I’d like to use a solid surface countertop on a desk and a sideboard, but am astounded at the prices of ~$60/sf for this material.
Is anyone aware of less expensive materials? I wonder if I’m getting a price that incorporates a minimum charge or incorporates installation and perhaps the price would be cheaper if I found a fabricator willing to accept a small job. I just want 2 pieces (2′ x 5′) and (2′ x 7′) with simple roundover profile that I will fit on the cabinets myself. I’ve heard of Wilsonart SSV, but not widely available.
Any suggestions for the CT / MA / RI area?
Replies
CBEALS
Not sure if this product is around your area, but you might look for a product called Gemstone. It is manufactured in Elkhart Indiana, comes in several colors, and from my experience is more cost effective than corian or wilsonart. The toll-free # is 877-233-7893. They may be able to put you in touch with some local fabricators in your area. I did a search for their web-site but came up empty. Hope this helps.
Mitch
Concrete countertop. See Taunton's new book & give it a shot. Or ask Mongo, he da man on these. Joe H
Yep it is pricy.
You know what this stuff is? It is epoxy (2 part) with a plastic pellet filler. It is set to form in a mold where it cures (thermoset) and then they plane, sand and machine it into the forms you use as countertop. There is a wealth of tooling and orchestration to make it in production.
Unfortunately it is a batch production process. It isn't continuous like formica or even plywood.
The good news is that there are many mom & pop shops that make it. Keep looking.
Lots of other options, if you're not stuck on the SS.
You could check out Richlite or soapstone. You could also check out a granite shop- if there's leftovers/cutouts from a larger job, you might be able to get a decent price. What about marble?
...get an up-north attitude...
I vote concrete also if you want it cheep ,and it will look good also
Over the past ten or so years a number of vendors have entered the solid surface market driving the price down. It seems to me that you have latched onto one of the expensive vendors.
There is a vendor who manufactures a solid surface that is only 1/4 inch thick with a plywood back but I am not sure of the name of the product or the vendor name.
My suggestion is to phone the counter top manufacturers in your area. I am sure you will find a similar product for far less than $60 per square foot.
In those sizes you should be able to get it from a fabricators scap bin for about 1/4 to 1/2 of that price.
Then cut it and route it with carbide tools.
Try cultured marble. It can be made in any size, cut with wooodworking tools, has hundreds of colors to choose from and is inexpensive. A low impact area like a desk or sideboard should be ok for cultured marble because it is more likely to scratch than solid surface. In our area, GA, we pay about $20 per sq ft for 3/4 material.
can someone out there offer me some details on how to undermount a ss sink under corian?, just like the one seen at the dupont website. I've been sitting on enough to do my kitchen, one of these days i'll get to it.
There are lots of ways to do it. I'd ask your Corian installer how he likes to get it done, and do it his way. Failing that, the way I like is to put a plywood top on the sink base, just like the top on all of the other base cabinets. Then I cut a hole to drop the sink into, and rout the plywood so that the sink's flange is flush with the top of the plywood. Run a bead of caulk or construction adhesive on the underside of the flange and drop the sink into place. The finish countertop material -- corian, slab stone, or whatever, covers the flange. Caulk seals the top of the flange to the underside of the countertop.
10-4.
Part of the expense is that certified installers have to go to school to learn the process, and they charge accordingly. I thouight I saw a brief note in FHB within the last two years that said smaller pieces were available from the factory for a decent price. The catch is that they are small enough that you could not use them for a kitchen counter. I forget the dimensions, but it seems that they were 2 ft x 6 ft, large enough for a small island counter.
I went thru the same dilema when i was remodeling my kitchen. I ended up using bamboo plywood, its 1 1/8" thick comes in 3' x 6' sheets and is harder than oak. You can get a flat grain or a vertical grain so the choices are limited but you can stain it however you like. Last time I checked sheets were going for $85 a piece. Good luck
I need to know more about that stuff, it sounds great. I'm assuming that this is just a bigger sheet version of the stuff they use for flooring, right? How stable is it? How likely is it to warp? I'd ask if you know of any distributors in Tennessee, but I should probably hit Yahoo for a little searching first.
The wheels are turning.....forget gluing up maple for that new workbench I've been wanting to build!
Bart you are right, if you have seen the bamboo flooring you know what the plywood looks like. I have it in my kitchen for about 2 years now an it shows no sign of warping. It is some pretty cool stuff, next project is a entertainment center. I first stumbled across it when i was buying some bamboo flooring. I'm pretty sure you can find it online
Check out this link, Corian is Less than $30.00 per square foot. Pieces are easy to put together. This ends up cheaper than trying to make wood that durable.
http://stonewood.safeshopper.com
I hope that this helps
Ken
the solid surface companies all make a 1/4 inch thick sheet that's meant to be used on bathroom walls, like on shower and tub surrounds. There's no reason why you couldn't mount one of those sheets onto some 3/4 plywood to make the countertops you're looking for. You'd need to edge it, but a nice maple or cherry edge would only enhance the look i think. I've been thinking of doing this for my kitchen counters but I worry about whether the 2 surfaces might separate under high heat conditions. Any comments on that?