Oh, my soapstone counters arrive in about a week and a half!
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I figure it depends on your planned use. If you have (a) big item(s) you like to wash/soak, and it doesn’t fit in kitchen sink, you may choose the single oversized option. That’s what i plan to do for basement laundry room.
I’m going to get a small piece of soapstone to top a little table between the sink and the washer. I want some kind of flat surface there, and I’d like a nod to the soapstone sink I’m getting rid of. The contractor thinks he can cut a piece of soapstone from the existing sink, but I’m dubious, and I’m about to head out and look for remnants.
Awesome. I hope you have better luck than I did, it took me a month to find soapstone! As an old home nerd, I think it’s nice to pay some tribute to the home’s history as you make changes to adapt the house to more modern things.
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I’m at a local stone shop now, and they have some suitable remnants. I’m going to check out a second one as soon as this one gives me a price.
Most are traditional dark gray, one has yellowish veins, which i like. I may very well grab that one.
(I am looking for a 1’ by 2’ piece, not anything large.)
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Second place is a smaller shop, i spoke with the owner. It’s lower end, and doesn’t have the array of fancy marble and stuff the other place has. They have 3 slabs for sure, and another that is probably available. The guy made a kitchen from it, but maybe they want an additional thing that matches, and he hasn’t heard yet.
It’s a little cheaper (not enough to matter in the grand scene of things) and i like the owner. He even let me dumpster dive (i use scraps of finished stone in my garden.) Poking around in the dumpster made it surprisingly obvious how much sturdier natural stone is than quartz. The man made stuff breaks at funny angles, and breaks a LOT more than the granite and marble pieces do.
Now, to pick a sink so i can finalize the dimensions…
The washing machine drains into the near sink. So i might also use the second sink if i want to toss something there that’s damp, but that i don’t want inundated when i run the washer.
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That is interesting. I figured granite would be the hardest. I’m surprised that marble is stronger, it’s not a particularly tough stone. But now that I type this out loud, I guess the man made stuff has a lot of glass in it. I’ve always assumed it was really durable.
It’s the plastic matrix that breaks. The embedded bits of glass are probably really tough, but they are held together by a plastic resin.
I hadn’t realized that, either, but handling the broken pieces, it was pretty obvious.
Well, my whole group of theories was just wrong. I would have guessed the glue would be really, really strong. Some kind of epoxy.
At some point in the future I’d like to replace our Corian type counters with something, and I’d have considered quartz. Maybe I’ll just stick to stone. I’d consider laminate too (very appropriate for our 1912 house) but my wife would veto that out of hand.
Ok, at the risk of displaying my ignorance (never took geology) isn’t quartz natural?
I know it’s not very durable… somewhere in GoA I recounted my friend’s experience cracking her brand-new quartz counter from using a regular properly-functioning countertop electric griddle. When you read the fine print with quartz it says it can only go up to 150 degrees (which is very low when it comes to cooking) and recommends using a wood cutting board under countertop appliances.
But I did think quartz was natural and not engineered.
In terms of durability I think it’s
First) Granite
Second) Marble
…
other stuff
…
Last) Quartz
There is a natural stone called quartz. The name got co-opted by the manufacturers of the fake stone.
There is also quartzite, which is natural and you can buy slabs for counters. It’s not cheap, but it does look amazing.
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Yes, there is a natural stone called quartz. And it’s a component of many other stones, including granite. It’s quite hard, and brittle. But “quartz” countertops are an engineered material, made largely of crushed quartz stone, held together by a resin
It comes in lots of attractive patterns. And it’s definitely man-made, which is why you never see it in older kitchens that haven’t been redone.
I have laminate, and when I bought the house I planned to upgrade it to granite or Corian. But now that i’ve lived with it for a while, I love it. You might want to persuade your wife to consider it.
I have a 2’ x 2’ granite slab that I installed next to the stove, replacing a 2’ x 2’ piece of laminate. And I like that. I got a fine-grained granite that doesn’t need to be sealed, and it’s awesome that I can take the hot broiler out of the oven and just place it on the granite. It’s also nice that I can throw some ice packs on it, and chill it to make pastry. But it’s really hard. Everything goes “clink” when I put stuff down. I’m quite happy that the counter close to the glassware is softer and quieter. And the laminate has been very low maintenance. With essentially no care, it looks exactly like it did the day we moved it, more than two decades ago. I clean it with a sponge from time to time, and I don’t cut directly onto it. And that’s it for care.
(The granite also requires no care, but it’s gotten a lot darker over time, and if I spill turmeric on it, it’s yellow for a week, because there’s no way to really scrub all the turmeric out of the fine pores. I can clean the laminate. Yes, I suppose that means the granite isn’t totally hygienic. I’m not worried about it. I don’t use that part of the counter for wet stuff anyway. But it is next to the spice rack, so spices sometimes spill going from the spice bottles to the cooking pots. But that’s another reason I’m happy the counter isn’t all granite. If a little chicken juice leaks out of the container onto the laminate, I can clean it more reliably than I could from unsealed granite.)
She grew up with laminate counters that were falling apart, so she equates laminate with poor quality. I’m totally fine with stone, so if and when we do counters we will go that route.
She has a similar negative connotation to linoleum. I wanted to use that in the basement and it was a non-starter with her. I’m not using ‘linoleum’ in the broad sense to mean ‘sheet flooring’ type of material, I wanted to get Forbo Marmoleum. The stuff they made a hundred years ago. She just doesn’t like it and isn’t changing her mind.
Yeah I’ve seen crappy laminate. I’ve been amazed at how well this stuff held up, though, and I’m very happy with it.
What’s funny is her parents bought the house used, so who knows how long it was already there. Now, there are a few areas where the top layer came off which are now held on with Scotch tape. And some fairly deep scratches here and there. BUT, those counter tops are still in that house. They must be 50 years old.
If you take care of them, laminate counters last a long, long time. And you can get a million different patterns.
I have had plastic covered particle board and plastic mixed with quartz type countertops.
I like the plastic quartz mix a lot better.
I don’t get corian at all.
It’s cheaper than quartz. Both are solid surface - meaning they are the same material all the way through. I think Corian is around $50 per sq ft. Quartz is more like $90. Granite ranges anywhere from $50 to $150, even more for exotic stuff. Quartzite is $100 and up.
In terms of style, I think Corian is mostly pretty ugly. Our kitchen came with Corian or similar counters and they are… fine. Not on the immediate upgrade list but we think they are kind of ugly.
This.
It just seems inferior to everything other than being a “solid surface” which doesn’t seem like an important feature for most people.
It’s ugly, it melts, you can’t cut on it, it’s as expensive as granite. I guess maybe you can dance on it better than any other option without it breaking.