Remodeled a bonus room and need to replace a countertop 18″x18′, with a dreaded budget. Looking to spend approx $600-$700. Slab granite is what we want – going for a seamless look, but cant afford, tried the granite tile thing ie. Bedrock Creations and Bellisimo for the DYI’er but the price was double our budget with my labor!! Will be doing the job myself. Looking for a natural stone alternative. Concrete countertop maybe?? Will need a seam under the bar sink!?
Cant find an alternative! Willy
Replies
If you make your own, concrete might fit in that budget. If you hire it out, it'll cost as much as, or more than, granite. I know of no natural stone you can get for that $$$ unless you get lucky find a salvage piece at a good deal. But good luck finding an 18' salvage.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Everything fits, until you put glue on it.
If you are flexible about the appearance/type I suggest that you contact stone fabricators to see what they might already have in stock that they could discount to you to get things moving. Athough, 18' feet of 'leftovers' is a lot!
Jeff
If it is you bonus room and not your everyday kitchen, how about laminate. Some of the top of the line laminates are really quite attractive.
i don't think anyone's got enough money to buy a 18' pc of granite except the goverment!
go to a local granite slab place ask em what they have that they want rid of. buy a 60 " by 110" slab, and get you a wet saw or if your in a big town look up a guy with a waterjet, 3 straight cuts will surprise you at how cheap they are.
when i did ours they had 3 pcs of 3 cm [can't remeber the color name?] that a archy had special ordered in honed finish which added another 600 per slab. they told me if i would take at least 2 they would take 550 a slab. i should of bought the third for a shop countertop,it would be the top dog workshop bench on the block!
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Go to soapstones.com. You can order your own material, cut it with woodworking tools, and it performs better than granite. Plus it's not the same thing everyone else has. It's usually fairly uniform in color so seams blend in well.
I love soapstone, but he ain't gonna get it anywhere near his budget. Even for DIY slabs he's at about 2X budget.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.
Edited 6/10/2009 7:42 am ET by MikeHennessy
With soapstone tile, set with zero clearance is in his budget.FWIW here is a someone that did a counter top with soapstone tile.They where set with "zero gap" and filled any gaps with an epoxy colored to match the tile.http://www.ikeafans.com/DIYSoapstoneTileInstallation.htm
http://www.ikeafans.com/diy_soapstone_tile_information.htm.
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
True -- I had misremembered his OP and thought he ruled out tiles for esthetic reasons. Nope - cost.
I like the soapstone tiles a lot.Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.
In the SF bay area I can buy 10' by 26" prefab granite countertops with a 1.5" laminated edge for $175. This particular outfit has surprisingly good quality and a big inventory. Anyone with a circular saw could make a good enough cut to saw the length of it down to 18". The seam between two pieces might be a bit more challenging without a backlog of experience or an accurate saw.
Cobble together a simple A frame to transport the slabs in a pickup truck.
Your profile says you are in So Cal. I would think there are similar importers of unbelievably low priced prefab granite down there as well.
If you do this be sure to take a good look at the quality of the edge profiling/polishing and make sure the color match between the two slabs is acceptable.
Karl
Local granite companies are advertising $27.00 a sf for the 6 most basic granites, installed. At those prices you can't afford to do it yourself!
Low demand for granite and a glut of granite and fabricators is really pushing down prices in my area too but someone has to move so quick to make a buck selling installed granite for $27/ft that I would be pessimistic about the quality of the workmanship at that price.Karl
Me too! I've watched the prices in free fall for months now. when it got to $35.00 a sf I figured it couldn't go any lower but obviously I was wrong. I also have no doubt that everything you want done will be an upgrade.