Stone counters

[vaking]

I am beginning to plan work on my kitchen. SWMBO wants stone counters but not terribly expensive. I looked around on the Internet and 2 candidates so far seem interesting:
1) DIY Granite. I am not too crazy about fabricating granite counters on my own, so I am thinking of bying prefabricated pieces from http://www.doityourselfgranite.com and installing it myself.
2). Soapstone. It was a news to me there is a stone you can cut like wood but once I learned it - idea seems interesting. Main problems as I see - it seems to be much more expensive - Granite installed is as much as soapstone without any work. The other problem is that soapstone comes in pieces 1.5' wide and you are supposed to glue them. Theory says seems should be invisible but I don't know if this is easy to achieve.
Does anybody has experience working with stone counters?

[cabinetman]

I've done both, and soapstone is much easier to work with than granite. Slab sizes here are 30" x 60" to 56" x 108". It's tricky to get an "invisible" joint. Even with experience, seaming is iffy. Since you are starting with an expensive product, make sure your sizes are right, and place seams at the best locations.
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[Lonnie in Orlando]

Alex:

You have more nerve than I do. I would pay the pros to do the counter top. If they screw up, it's their nickel.

FWIW - we have soapstone counter tops. They look great and are appropriate in the remodel of our 1908 kitchen. The tops and backsplash were cut from two large quarry slabs / not 1.5' strips. The installer did a pretty good job on the joints. Smooth and not very apparant.

Don't seal the top. Treat with mineral oil ... "once a day for a week; once a week for a month; once a month for a year; once a year for life."

Soapstone is soft, so try to avoid dragging pots across it, etc. I understand that shallow scratches can be sanded out. Might be difficult to achieve the same sheen as the surrounding stone.

Good luck,

- Lonnie

[jhart]

Guess my imagination is working overtime this morning. When I saw the headline, I was thinking about a bunch of guys in a quarry sitting there counting the stone. Maybe, I just had too much coffee this AM.

[Handy Al]

I have been considering this granite tile system. It has a nice edge treatment.

http://www.benissimosystems.com/default.aspx

[chopnhack]

Alex, IMHO, this is an expensive project no matter which way you slice it. Further, if you are to sell your house down the line you dont want the kitchen (which the lady of the castle will look at first) to be of questionable design or look DIY'ed. The old adage is true about kitchen and baths selling homes. Save your money and DIY something else that you are more comfortable and more skilled at. Granite fabricating is down with some very expensive industrial tools. I've seen some 2nd generation craftsmen and some bandwagon jumpers work and its really noticeable! Set aside money until you can afford the good stuff!!
just IMHO, GL any which way you go.

[just started]

Check out this place;

http://www.granitetransformations.com/

we had our kitchen counters and a custom table done and they are fantastic!

[Greg in Maryland]

Check out this place;

http://www.granitetransformations.com/

we had our kitchen counters and a custom table done and they are fantastic!

Very interesting. What was the price per sq ft installed?

Greg

[vaking]

Thanks guys,
Granite transformations looks interesting and there is a store 3 miles away from me. I will stop by. My remodel will require replacement of existing countertops anyway - I plan to relocate sink. I don't know if granitetransformation makes sense as replacement countertops - product seems to be designed as upgrade of existing counters. I understand your advice that stone counters is not the best target for DIY. Makes sense. I am sure I will find plenty more to do myself. The time I can give this project is limted anyway.

[cabinetman]

Not trying to talk you out of DIY, as you could carry off the procedure without a hitch. I've got to say, I've worked along side on installations where I did the cabinets, and the client had granite suppliers provide and install counter tops. Screw ups are not that uncommon. Even with experienced handlers and installers with all the right tools there are problems.

It's a tricky medium to work with considering the weight, tools needed, and quirkiness of the product. If you can afford to have it done, it may save you a headache and bunches of money. When Corian® first came out, just about any shop could buy it and install it. Times have changed and certification has been implemented for the product. It's not that difficult to fabricate and install, just a PITA with the details. This sort of helped limit the "fly-by-nighters".
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[JimD]

We have granite tile on everything but the island and a slab on the island. The buiders tile guy did the kitchen but I put marble tile on the bookshelves in the family room. The ganite tile is essentially the same durability as the slab but doesn't look as nice. The tiles are 3/8 thick and we've put pots directly from the stove onto them with no apparent ill effect. They have 3/4 plywood substrate. Plywood plus backer board would be better. Edges on ours are oak but narrow strips of the tile polished on the edge probably looks nicer. Tile places can polish the edges. It is like laying ceramic tile except a wet saw is pretty much required since natural stone tends to fracture along existing veins when it gets hot from a dry blade. If you had tile edges it would look more like a slab but would still be easy to distinguish from a solid slab.

I had the slab made locally to my dimensions and then installed it myself (son helped). Our island is only about 30x40 inches, however, which made the slab very managable for two men. The place that sold it to us had a low price, I think it was about $20/square foot, for the granite slab but then an additional price if they came out and measured and a further additional price if they installed. If your pieces would be managable in size, and you have a fabricator like this where you are, it could be another option. I've thought about re-doing the rest of the kitchen but that pretty much requires I make new cabinets (the plywood substrate is screwed into the verticals of the cabinets under the tile so it will be very difficult to remove existing counters without destroying the cabinets). I have other higher priority projects than new cabinets at the moment.

Jim

[Hellrazor]

Guess my imagination is working overtime this morning. When I saw the headline, I was thinking about a bunch of guys in a quarry sitting there counting the stone. Maybe, I just had too much coffee this AM.

Hah I thought the same thing.

[just started]

Very interesting. What was the price per sq ft installed?

Greg

I will have to dig out the paperwork and check, it's been a few years since we had them done. We are in the process of doing a new large shower and are thinking of having the walls done by them instead of tile.

[DaveS]

You should check around with your local fabricators.

We just got uba-tuba put in our kitchen for $45 per square foot, including installation.

Check out my island - it is a single slab, and weighs 900 pounds!

There is only one seam in the whole kitchen.

http://picasaweb.google.com/seekins/NewKitchen#

I looked at the DIY stuff, and after I figured it out, I wasn't able to save as much money as I thought I would. In addition, LOML really wanted the undermount sinks, which would be hard, or impossible with a DIY kit.

[jlm]

About two years ago, I installed a modular granite DIY countertop when I remodelled the kitchen in my previous house. The system was really pretty easy, and I was very pleased with the results. I got the pre-cut pieces from Artisan Granite, including the undermount sink, for around $1400 delivered (from Rhode Island to Chicago). I was very pleased with the support and instructions included, too. Any questions I had were promptly answered with a quick phone call. The only problem with DIY granite like this, or other tile systems, is you do have noticeable seams. The epoxy I used for the joints blended pretty well visually, but it wasn't what I'd call invisible. If you look at the attached photo, you can see some of the seams. But since the "tiles" were so large, there were only five or six seams. The house sold very quickly a couple months ago, so it must've been a good enough job!

That said, I've moved into a new (old) house and planning yet another kitchen remodel, and this time I'm looking at soapstone, because that's what SWMBO wants. I'm looking at getting the DIY slabs from M. Teixeira. There are lots of good videos of installation techniques here.