Going through the many types of replacement counter tops shouldn’t make you tear your hair out, but you’re going to want to make sure you know about all of your choices. Here’s some of your options.
“Formica” has to be the market leader out there. A tiny layer of sandwiched plastic/paper that’s been compacted under tremendous pressure, and then bonded to a structure of substrate. You may have grown up with one. They’re relatively durable, affordable, come in almost any color and they work!
Corian type really started making huge inroads a decade ago, and is still a very popular choice. It’s hard to keep track of all the brands out there, it’s hard to keep track. It’s a big step up from laminate, and the integral sink is a dominant feature to many people.
Engineered stone/quartz: There’s expanding number of manufacturers that will manufacture a granite-like product for you. The technology to manufacture the engineered stone is usually licensed to one company per country. You can get slabs from Canada, USA, Israel, Korea, China, Spain, Italy, and others quite readily. It usually prices out like a level 3 or level 4 natural stone, but you can have hundreds of color choices within the same price range. Most granite fabricators will be happy to fabricate the color of your choice.
Natural stone: Usually referred to as “Granite Countertops”. The polished slabs are currently imported in mass from Italy, India, China, Brazil, Canada, & and a few varieties from the USA. There are thousands of varieties available, and each block or batch can be totally unique. With careful planning, one can make appointments to visit 3 import slab yards in a day to find the perfect mix of colors, depth, swirling, graining, texture, and randomness that can has yet to be matched by solid surface, laminate, or engineered stone.
Some people can pick their granite color with ease, others may take their time. It’s common to discover that you’ve fallen in love with 20 different varieties, and making the final selection can get difficult. Picking the fabricator is actually more critical than picking the granite. You’d have to go out of your way to pick a “bad” granite, but thousands of homeowners have picked a “bad” fabricator. Ask the fabricator how long they’ve been in business. Have them describe why their tooling provides the something you would want to buy. What are the names and experiences of the templater, sawyer, polisher, installers? Do they have samples of their work in a showroom to look at. Many of the top fabricators belong to industry trade groups like the Marble Institute of America (MIA), or to the Stone Fabricators Alliance (SFA). Many small shops like granite chicago or larger ones like granite kitchens turn out artisic quality work because of the experiences and knowledge that are shared within these organized artisan groups.
Picking out your new countertop should be fun, and if what you have now isn’t what is used to be, we hope to see you in someones showroom!