phillyjoec

I really wish people that write articles would bother to get the facts straight before they publish articles that make them look like so called "experts". I've owned a kitchen and bath showroom for almost twenty years and remodeled thousands of kitchens and baths and never once had to reinforce the base cabinets before installing granite countertops. Additionally, granite requires almost zero maintenance and unless you clean your granite with a cleaner containing ammonia you don't have to seal your countertops every six months. Every one to two YEARS is adequate and it takes all of about ten minutes and costs $10. Of course granite imports are down 50% over the last year, homebuilding is down probably 75% over the same time frame. The price of granite countertops WAS $80-100/sf five years ago but the price has come down by almost 50% during that time. We very rarely charge more than $60/sf unless the customer chose an exotic stone. I don't remember the last time a customer walked into my showroom and asked to look at laminate or solid surface unless they were remodeling a kitchen in a rental unit. It will be a long time before granite is not the preferred material for a mid to high end kitchen remodel!!