing, and over time most of the rest of the crowd moves, too. And so on.

Most people don't use their kitchens for serious, intensive cooking. They installed the granite and stainless primarily to indicate status (expen$e), not utility. Anyone willing to spend that kind of money on status symbols is the same kind of person who'll want to show off the next latest and greatest status symbol.

Those of us who've followed the 2000s-era housing bubble from its inception noted that it will become forever associated with granite and stainless kitchen decor. That right there spells its doom. When housing revives, nobody's gonna want their home to look like it was featured on Flip This House.

[EXT]

>

Stainless steel started with sinks decades ago and is still in style for that use, granite is a good product and will last longer than green appliances did. Chrome has made a come-back as a durable long lasting product.

"Flip this house" specialized in cheap surface treatments, and granite tiles on counters always remind me of that . Cheap stainless will have a short life and white cabinets will always look like cheap paint-over.

[krw]

>>

Agreed. You'll never convince my wife to dump the granite (our current house has ~150sq.ft. of it). Well, maybe for quartz. ;-)

Agreed.

[HeyBub]

>

How do you react to laminate flooring for a counter top?

It's what I've got. Looks like butcher-block.

[Higgs Boson]

Interesting!!! We have to replace our ancient tile some day, so looking for inexpensive but attractive solutions. (Not in the granite league!) Here are my instructions about what to ask:

How long have you had the laminate flooring?

How does it wear?

How do you clean it?

Can you put hot things on it?

What about stains?

Scratches?

Appreciate your input. Have to make my report soonish

HB

[ItsJoanNotJoann]

Supposedly the only two colors for appliances that never go out of 'style' are white and black.

[aemeijers]

Who gives a rat's ass about style? As long as they work, aren't a PITA to keep clean, and won't blow up the house, what else matters? I suppose it is nice if they are all more or less the same color, but that is hardly a show-stopper.

If your kitchen is full of visitors, they are there because they want to see you, not because your cabinets and appliances are impressive. In an hour, most won't even remember what your kitchen looks like.

[bob haller]

granite can emit radiation and is now percieved by some as a health hazard.

[gregz]

I have a stainless steel microwave, on the inside, where it counts! White on the outside.

Greg

[krw]

You're obviously not married.

Try an avocado refrigerator next to a harvest gold stove. Ugly! ...but that's what out first house had (as did every one in the development). The

*yellow* bathroom fixtures were a prize, too, but at least they matched.

Not everyone buys stuff to impress the neighbors.

What hasn't been "perceived by some" to be health hazards? Good grief.

[HeyBub]

Right. And even if styles change, both granite and stainless can be painted.

Harvest Gold Rustoleum anyone?

[HeyBub]

Good questions.

I had some cheap laminate left over after doing two bedroom floors, so, what the heck! Had to look better than the '60s Formica!

Your basic cheap laminate is layered with the same stuff they make fighter windshields out of. That said, I figured if it could stand up to dirt, roller blades, snow, dog scratches, and golf shoes, it would work on a counter.

As to your questions:

"How long in place?" - A bit over a year. "Wear?" - It doesn't. It gets less abuse than the floors and the floors still look pristine. "Clean?" - Just like Formica or tile. You wipe it with a damp rag. "Hot things?" - Don't know. Earlier experiments with scrap showed it will char when heated with a cigarette lighter. Therefore, I'm cautious with hot things. Have a couple of trivets next to the stove. "Stains?" - It doesn't stain. Coffee, ketchup, etc., wipe right up. I'm serious - they should make body armor out of this stuff. "Scratches?" - Again, we're careful to use a cutting board and such. Earlier experiments on scrap showed it was impervious to a nail, rasp, or dragging a saw blade across it.

You didn't ask about water. In the leadup to this project I miked the thickness on a couple of scrap strips then let them sit in a glass of water for a MONTH. After that time, the resulting measurements were within the limits of my micrometer, 0.002" ! This stuff is water-irrelevant.

What will tax your ingenuity is 45-degree routing to get the down-trim pieces to fit. Also constructing the back-splash requires some brain-power and measurements.

Still, I'm pleased with the results.

[gfretwell]

I went with maple counter tops. (wife's idea) They are Grainger work bench tops, sealed with poly urethane., I have less than $400 in them and so far so good a decade later. I really thought they would not hold up. If I do decide they are getting too shabby an hour or so in the driveway with my belt sander will bring them right back. Everything else is kitchen grade stainless. The sink and cooktop counter/backsplash was fabricated at a local welding shop in one piece with all of the seams polished out. I have a big maple work surface that rides over the SS between the sink and the cook top and slides over the sink for more work space if we need it.

[krw]

If I were king of the kitchen, that's what I would do. However, SWMBO likes granite (well, most solid surfaces - other than concrete or Corian), so end of discussion. OTOH, granite is great for baking.

[aemeijers]

So is that why they use it for tombstones, to keep the zombies below the grass?

[aemeijers]

Leaving aside my distaste for faux woodgrain, what about the seams? The laminate may not swell, but how do you keep things or black gunk from growing in the cracks? That seam is not liquid or gas tight.

[Ed Pawlowski]

"aemeijers" wrote

You did say you were single, didn't you?

[HeyBub]

Another good question.

There aren't any visible seams.

This stuff is manufactured to quite close tolerances and the pieces click together with NO discernable gaps.