NWMR: Kitchen countertops

thedash · April 2014

So, long story short we are doing a kitchen renovation much sooner than we had planned. My FIL is an electrical contractor and found a "great deal" on cabinets which he bought (non-returnable) before checking with us. They don't fit our kitchen the way he expected them to so we have now knocked down walls, extended other walls, and had to purchase a few more cabinets to fill in gaps. It's a bit of a nightmare.

Anyway, we have to decide what to do about counters now. We are not planning to live in this house forever. We would like to start renting it out and move closer to DH's office in the next few years. Because of that and because we were planning to save for another year or so before doing this project, I really don't want to spend the money for granite. I know there are other solid surface countertop materials that look good and are less expensive. Does anybody have a recommendation? I'd like something durable so renters won't burn or chip it easily. Another option is to buy super-cheap laminate countertops and be prepared to replace them every 5 years or so.

jf198400 · April 2014

We just went through this decision with our house, we are also planning to move in a few years. I'll give you a tip we discovered. Home Depot has granite countertops with 4 color choices for a really low price, I think it was $29/sqft. The catch is that they are precut, so they can't do islands or peninsulas, only standard countertops against the wall. For our kitchen this worked so we went with that. We chose the black and brown color and it looks really pretty.
I'm not sure why you think you'd have to replace laminate every few years. Our kitchen had laminate that had been there since the 80's. Just make sure you choose something multicolored. Ours were white and they had stains from everything- juice, coffee spills, tomato sauce. I hated them so much.

itsmevkb · April 2014

We put Silestone in our kitchen which has proven very durable but I'm not sure it's really all that much cheaper than granite

thedash · April 2014

jf198400 said:

We just went through this decision with our house, we are also planning to move in a few years. I'll give you a tip we discovered. Home Depot has granite countertops with 4 color choices for a really low price, I think it was $29/sqft. The catch is that they are precut, so they can't do islands or peninsulas, only standard countertops against the wall. For our kitchen this worked so we went with that. We chose the black and brown color and it looks really pretty. I'm not sure why you think you'd have to replace laminate every few years. Our kitchen had laminate that had been there since the 80's. Just make sure you choose something multicolored. Ours were white and they had stains from everything- juice, coffee spills, tomato sauce. I hated them so much.

I guess I would just be prepared to replace portions of the laminate every few years if it got chipped or burnt. And if it started to look terrible after a while from food stains. We would be getting a pretty high rental price and I think beat up old laminate would turn off some renters.

I will definitely look into that granite at Home Depot. It may work for our simple layout. That would be ideal!

jlaOK · April 2014

Have your looked into Corian type countertops? Corian is a brand name. I can't remember what the are called but they are basically an acrylic solid surface countertop. My sister did them and was happy with the product. I can't remember how much they were but they were cheaper than granite.

We are going to replace our countertops soon in order to sell our house next year. We are going to do the Home Depot $34/sq foot installed granite. We are also going to shop around at some smaller places to see if we can beat their price but so far they've been the cheapest.

jf198400 · April 2014

We were very happy with Home Depot. We got the countertops and backsplash for $1200 and took the 6months interest free financing.

vvvvvfee · April 2014

have you looked into ikea? they have some really inexpensive options- butcher block and laminate. i think they will custom cut them or you can just get them as slabs.

jobiann · April 2014

We have corian, love them!

emberlee3 · April 2014

My house has beige laminate that is 11 years old and still looks good (considering it is laminate, that is). It's kind of speckled, rather than solid, so that hides stains a bit better. I like concrete. I'll probably use that if we ever remodel.

justjinny · April 2014

Every rental I'd ever lived in had plastic laminate counters. In my house now I've got plastic laminate counters from the 80's that are off-white and they aren't stained or chipped... I'd like to replace them eventually though! Some of the high-end corian and solid surfaces can cost just as much as budget rate granite.

One upside to the solid surface over granite is the maintenance. You don't have to worry about renters not maintaining the sealing that some stones need to have. I've also heard that chips or scratches in solid surfaces can be repaired but I don't know if it's a DYI job. DO NOT get an integral sink bowl if you do go with solid surface - if renters ever crack the bowl you'll have a bigger replacement problem on your hands!

sugarbear0524 · April 2014

We have off-white laminate, which we hope to replace in the near future. Stains aren't a problem, though, since I discovered that the Mr. Clean magic erasure will take them off.

SunAndRain · April 2014

I would kill my FIL And then I would still install granite.

It's what we have in one of our rentals and I think small upgrades make the home more attractive to potential renters.

But I love granite, so I'm biased..

jetgrrrl · April 2014

We bought a house in Sept. with a newly redone kitchen and our countertops are Corian, which my parents have also. I would advise against it for a rental property. Our countertops are white (which, granted was a stupid decision which I'm sure you wouldn't make!) so they're particularly prone to show ANYTHING, but they give you a cutting board as part of the deal and after well under a year the cutting board is incredibly scratched up. My point being that if your renters use your Corian countertops as a cutting board, it will look like it. I would go for the cheapest granite you can find OR the tile idea, which I would hate to have personally but would be fine for a rental.

FemShep · April 2014

Agreed that I would kill your FIL-or just wouldn't have used the cabinets. Also, please don't get tile. We had tile countertops and they are the WORST. They're a huge pain to clean, stuff doesn't lie flat, the grout gets stained... ugh. I would rather have any other surface than tile.

NWMR: Kitchen countertops

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