Counter intelligence — Replacing those tired old tops? There are lots of choices
I hadn't paid a lot of attention to countertops until I decided to replace the ones in my kitchen, which were 20 year old. Soon after, I began noticing the style and type of counters wherever I went: friends' kitchens, ladies' restrooms, fast-food restaurants, checkout lines in grocery stores.
I visited numerous showrooms, including Chris & Dick's, Lowe's, Home Depot, the Roth Concept Center and Legacy Granite in Centerville, to name a few.
In a column in February, I asked for opinions from Deseret News readers. What do you have in your kitchen? Are you happy with your choice and why?
About 40 of them flowed in, telling me about their countertops of granite, quartz, tile, cement, laminate and solid surface. (No slate or soapstone owners responded, although I hear these are the Next Big Thing in elite kitchens in other parts of the country.)
There were glowing accounts of good choices, there were horror stories of remodeling jobs run amok. And I realized that there is no one countertop that is going to suit everyone.
I have a large kitchen with a lot of surface to cover, which drives up the cost. I have a peach-toned floor with a busy pattern, which narrowed my choices. Also, I consider my kitchen as more of a workplace than a showplace. And I don't have time for a lot of maintenance such as sealing and oiling. I was also keeping my beloved 20-year-old cabinets, and wasn't sure if they would hold up under the weight of heavy stone.
I also wasn't concerned about whether the material was "natural" or "man-made." Granite, lauded for being natural, still requires a sealer, which is not natural.
My total cost, including the drop-in sink, came to about $2,500. When I was placing my order, Stephanie Wade, a customer-service representative for Accent Surfaces, patiently went through the math with me to show that for $700 more, I could use Simplicity (a solid surface similar to Corian) and get a cool-looking seamless sink and some fancy edging to boot. But the Simplicity colors seemed drab to me.
Which brings up another point: A lot of places sell solid surface, granite or quartz in different price groups, each costing about $3-$5 more per square foot than the next. Unfortunately, the colors that appealed to me were the most expensive.
When you multiply an additional $10-$15 by 76 square feet, that's a hefty sum. I was tempted to pay an additional $1,300 for a Corian color that I really liked, but while eating lunch at Wendy's I realized the garbage receptacles were the same color. With all due respect to Wendy's, I didn't want to think of fast-food trash every time I used my kitchen.
When you figure you will use your kitchen for many years, the cost of a higher-end material is only pennies more per day. But, there's also something to be said for living within your means. I'm absolutely happy with my laminate, and I don't have to stay up nights worrying how I'll pay for it.
But enough about my countertops. What about yours? Again, there's no one choice that is going to suit everyone.
Years ago, the main choice for countertops was laminate, which most people knew by the brand name, Formica. "The market is becoming more educated," said Kyle Clements, manager of Chris & Dick's Cabinets and Countertops. "I would say 85 percent of our sales were laminate 20 years ago, the rest were considered 'alternative surfaces.' Now it's 60 percent laminate and 40 percent other surfaces. But laminate still leads the market because of the price point."
Clements said the two biggest trends right now are quartz, or engineered stone, and high-definition laminate, which has a more lustrous finish than the usual laminate. Once the only solid-surface choice was DuPont's Corian, but now there are several brands at different price points. Granite was once a lot more expensive than solid surface, but now the two are nearly the same.
"Corian is an oil-based product, and the price of oil has driven it up. But more importantly, the price of stone has dropped. It's become more readily available, and that makes solid surface look more expensive," said Clements.
Even those who work with it every day are divided on which surface is better. "I love Corian, but my husband loves granite," said Wade, a service representative for Accent Surfaces. "That's why we still have our old laminate countertops."
Here are some general tips to help you decide what is best for you.
• Don't base your final choice solely on a 2-inch sample or brochure photo. Colors and patterns can look different when spread on a large surface. Go to some larger showrooms with a variety of surfaces to see if you'll get the overall look that you want. Better still, check out friends' and neighbors' homes to see how surfaces hold up in actual living conditions.
• Take samples home with you. Set them next to your cupboards and flooring to see how well they go with the rest of the kitchen. Rub them with harsh cleanser and try to scratch them with a knife to see what happens to the finish.
• Consider the different sinks, backsplashes and edges you want. These factors contribute to the overall look and ease of cleaning. For instance, solid surface, such as Corian, offers the "integrated" sink bowl for a seamless look. With granite or quartz, you can get a rimless, "undermount" sink installed beneath the countertop. Although a few local businesses now offer undermount sinks with laminate surfaces, in most cases you're limited to a drop-in sink.
• Measure countertops and draw a template to scale so that sales people can give you an estimate of the square footage and cost of the project.
• Compare the overall costs. Sinks, backsplashes, edges and so on can add quite a chunk to the basic square-footage cost. Also, if this is a remodeling job, the costs of removing the old tops can be around $150-$400. You can save a chunk by doing the removal yourself, advised Wade.
• Consider your kitchen and how long you'll be in it. Do you have a busy pattern on your floor? If you're installing granite or solid surface, you'll want to keep it for a long time due to the investment costs. So it's not a great idea to put them on tired old cabinets.
• Find out who will do the installation. Some companies sell you the contract but turn it over to another company to do the installation.
• Consider warranties and what they cover. They could be 15 years, one year, or a "taillight warranty": It's over once you see the guys' taillights leaving your house.
E-mail: vphillips@desnews.com
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