Question about kitchen counters

[KitchenWitch]

Which materials do you love, and which do you hate?

My kitchen counters (I kid you not) are 3 x 3 ceramic or glass tiles! :wtf: I am sure it was fashionable in the late 1970s to use tile, but other than the fact that one can accidentally put a hot pot down without a trivet and not damage it, I cannot find any other advantages.

[NMDemDist2]

1. good old formica

it's cheap, easy to install and come in a million colors

second choice is stainless

I have tile now and don't care for it, i've had Corian too and liked it fine but it's spendy and colors are limited

with formica when the styles change it's nothing to "update" your kitchen and it has a bit of "give" if you drop a glass

[wildeyed]

2. If you want to get spendy, Silestone is nice.

I have it in my recently remodeled kitchen and it is great. It is an engineered stone, harder than granite and doesn't require any maintenance.

My last kitchen was Formica, and that was great for a budget choice. The colors and styles get better all the time. Check the Formica website, they will send you color samples in the mail for free.

[NMDemDist2]

3. hiya girl!!! LTNS!

:hi:

how's your precinct doing?? how are YOU??

[wildeyed]

4. Hiya!

:hi:

Precinct is so-so, but I have been working a ton over in adjacent congressional dist 8. There is a *very* vulnerable incumbent rep over there, and the dem challenger is +7 in the polls right now.

Other than that, my kids are at two different schools right now, so I am spending more time commuting with them, and I have been spending more time exercising to deal with stress. Last election I became so obsessed with winning that I let the other parts of my life fall away. When we lost I was so devastated. This year I am trying to maintain a strong commitment to activism without it being my whole life. So anyway, that is me.

What are you up to these days?

[Warpy]

5. Tile was very popular through most of the 90s

before granite came in as a way for the executive class to show off its great wealth. Both were fads and tile is looking very dated. Undoubtedly those granite counters, especially the black ones with the dark cherry cabinets, dark walls, and stainless steel appliances will soon look gloomy and dated. Granite is also porous and will absorb a lot of stuff you don't want it to, and untidy cooks in granite kitchens will soon have to buy lots of room deodorizer, no matter how well the stone was "sealed."

I stick to good old Formica. It's cheap to install, reasonably durable if one uses hot pads and cutting boards, and if you get sick of the color, cheap to replace. It's kinder to dropped dishes than any tile or solid surface and keeps looking new and shiny longer than stanless steel countertops. It can be made to mimic stone and comes in scores of colors.

Give me Formica and white appliances any day. Fads come and go, but those are always acceptable.

[TygrBright]

6. Good old-fashioned formica...

...is my choice. There's a zillion options out there now in terms of colors, etc., and options like edging styles, backsplashes, etc. Even if I had megabux to re-do the kitchen (not that it really needs it, but everyone has a fantasy kitchen, right?) I would probably stick with formica and swank it up with a nice edging treatment and an artsy stone or ceramic tile backsplash. Maybe build in a strip of stainless or engineered stone right by the stove. But overall, formica, definitely.

I had tile for years, the little ones (3/4"?) in my single pad, probably put in originally in the 40s. The grout had (not unnaturally) absorbed so much crud over the decades that it had gone a sort of crusty gray-brown color which contrasted nicely with the flesh-pink tiles and the black ceramic edging and backsplash. (sarcasm) At one point the landlord had tried to clean part of the grout and made it worse. Anyway. I didn't care for it, although I liked the tile backsplashes by the sink and stove.

constructively,
Bright

[eleny]

7. I'm in the formica school

We have two formica counter tops that were installed in the very early 1980s. I have a few small nicks in one. Other than that, the surfaces look good and get a nice glow when I use some Counter top Magic spritz on them.

When I wanted to add new cabinets to the kitchen, I was able to match the color. Even though two are older and two are brand new, it's hard to tell from across the aisle. They look identical.

I always thought that it would be less expensive to change colors/patterns if I got sick of the solid almond. That hasn't happened yet but I wouldn't feel bad if I had to change the counters in a year or so. In a kitchen that's small by today's fashion, I'm keeping it light and bright.

Good luck with your project. There's so much out there to choose!

[Warpy]

8. HGTV's "Stress Test" took on various counter tops tonight

and laminate proved superior in every test (most of them silly) but the heat and humidity test, and that's only because the substrate bowed. I don't think many of us have houses at 180 degrees with 100% humidity, though, so I doubt that's much of a concern.

Granite, marble, and laminate were tested. The marble discolored to an icky yellow with heat and humidity. Granite was the most fragile with impact tests and both granite and marble failed the dropped 5 pound weight test, cracking badly. They had to drop a bowling ball from 40 feet up to get the laminate to fail. Everything else just bounced off.

The one test they didn't do was the acid/staining test. Stone stains much more quickly than laminate, and often immediate wipeups don't do the trick.

They also failed to test solid materials like Corian, also vulnerable to acids.

[eleny]

9. I thought the stress test on shingles was lacking

They never replicated hail storms on vrious materials.

I liked the testing done on the counter topping materials. The hole in one at the end was a great lark.