Buying Countertops: Plastic Laminates, Granite and Solid Surfaces
Pros, cons, costs (and some pretty strong opinions).
Three Key Factors: Price, Maintenance and Appearance
When a sample of a kitchen countertop fabricated from sixty per centum paper recently crossed my desk, I realized tops could be, and are, made out of anything and everything. Wood, plastic, granite, metal, physical, tile, acrylic—they're all used. Seventy-five years agone, stone and wood were the master countertop choices; 25 years agone, laminate was clearly male monarch of the hill. But today's kitchens and inexpensive countertops are used for more than than just cooking. The kitchen is a living room, report, dining room, entertainment area, craft middle and showplace all rolled into 1. The many functions of this room today call for a countertop surface that suits our lifestyles and activities.
When people need a top that's durable, simple to install, like shooting fish in a barrel to maintain and affordable, nearly still head for the laminate display. But in that location's a bewildering range of other choices out there today. They all take their strengths and weaknesses. They're all pretty durable; no real stinkers in the bunch. They all crave some maintenance or care. A wine glass dropped from ii feet will shatter on any of them. And then selecting cheap countertops really boils down to how yous answer these three questions:
- How much can you spend?
- How much maintenance are you willing to do?
- What material do you most similar to touch, see, bear witness off and work on?
Check out ten kitchen trends we've been seeing
Price: cheap countertops and expensive countertops
You lot can spend $2 to $250 per sq. ft. for countertops. Surprisingly, there are few choices that fall betwixt the bones $10 per sq. ft. laminates and the $80 stone and solid-surface tops. Wood and tile tops fall in the middle, but of all the tops we looked at, these had the near critics. The scarcity of midpriced options can be a blessing in disguise; if you have a limited budget, expect at the many design possibilities of laminate. Kitchen specialists follow a few rules of thumb based on feel:
The longer you plan to stay in a house, the more durable and upscale the countertop you lot should select. The "cost per year" becomes a deal as the years pass.
Tops and installation ordinarily compose ten to xv percentage of a kitchen remodel budget. Tops that autumn outside this range may non look like they fit.
Put your money where your heart is—especially when you lot're on a upkeep. If you love high-tech appliances or custom wood cabinetry, spend your coin there.
Maintenance and utilise factors
Maintenance on most cheap countertops is minimal—but neglect to do it and permanent, or at least hard-to-reverse, damage can occur. In that location is preventive maintenance (mopping upward spills, using hot pads, working on cutting boards) and long-term maintenance (which usually involves applying some class of sealer or finish). Inquire yourself, how careful (really) are yous and your family? What exercise you lot wait your tiptop to wait like in 5 years? Does information technology make more than sense to stick with laminate until the kids are out of class school?
Aesthetic and tactile factors
If budget and maintenance aren't decisive factors in your heed, how the superlative looks and feels are the true deal makers. Both you and your countertop have a personality; select one that you can get forth with. Texture, aesthetics, glossiness, "warmth," how natural the material looks and feels, and how it fits in with the design of your kitchen and abode are all part of the final equation.
One of the beauties of today'due south trend toward multiple countertop surfaces is, when torn betwixt two tops, y'all can install them both!
Wear and Maintenance
A chart comparing laminate, granite, solid surface, wood and tile countertops is available in Additional Information below.
Plastic Laminates: Pros and Cons
Plastic-laminate tops may not grab many headlines, but they nevertheless business relationship for 75 pct of the market. They're cheap, durable, come in lots of colors and can be installed by do-it-yourselfers.
Plastic laminates are multiple layers of resin-soaked kraft paper, topped by a patterned sheet of melamine that's subjected to heat and pressure level. The resultant 1/sixteen-in. laminate sheet can be made into inexpensive countertops in 2 ways.
It tin exist post formed at a fabrication institute to create tops with the rounded "unibody" backsplash and nosing. Postal service-formed tops tin be purchased off-the-shelf at domicile centers in limited colors or special ordered. This style summit is the least expensive, easiest to clean and quickest to install.
They tin can likewise be custom fabricated into an extraordinary range of styles. Laminate sheets are glued to particle lath, then edged with laminate, wood, even solid-surface strips.
They resist grease and stains and clean with soap and water. They'll accept a good hit, and changing your color scheme won't toll an arm and a leg.
On the downside, laminate tops can be damaged by hot pans and sharp knives, abrasive cleaners can dull the cease, and if water penetrates seams, the substrate tin expand and the laminate bulge. Surface impairment is hard to repair. All of these problems can be avoided through proper installation and employ.
Things to Know Earlier You Buy
- Darker solid colors and glossy finishes show scratches and cut marks more readily than patterned or matte surfaces.
- Tops where the laminate overlaps the edging, rather than butts to it are harder to damage.
- New applied science in press has improved the clarity and depth. Many wood grains and rock patterns are amazingly crisp and realistic.
Click here to learn more about selecting laminate countertops.
Counter Opinions
"Laminate worked with our upkeep. We chose bully appliances instead of a plush top."—homeowner
"There's goose egg wrong with laminate, but the high-end kitchen magazines are showing all stone. As the 1950s way swings back, laminate volition be in vogue again."—kitchen designer
Jazzing Up Basic Laminate Tops
Iii products on the market can help extend the versatility of laminate. Most are installed by your fabricator when your height is made.
Counter-Seal is a relatively new product that allows you to undermount a sink in a laminate top. Using templates and special tools, certified fabricators cut the sink opening, and so line this opening with a closely engineered ring of solid-surface material. The tight fit of the ring and special adhesives protect the particleboard cadre from water and moisture. Prices start at nearly $250. The company too makes a product for do-information technology-yourselfers wishing to undermount a sink in a tile elevation.
Precious stone Loc is a solid-surface edging integrated into a laminate top during fabrication. It comes in a broad range of colors and styles.
Kuehn Bevel Border is a especially milled laminate edging that eliminates the dark edge lines oftentimes found on laminates. Kuehn also makes other types of edgings.
Solid Surface: Pros and Cons
DuPont introduced the commencement solid-surface countertop, Corian, to the world 35 years agone and the category continues to thrive. There are currently more than a dozen manufacturers offering countertop materials in hundreds of colors and designs.
Nearly, if not all, solid-surface tops are handled by trained pros who take been certified to fabricate and install that specific product.
Solid-surface tops are normally i/2 in. thick and fabricated of acrylic, polyester (or blends of the two) along with fillers. Edges are built up with two or 3 layers of fabric for a thicker appearance. One exception, Wilsonart'due south Solid Surface Veneer (SSV), consists of a 1/8-in. layer of solid-surface fabric, bonded to a particle-board core. Some initial problems with the product were resolved by bonding a moisture-resistant layer to the bottom of the particle-board cadre.
Some have labeled solid-surface tops the "near-perfect" production. They're non-porous, making them platonic for food preparation. They're difficult to stain. They can be formed into nearly any size and shape. Because they're of uniform cloth through and through, lite scratches tin exist buffed out, deep scratches and burns can exist sanded out, and severely damaged areas tin can literally be cutting out, replaced, then blended to exist darn near invisible. Sinks tin can be undermounted and backsplashes can exist integrated into the acme, making them seamless.
Nigh potential problems with solid-surface tops tin be avoided past proper installation— and companies are increasingly selective in whom they'll certify to exercise their fabricating. There are some negatives, nonetheless. It's expensive. Cutting on them will go out scratches, and those that are solid colour or accept a high-gloss finish can be specially revealing. Some object to their homogenous look and cold feel.
Things to Know Before You lot Buy
- The central to a trouble-free solid-surface top is an installer who knows his or her stuff. Seams should be offset i-ane/2 to 3 in. from inside corners, inside corners should be radiused and joints should be reinforced.
- Know where your seams are and take precautions not to use crock pots, griddles and hot plates in that surface area. The expansion and contraction tin can crusade cracks during the cool-down cycle.
- You lot can take a pro resand and repolish the elevation every five to seven years for a hard-to- tell-from-new await.
Counter Opinions
"Lots of people like solid-surface tops considering they're predictable; they'll look the same five years from now equally they do today."—manufacturer
"Solid-surface tops were originally touted as being indestructible and having invisible seams; now they're touted equally beingness renewable with inconspicuous seams."—installer
Granite: Pros and Cons
Although granite's been around for millions of years, information technology'southward notwithstanding considered the new child on the cake. X years ago granite fell into the "exotic" or "extravagant" categories. Today it's go more accessible and affordable. Shipping is easier (more than 90 percentage comes from overseas), and new technology and thinner blades allow it to exist cut with less waste and cost. In the 2001 National Kitchen and Bathroom Designs Trend Survey, 37 pct of the tops installed by its members were granite.
In its natural state it resists well-nigh stains and when sealed becomes tougher yet. Many edge styles can be crafted: virtually unremarkably bevel, radius, half-radius, ogee and square. A natural cloth, it comes in a wide range of colors, patterns and depths. Each acme is admittedly unique. Sinks can be undermounted (in the case of ane fabricator, 95 percent of the fourth dimension.) And it can handle hot pans.
On the downside, neglected granite can exist stained by hot grease. Information technology's hard and cold. Information technology can be scratched past extreme abuse. Cutting on it volition more likely dull your knives than damage your peak, only repeated cutting in one expanse can somewhen touch on the sheen. Seams are more than evident with granites that accept a strong blueprint or grain. And since working with granite requires special tools, it's not a exercise-it-yourself textile and on-site repairs are difficult to make.
Granite is an amazing option, but not always the correct one. Click here for xiii other options.
Things to Know Earlier You Buy
- Most slabs come in nine-x five-ft. sections. The fabricator will often factor in a "waste charge" for the portion of the slab non used. Proceed this in mind. For instance, don't spec out a 10-ft.-long island, when a nine-ft. one will piece of work.
- If possible, visit the granite "boneyard" and select the bodily slab your peak will be fabricated from. The look of a large slab tin can differ greatly from a small-scale sample.
- Dark and solid-colored granites testify dings and spills more readily.
- Granite with a gloss finish will have more depth and liveliness than i with a matte finish, just it will too show scratches much more readily.
Counter Opinions
"Some people dearest a slab of granite because of a wild colour or grain pattern. Others hate it for the same reason."—fabricator
"Some customers feel tension that wasn't there before granite. You lot exercise sort of tend to piece of work around it."—contractor
Engineered Rock: Pros and Cons
Blend the functional benefits of solid-surface material with the aesthetic attributes of natural stone and yous get a new form of countertop materials called engineered stone. They're composed of more than than 93 percent crushed natural rock, jump together past acrylic or polyester resins. While new to the U.S. market place, these tops have been used successfully in Europe for more than a decade.
Similar solid-surface materials, they're nonporous and virtually impossible to stain. Most never need sealing. They take fantabulous scratch resistance and have more "give" than granite. Because they're composed of rock they can have a natural look. But because they also have resins and fillers they tin also be tinted to create colors not found in nature.
They're expensive, with most falling between solid-surface and natural-stone prices. And while manufacturers say they tin can stand up to hot pans better than solid surface materials, they tin crack, even change color, if subjected to farthermost temperatures. And they share some of granite'south negative qualities: They're slippery, cold to the bear on and unforgiving with a tipped drinking glass.
Things to Know Before You Buy
- Manufacturers of the quartz-based products claim zero sealing is required—ever.
- The composites fabricated of marble (CompacMarble) and limestone (Terrestone) are all-time suited for bathrooms.
- If you lot're in a hurry, Cambria strives to manufacture and evangelize your elevation in 14 days.
Counter Opinions
"If you're looking for absolute zero maintenance on a kitchen countertop, this is as shut as you'll always go. "—manufacturer
"A small sample piece of the stuff might look like natural stone, but an unabridged countertop doesn't. "—designer
Stainless Steel: Pros and Cons
If all the great restaurants of the world utilise stainless-steel tops, why don't y'all see more in homes? Well, they're expensive and it's difficult to find fabricators. Critics also bespeak out that they evidence fingerprints and water spots easily (especially when new), and that they'll readily show nicks, dents and scratches.
On the thumbs-upwards side, they're completely anti-microbial, provide a good rut-proof surface and are easy to make clean.
One manufacturer, John Boos, offers mail lodge stainless-steel tops in limited sizes.
Things to Know Before You lot Buy
- There are different grades and thicknesses of stainless steel. Make certain you know what you're paying for.
- Make certain the stainless steel is wrapped completely around the edges of the substrate to protect it.
Counter Opinions
"It'south so sanitary, I sometimes feel similar I'one thousand preparing food on an operating table when I'grand working on the stainless steel surface area of my superlative."—homeowner
Woods: Pros and Cons
Wood is the original solid-surface countertop; it's uniform through and through and harm can exist repaired by sanding and recoating.
Nigh wood tops are created from 1-1/2-in. strips of maple edge-glued to one another. Oak and other wood are available, but found such a paltry share of the marketplace that nearly need to be special ordered. End-grain maple tops—the true "butcher block" with the cut ends forming the cutting surface—are normally four or more inches thick and proportionately expensive.
For homeowners intending to use woods as their principal meridian, a penetrating oil finish is recommended because cuts and dings can be touched up with a little oil and a swipe of a rag. For those intending to employ the surface equally more of an eating area, tops with a varnish cease can be ordered.
Moisture is the number-one enemy of wood tops. Seams and areas around sinks are particularly vulnerable. And a woods pinnacle can, and will, expand and contract.
Counter Opinions
"Wood has a high fondle factor. People can't walk past (our booth) without touching it."—manufacturer at Kitchen and Bath Show
"It has besides many weaknesses to be used everywhere in a kitchen. Only a modest chopping section is fantastic.&rdquo—designer
"Existent wood with a (crack) is still prettier than (laminate) without ane!"—manufacturer
Tile: Pros and Cons
Tile has many virtues. It's inexpensive, do-it-yourself friendly, available in an astounding variety of materials and colors, and it offers design flexibility. Simply it has every bit strong drawbacks: It'southward exceptionally hard, its piecemeal nature means some surface unevenness and the grout lines are vulnerable to staining.
Not all tiles are created equal. Granite, porcelain and glazed tiles are the least porous and are quite durable. Marble, unglazed clay or limestone tiles are absorbent, soft and commonly not recommended for kitchens.
Grout is another office of the equation. Epoxy grout is more durable simply harder to install and may yellowish. Standard cement grout must be sealed often and well.
The tile base or substrate the tile is laid over must be solid and watertight. Backerboard over plywood is the most do-information technology-yourself friendly base. Many pros will form and build a "mortar bed" for laying their tile.
Things to Know Earlier You lot Buy
- High-gloss and solid-color tiles do bear witness scratches.
- Select flat tile vs. that with a slight pillow event to it.
- Using larger tiles leaves less room in between for grout, which volition take to exist sealed and maintained.
Counter Opinions
"It'due south the ultimate practice-it-yourself top, just I never thought about how difficult it would exist to write on information technology or set down a wine glass."—homeowner
"Well, let me put it this way: I've never had a client with an existing tile pinnacle inquire me to blueprint a new kitchen with a tile top."—designer
Exotic Surfaces: Pros and Cons
Marble
Marble tin be, and is, used for kitchen countertops. But its porosity and fragility make it all-time suited for bathrooms, where information technology's less likely to be damaged by knives, acidic foods and impact. Only marble is undeniably gorgeous; it has more natural graining than most stones and is available in a broad range of colors.
Soapstone
Soapstone has proven its durability through apply in chemical science labs over the last 100 years. It has natural veining and a rugged natural look. Ane fabricator stated, "If you want a top that looks 100 years old the 24-hour interval yous put it in, put in soapstone." Although the textile is relatively soft, an application of mineral oil will disguise almost scratches. Heavier harm can be sanded out. Sinks can be seamlessly integrated into the tiptop and information technology can exist worked with carbide tools. Most sections are limited in length to six ft. Nearly granite fabricators can fabricate soapstone tops.
Richlite
Richlite is composed of more than 60 pct newspaper, but it looks and acts more than like stone or wood. Used in commercial kitchens and food-processing plants for decades, the phenolic wood cloth (according to the manufacturer) resists rut, stains and scratches and "lasts a lifetime." Information technology can be installed by do-it-yourselfers and has a warm, soft look and feel. Costs start at about $25 per square pes for the material.
Concrete
Physical countertops are expensive, hands stained (even with a lacquer finish), can flake easily, and are as hard as, well, concrete. So why would anyone install one? "They're fun!" explained 1 fabricator. You can grade them into whatever shape, embed stuff in them, dye them. And they're durable and rut resistant. Only only those committed to a fair level of maintenance should consider them.
Counter Costs
A chart comparing the price of different countertop materials is available in Boosted Information beneath.
Additional Data
Wear and Maintenance Chart
Source: https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/buying-countertops-plastic-laminates-granite-and-solid-surfaces/
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