Countertops

xojo1 · August 2011

We are looking for new countertops and I'm not 100% sold on a material just yet. We have a lot of counter space, so price is an issue. Right now, Lowes has a special on granite for $39/square foot installed, which seems like a pretty good deal for us. I'm not sure that I want to spend the money on granite if I can get something cheaper that is just as good of a material, though.

If you have granite, do you like it? Is there anything you don't like? Are there any other types that you would recommend?

cookiemonster03 · August 2011

We spent about 2 hrs w/ a kitchen guy this weekend talking about our theoretical new house. In short, this guy (who doesn't sell granite) said there's just nothing comparable. (that is a good price btw, even for stock granite) Some of it goes to what you want/need....you can get "good" laminate, even high end stuff, for half of the cost of granite, but it is laminate and IMO never look even remotely as nice. fwiw, I wouldn't put a high end granite (eg, a black with blue specks) into a midpriced house, and I definitely wouldn't do tile (ew countertop grout) but otherwise I think its pretty hard to go wrong if it is properly installed.

I really like some of the other stone options, but they're not any cheaper so we'll likely do granite for resale value.

NineTwentyOhEight · August 2011

One of my BFFs is a kitchen designer and says to always go granite. There are other options that are nice/comparable but they generally cost more.

Granite requires little upkeep and really is a good material. I think that price sounds great - usually I see it for $50-something and up installed. You should check with an independent place too, just to compare - sometimes you can get better quality for same price.

And I agree with Emily - do not put super high end granite into a kitchen if your house is mid-range price, you'll never see that money back. If you are in an area where people "expect" granite you'll be doing yourself a favor.

MrsT2008 · August 2011

unless you can get a good deal on an engineered stone (we have Silestone), then granite is the way to go. And I think the best places to get granite are at actual granite stores that you go and pick out the actual slab from which your counters will be cut (that way you can check for bad cracks or blemishes).

xojo1 · August 2011

Thank you Smile

We have a mid range house in our area, so we definitely won't put something super high end in. We want something nicer than the low end laminate we currently have. I'll talk to Matt, but I think we will try to go with granite. There are a couple stores in town that specialize in it, but their hours are awful for people for work, so we might have to check them out at lunch.

SugarhillHnA · August 2011

We have granite and I love it. There is nothing I don't like about it. I still forget that I can put hot pots and pans on it without a coaster and it's easy for us to keep clean. I will say that now that we're looking to do a tile backsplash I wish we didn't have the small granite backsplash the builder installed. It would make our decision on tile a lot easier!

Maybe if I were to nitpick I could say that sometimes I worry that if I ding a plate or glass on it, it would break more easily (stone against class), but I've probably only broken one cup and a plate that way b/c I'm a klutz.

Jules08 · August 2011

We put granite in the first summer in our house. I think that sounds like a good deal (not 100% sure though because we didn't have to pay for any labor or mark up on the stone or underhung sink ... we have a granite guy).

Like Kara said, unless you can find a deal on an engineered stone, granite is the way to go. The only upkeep we have is to seal it once a year. Preparing food on it is fantastic especially breads and doughs, and always having room for a hot pan is handy. I still don't use my knifes on it, but we got the insert from the sink cut-out made into a cutting board.

Kitchens and bathrooms sell house and granite is something that a lot of people look for when buying. So resale is another reason to get it!

Whether or not you do the upturn of the granite is up to you and the type of back splash that you are looking to do. With our split-face tile, we needed it to get a good selant joint at the counter edge, but smooth tiles you can get away without the upturn.

Oh also, you can choose not to bullnose your granite edges. We did because heck we were getting a great deal and didn't want to overstep ... but my parents chose not to bullnose theirs and just had the edges polished, it makes the granite slab appear to be much thicker, it's a cool look to it.

If you want to go ultra modern, an awesome counter idea is to do poured concrete! it's inexpensive but really sleek!

ETA:

We went from this:

To this:

To finally:

Huge difference and way more appealing to me

firewife9278 · August 2011

I LOVE concrete countertops. But around here, they are more expensive than granite.

We have laminate counters. I hate them. But we are only planning to stay in this condo for less than 2 more years, and don't want to spend the money on new counters for our future renters!

Countertops

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