How To Select The Best Counter-top
First let me say,
I do kitchen remodeling for a living and your basic choices are granite, corian, quartz, laminate and wood you could also do marble. The main reason that granite is the best is for resale. If you don’t care about resale then consider one of these below and do your homework before making a decision.
Granite – very durable but it will scratch and those scratches won’t go away easy. So don’t cut on it and don’t lay any heavy rough objects on it like another piece of granite from your sink cut out. If you do make you have something under it.
Corian – is the brand name for a solid surface material created by DuPont. It is made of acrylic polymer and alumina trihydrate. Corian counter-tops requires some care and planning toavoid damage. Corian counter-tops have a hard, non-porous surface, but they can get scratches and heat damage. Corian is pretty easy to repair as it can be sanded to reveal new surface below the damage.
Quartz – Quartz counter-tops are made from a combination of 93 percent pulverized quartz and a resin binder that hardens with the quartz. The cost of quartz counter-tops is comparable to granite. Quartz is extremely durable with a scratch, sand and scorch resistant surface that ranks No. 7 on the Mohs hardness scale. Only three other minerals on Earth are harder. Sapphires, topaz and diamonds are all harder. Another advantage is that it’s nearly stain-proof.
Laminate – well laminate is just an economic way to go for counter-tops.
Wood – even though I like wood products it don’t work well for the main counter-tops. Maybe for the kitchen island it is a nice touch – if you go with an end grain butcher block style. Wood can always be repaired that’s it’s advantage and if you use it on the kitchen island it can double as a large prep/cutting surface.
Marble – is well known for its beauty. Marble resists damage from heat which is a great thing in a kitchen. Sealers are necessary to keep the look and will need to be reapplied according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. Professional sealing is recommended. Marble can be damaged by scratches because it is a relatively soft stone. Marble is very costly compared to other materials.
These are some of the other materials to consider when looking for counter-tops.
# Slate
# Stainless steel
# Concrete
# Soapstone
# Limestone
All of these tops you only need to clean with soap and water. Most of the specialty cleaners don’t do anything other than eat away at the sealers that are on the tops or at least more so than soap and water does. It is a good idea to not do any cutting directly on any of these surfaces other than wood as it will damage the surface and ruin you knives. The best thing to do is buy a nice wood butcher block ^(http://www.allthingswood.net/Buy-Wood-Cutting-Boards.html) to protect you investment
Thanks ,
Michael @ All Things Wood
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How To Select The Best Counter-top By house | June 12, 2010
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