To Granite or not to Granite

My wife and I are going to remodel our home in Oakcliff and take it modern. Focusing on the Kitchen & baths. We went this Saturday to Ikea and picked out kitchen cabinets. So here is the question. We saw a nice dark grey formica with a stainless edge that looked very cool and would work great with our budget but we are concerned about resale of the home. In a few years when go to sell it, do you guys think that for a $210,000 house, it should have nicer kitchen counter tops like granit? We had planned on doing the solid oak (cutting block) top for the island (sides and top) Any thoughts. Thanks

This is a weird one. Things like this generaly don't pay for themselves, so you should only do the upgrade if YOU think it is worth it. However, it seems that granite is one of those counter-intuitive ones. It is as if buyers see the granite and use that as a generall proxy for overall quality. Still, the benefit is probably so slight that if the choice is granite or laminite you like almost as much and adding $2,000 to your IRA, I'd go with the IRA contribution.

The problem is what you eventually want to do with the house. If you plan on staying there for 2-3 years and will do some remodeling before you put the house on the market, Formica is just fine.  In years past, it was a perfectly acceptable countertop surface. 

However the market has changed, and Formica countertops simply scream "Cheap!" to prospective buyers these days.  When you get ready to sell, tour a couple of nearby houses that are on the market and see what they have. AND ask a local realtor if upgrading to granite is a must in your market area.  In some neighborhoods, granite countertops are not worth the expense because of the overall price of the houses.  In some, however, you simply have to have granite.  And in others, tile may make a perfectly acceptable midlevel alternative. 

 

You might also explore some of the granite lookalikes, such as Silestone, or consider the option of using granite tiles with small or no grout lines - granite tiles are considerably less expensive than slabs of granite.

 

Elna Tymes

 

Previously Chris wrote:

My wife and I are going to remodel our home in Oakcliff and take it modern. Focusing on the Kitchen & baths. We went this Saturday to Ikea and picked out kitchen cabinets. So here is the question. We saw a nice dark grey formica with a stainless edge that looked very cool and would work great with our budget but we are concerned about resale of the home. In a few years when go to sell it, do you guys think that for a $210,000 house, it should have nicer kitchen counter tops like granit?

We had planned on doing the solid oak (cutting block) top for the island (sides and top)

Any thoughts.

Thanks

 

Chris - I would definetly use granite or silestone. I personally like silestone better.

I would not do formica or tiles. It looks too cheap. You will get your money back out of the investment. We use Ikea cabinets all the time and they are by far the best cabinet for the money. If you put them together and install them yourself, it is even cheaper.

Good luck - Kessler Park is the best neighborhood in Dallas for the money!

Thanks for all the comments. All good advice. My wife has recently become interested in using concrete counter tops - I did some quick looking and it seems that Concrete can cost even more than Granite. Has anyone poured their own or know of a affordable solution? (maybe I should post this question in the Building Materials Forum) We would like to keep it thin - maybe an inch or two, not like those 4" thick counter tops. Thanks ::Chris

I have poured my own concrete counter tops.  It has to be treated as a zen experience.  If you feel like:

 1)  You want this to be done tomorrow

2)  You don't want to spend the money to pay  someone to have it done tomorrow

3)  No matter who does it, you can't accept flaws and imperfections

 Then concrete isn't for you.

 I never price checked before I started out, because I was hell bent on doing it myself.  Reading on some different sites, prices will approach $75-$120 a sq ft.  And that's if you find someone who knows what they're doing, vs the guy who just got done pouring a driveway and thought he'd give this counter top thing a go.

 'Course, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing either.

 First step is to get Cheng's book.  I'm not a Cheng fanboy, but I read the book (about 20 times), followed all the steps (they're artists, not engineers - so it takes 10 minutes of page skipping in order to complete a step), bought the products from his website, and found that everything worked really well.

 It took me 6 months to complete the project, in a heated barn, with a large complement of tools, and access to a CNC machine for some of the mold work.  If you don't have the space or the tools (you don't need a CNC machine, but I pulled off some cool stuff because I had access to it), this again, isn't for you.  I worked off and on, took a month off at one point because I was frustrated, but basically worked on the project as a hobby/labor of love when I had the chance.

 Here's the main reason why I did this - cost. Well, the other reason is that I hate granite - but to each their own, right?

 Granite will run what - $75 sq ft (I can't remember if its priced by the linear or sq ft, so for purposes of conversation) for a decent looking piece?  I had 85 sq ft of space to fill.  It would have cost me $6400 some dollars.

 If I don't amortize the polisher and pads or the mixer (or my time), all the materials cost me about $1200.  That includes 2000 lbs of premix.

 That's $14 sq ft.  That's competing with do-it yourself Formica.

 To your point about the thickness of the top - its all about illusion - you can make it look thick without having the weight.  But you need to plan on a minimum of 2", or you chance having it crack during transportation.  And please don't even consider pour-in-place, it just won't give you the same effect as what pre-cast will.

 I've attached pictures of the whole bloody mess just below.  I'd set the pictures to scroll through at a fast pace, because I've documented almost the whole process.  I have a couple more things to finish up in that room, and maybe I'll get to posting a finished picture.

Hope this helps - otherwise, I hope this helps the next person research on whether to take this plunge.  The answer is yes, by the way, I would do this again.  I'm going to try a sink and a fireplace mantle next.

 Mike

 

 

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CYuXDVs2ZMWEN

 

 

 

 

Mike

Wow - quite a project.  Looks like you did a great job.  Don't think we are ready to take on that big a project, but the whole process does seem very cool.  Kind-of inspiring, maybe a sink would be a better start for us.  How many man hours do you think making your own concrete sink would entail?

 

 

Previously Chris wrote:

Mike

Wow - quite a project.  Looks like you did a great job.  Don't think we are ready to take on that big a project, but the whole process does seem very cool.  Kind-of inspiring, maybe a sink would be a better start for us.  How many man hours do you think making your own concrete sink would entail?

 There's a bunch of different ways to form it up, that take different amounts of time, with differing results.

If you don't factor in the 'doing it for the first time' loss of time, you'll need a day or two to plan, cut, screw together, and seal the mold.

Mixing and pouring will take a few hours, and you'll then be waiting a few days to cure.

Depending on how well you managed your mix and pour, you'll either have a piece that requires a lot of fill (slurry) or a little.

Polishing and slurrying will take about a week depending on the degree to which its done; it takes time between coats for it to set up before polishing can be done again.


Best advice I can give is to read about the process in full, figure out where you can get the correct tools and supplies, and then do a test piece before you work up to your actual mold.

There's lots of people who set out to mold something and it works out fine.  I'm guessing though that your expectations may be a little higher - and so in order to meet them, it takes a lot more work.  Also, if you want the piece to stand up over time, it takes a lot more prep.

good luck.

Mike