Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Real granite vs. manufactured "quartz" countertops

My installer let us 'sign out' the samples that we wanted to have a look at for a couple of days. Did that several times til we narrowed it down.

Beware - a bunch of these samples weight a ton, ha!!

TAM

Just because the options for this new kind of surface are pretty limited, and, like I said, expensive ($92/sq ft. installed at Home Depot). The marble-looking Aura I thought looked nice on the website didn't look all that impressive in person. They had a black one I would have certainly considered at a lower price point, but it seems wrong to pay $92/sq ft. for a plain black, no matter how durable. In any case, I ended up going with a laminate. There was a darker pattern I liked more than the others, at $27/sq ft. installed. Right at $1k for the amount of countertop and backsplash I need. It would have been over $4k for the Dekton.

But you're right about none of the laminate samples having a real wow factor. I think part of it, for me at least, is it's hard for me to visualize a full countertop from the tiny samples available. Hopefully I made an okay choice. I'll revisit the higher-end materials down the line once this starts looking ugly. In the meantime, all you guys with nicer counters can point and laugh. I'm just glad I finally pulled the trigger on something. I need to be able to use my kitchen!

I've found a local granite dealer in the GTA who imports pre-fab granite counter tops from China. Most of the actual stone originates in S. America ect but gets processed into 8 to 9 ft X 2 ft countertop sections with either a bullnose edge or 1/8 rad. Any further fabbing such as sink cutting, faucet drilling or installing is either done by a local fabricator or the consumer. We've already done our upstairs kitchen with some of their fancier granite and saved near $2G or 50% over your typical HD or Lowes. In fact, they have many different 'levels' of granite, from very basic to fancy to exotic. The cheapest finished 2 x 8 ft granite slabs they had, complete with finished edge were $150Can...less than $5 a sq ft(not installed) up to about $25 per sq ft for the most exotic stone. I'll be picking up 3 slabs and doing my own fab on our bar/kitchenette (part of the downstairs reno I'm doing).

<<< I'll be picking up 3 slabs and doing my own >>>

You must have friends to help! I need me some of them things!

I just finished installing a new dishwasher and also planning on replacing my counter top, sink, and electric stove top sometime soon. Current counter top is a cheap one from back in the 1950's. A laminate or whatever. Any recommendations for something fairly cheap, not too heavy and easy to cut and install?

Yes.
Laminate.

Whaddya mean rocks are heavy?

What an idea? Laminate it is.




I would use rocks. But, they are too heavy.