Help me find a countertop material!

In My Humble Opinion
1

We’re in the early stages of planning a kitchen refurbishment - new counters, lighting, sink, and appliances. We’ve got a reasonably-sized kitchen for a Manhattan apartment - it’s eleven feet long and seven feet wide, with doorways at one short end and on the right side, and a window at the other short end (not to be sneezed at in NYC!). There’s counter on both of the long sides; the right side is butcher block over shallow counters, and probably needs to be something light because it’s not well-supported. The left side is currently basic white Formica. We will probably put in a fresh butcher block on the right (the current one is over twenty years old and cracked in places), but I’d like to do something more interesting on the left side. It’s only about 14 square feet, even including the real estate taken up by the sink, so we can afford to use more expensive materials.

I’m looking for a counter material that probably doesn’t exist. (My husband, who has appointed me point person on the issue, just wants something that will look cool, and eventually be salable.) My ideal countertop would be:
[ul]
[li]Maintenance free - I’m a forgetful person, and very likely wouldn’t remember to refinish something annually. I’m too lazy to want to do something more often than that.[/li][li]Not granite - I find granite cold, hard-looking, and overdone at this point. [/li][li]Heat resistant - I can’t put very hot pots on the butcher block (I scorched in a lesson on that front a few months after moving in, although sanding took care of it), and I need somewhere to put them without having to fuss with a trivet.[/li][li]Stain resistant - I spill things. Water sits in puddles around my sink sometimes. I cook with acidic substances. I’d rather not live in fear of permanent stains if I miss something, or don’t wipe it up until the end of a day of cooking.[/li][li]Not so hard - I’m clumsy, and knock over or drop things often. Probably the only advantage of the Formica over stone is that when I drop stuff, it’s less likely to shatter.[/li][li]Doesn’t get ugly chips/cracks - I don’t mind subtle dings, but I don’t want visible gouges or scratches when, inevitably, I drop stuff.[/li][li]Not as heavily variegated as granite, but more interesting to the eye than a solid color. [/li][li]A light, warm color. [/li][li]A warm vibe - not sure how to explain this, but some materials (especially granite, as mentioned) seem very cold to me. Maybe I just don’t like counters that are too shiny without depth. [/li][li]A material that will appeal to buyers when we want to sell the apartment eventually (probably 2-5 years from now). [/li][li]Inlaid drain boards are cool, although not strictly necessary.[/li][/ul]

Any ideas? Do I really want Corian, even though part of me longs for something cooler? Thoughts on concrete, paper composites like Richlite or ShetkaStone, Fireslate, soapstone, quartz/Silestone, Icestone,? Any other suggestions?

While we’re at it, what makes for an attractive fridge/stove surface that doesn’t require constant wiping like stainless steel does, and won’t look dated five years hence?

2

I don’t think that you’re going to find one material that does all of that. One that you didn’t mention is plain old tile. From my standpoint the one big knock against a tile countertop is the grout lines - you just have to give it a good wipe down every so often. It’s low maintenance, heat resistant, you can get any colors you want, price ranges from cheap to expensive, pretty strong (unless you make a habit of dropping cast iron pans onto it), won’t stain (although grout lines can get dirty), if a tile does crack it’s not a big deal to chip it out and replace it (unlike a cracked solid-surface countertop which is one big piece).

If future potential buyers don’t care for your choice it’s cheap to rip it out and replace with whatever (as opposed to throwing away a few grand of custom cut granite or whatever which would make buyers balk).

Consumer Reports did a test of a number of kitchen countertop materials a few months ago and as you’d guess they all have pluses and minuses. Overall they said that solid surface/quartz were the best (stuff like Zodiaq). Concrete can be beautiful but it needs to be sealed and it can crack. It’s also as hard as other stone surfaces (like granite, zodiaq, etc). They didn’t care too much for some of the paper countertops. Formica was the general winner where price is a big factor (tons of colors, it’s cheap, durable, etc. It’s just hard to repair and if water gets under the laminate it’ll make a mess).

I’ve seen some cool alternatives, like a solid copper countertop (but that’ll take a lot of maintenance), glass (beware cracks), recycled science lab tabletops (I don’t know what that black stuff is but it’s obviously extremely rugged). Also solid stainless steel countertops, you can get nice finish treatments like brushing which give it a little character.

3

A couple of years ago, on This Old House, they used countertops from a Brooklyn company called IceStone. They use recycled glass mixed with cement to make concrete countertops.

4

Not tile! My parents got tile when they remodeled their kitchen(when I was 4), and since I was the youngest, I got to wipe the counters down. I was thrilled to leave them behind. I would never have them in a kitchen again.

5

I like the whole idea and look of that!

Countertops are a bitch. I would love to go for concrete some day when my kitchen is bigger than the average junk drawer.

6

IceStone is utter horrible shit. Porous, it stains, cracks, and is expensive as HELL to boot. I won’t work with it. If my clients insist, I make them sign a waiver basically saying that the product is unreliable and neither myself or my fabricator is responsible for any defects in the stone.

I’m thinking you should look at Ceasarstone or Hanstone. CStone has some really nice light vibe colors and Hanstone is a fantastic product that is quite a bit less expensive than either Zodiaq ( the industry leader) or Cstone.

Silestone is ok but I just dont like their colors. In addition, they have two fabrication routes. You can buy directly from the mfr. or go through a a local fabricator. The factory option is cheaper but in the end it comes down to how good their field measurer is.

Richlite looks cool but is a maintenance nightmare I would not use it in any wet environment.

Tile SUCKS. The grout is impossible to clean and looks terrible after a very short time. It’ cannot be NSF rated either.

Straight concrete can be cool. Look up Fu Tung Cheng for some amazing things he has done with concrete counters. You are lucky that you live in NYC in that you can probably find a fabricator who knows what they are doing. There’s an art to the mix and set up of concrete countertops. I’ve installed 10 and consider myself a rank novice at it. Definitely go with a reputable person for that, check lots of references.
But one final thought. You don’t like the coldness of granite. Have you checked out honed or brushed finishes? I think they are wonderful especially the leather or brushed ones. They completely change the look of the stone so check out the brushed slabs at a distributor in person before you discount them. I have sold dowzens of them to people who like you, siad they didn’t like the look of granite.

7

How stain-resistant is the honed or brushed granite? How often does it need to be re-sealed?

8

There is recycled material out there, including bamboo and recycled hardwood that looks very nice. Website.

We put in Staron(Espresso) countertops, which are beautiful (made by Samsung). It’s a non-porous acrylic countertop that looks like quartz. Appearance-wise, it beats Corian hands down and is much cheaper. I would suggest a non-gloss finish, regardless of what you choose. Highly polished surfaces show scratches very easily.

9

Honed or brushed granite is just as stain resistant as polished granite. Changing the texture of the surface does not affect the absorption properties. That said, you should always use a good quality oil based sealer with silicone in it. It’s more expensive and a bit of a pain to apply but it will last about 5 years from the date of install vs. 6 months for the water based stuff you get at the home stores.

10

Also, for the butcher-block countertop, should I go with ordinary butcher-block (which has been OK, although we don’t sand and oil as much as we ought to), bamboo, or some other light countertop material?

11

You have to think of how you’ll use it (and clearly you have, per mention of the desire to put hot pots on the counter). When we remodeled the kitchen in our last house - and when we planned (but postponed) a remodel of the current kitchen, we decided to go with Corian. Reasons being:

  • You can have the backsplash (the 3-4 inch tall strip of the material running up the wall) “coved” - all one piece with the counter surface. No corner for crumbs to get wedged into, and no seam that needs to be recaulked.

  • More stain resistant than granite. Hot pots on the counter aren’t something I do that often, but spilling and not wiping up promptly, that’s me.

We only got to use that Corian for a year (we moved a year later) but I really liked it.

I don’t know that Corian would be great for your use, as you mentioned putting hot pots onto it. It’s somewhat heat resistant but not as much so as granite or the engineered stone.

Tile would be an option for your countertop, weight-wise and heat-resistance-wise, though it’s hard to keep the grout clean. You can seal the grout but that might need to be redone periodically.

12

Like I said, I don’t care for the grout lines myself. When I bought my house it came with an old (but serviceable) tile countertop in the kitchen. What I like about it is that it’s relatively indestructible and I didn’t pay a premium for a spiffy kitchen countertop that I’m just going to rip out when I do my remodel. Honestly it’s not that bad, I just wipe off the crumbs and whatnot periodically, use some cleaner now and then and everything looks fine. Not particularly high maintenance.

Depends what the OP is looking for - if they are staying in their place for the long term then definitely get exactly what they want for keeps. If they’re thinking that they may sell the place then they can either go with something really nifty and hope to make that investment back, or go with something simpler and much less expensive.

When my folks remodeled their kitchen decades ago they got solid butcher block countertops with a couple of tile inlays (next to the rangetop and the oven) for putting hot pots on.

Butcherblock isn’t really well suited to that kind of complete coverage, especially around the sink. As a gift I sanded and refinished the countertops a few years ago and water stains were a nightmare to get out.

13

I’d suggest soapstone?

Says it’s ok with acid substances, and stains are easily sanded out, as they don’t penetrate past the surface. Also seems to work with heat.

http://www.soapstone-co.com/whatis101.html

Speaking from personal experience, I’ve seen it polished to a granite like shine, and I’ve seen it left as it is, and it’s got the warmth of wood.

14

Zinc or Concrete.

15

I like the idea of quartz. Yet another bad thing about tile is you can’t use it as a surface for rolling out dough. If you ever make cookies, piecrust, etc., you have to find a board, which means you have to have a place to store the board.

16

We redid our Manhattan kitchen a year ago with silestone. We picked our apartment largely based on its kitchen: we have sixteen feet of countertop on one side and a nontrivial amount on the other.

It has taken a great deal of abuse in the past year, as we cook heavily. It has sustained hot pots, knifework, spills, and all sorts other tempests in teapots.

It still looks as good as the day we bought it. We personally like the color (we choose a deep green), and the price was very reasonable. I am not a contractor, but the size and fit look good to me.

17

Huh - my parents have a tile countertop, and I’m really a big fan of it. Yeah, there’s lines, but other than that, it seems to me to be nearly a perfect surface. My mom doesn’t own any trivets or whatnot or cutting boards either - she doesn’t need them. And if you’re smart about grout color, cleaning’s a snap. Mom’s grout is a tannish/brownish with ivory tiles - never shows dirt. If you pick a tile that goes with a brown, grey, or charcoal grout, should be fine.

18

Yep. Granite is not, and never will be out of style. Certain colors, however, are getting to be way overdone. I put honed granite (Tuscany) in my spec houses, and I can’t tell you how many people go ape over it. Most lookers think it is marble, at first glance.

19

One thing to think about when cutting on tile and stone though is that it is hard (heh) on the knifes edge and they will need to be re-sharpened more often.

20

I’m definitely not going with tile. I’m not sufficiently meticulous that I’d reliably scrub the grout, and I think it’d look pretty slovenly most of the time. I don’t need a surface that I can cut on, because I wouldn’t want to abuse my knives that way. As I said, it’s really a very small surface, so we can afford to splurge on more expensive materials, even though we’re not planning to stay here long-term. Although we’re in northern Manhattan, not the super-trendiest of neighborhoods, we still need something that will appeal to a New York City consumer when we want to sell it a few years down the road.

I tend to prefer light, warm colors (think sand, or a cream with hints of yellow). Is soapstone available in pale colors, or is it mostly the dark gray/black that one sees in lab benches?

I’ve heard that concrete cracks. Is this a functional issue, or an aesthetic one? If I forget to re-seal it for an extra six months beyond the five years that the oil-and-silicone sealer is good for, will I have damaged the counter forever with stains, or can they be fixed?