Michael Holigan: For millions of years this slab of granite has been buried deep in a mountain range. Now, it's on the way to becoming the centerpiece of the kitchen.
Mitch Mahoney: It's one of the best products as far as putting in your home - the durability, lasting.
MH: Mitch Mahoney owns the plant that buys granite from all over the world and cuts the sheets of rock into kitchen countertops. At Mahoney's plant the sale of granite countertops has quadrupled in the past two years as the stone becomes more affordable and popular. The price of granite can vary, depending on where it is quarried. Some of the most expensive comes from under the ocean. Different combinations of minerals create a variety of colors that sparkle in way manmade products can't duplicate. The granite was formed when geological activity transformed molten lava into rocks so hard only a diamond tipped saw will cut it. That hardening process is what makes granite difficult to damage in the kitchen. One feature that homeowners like about granite is it doesn't scorch or burn. You can pull a hot pan or plate out of the oven and set it right on the countertop and it's gonna be okay. This torch is about 1200 degrees and that's a lot hotter than any pan that comes out of your oven. So when Glenda Bulger bakes cookies and pastries for her children, she can set the hot pans directly on top of her counter without ruining the surface.
Glenda Bulger: Some days I feel like I never get out of the kitchen. So anything that is...can make my job easier, I'm interested in it.
MH: Glenda can use her counter as a cutting board because knives don't scratch the granite. She says it is easy to clean.
GB: And since I'm teaching my children to clean up after themselves it makes it easier for them too.
MH: But, is granite the right countertop for you? That's the kind of question interior designer, Linda Meyers, answers all the time.
Linda Meyers: So, depending on the look they want, the lifestyle that they lead and what their budget is, I can direct them to the product that would be best for them.
MH: Because granite is one of the more costly countertop materials, Linda recommends it for kitchens that home owners want to keep for a long time. Choose the color you can live with because granite is expensive to replace. Solid surface is another type of countertop in about the same price range. It is made from an acrylic which can be heated and molded to almost any shape. The heating creates a smooth appearance with no seams, and it allows homeowners to combine colors.
LM: And you can mix the colors. You can put a sandwich in the edge. You can put an inlay in the top so you could use a green with a cream inset or something like that to really make it custom. They're easy to maintain. A solid surface is nonporous, so it cannot be stained.
MH: But solid surface will scratch and burn. The good thing about solid surface countertops are they come with a repair kit. Take a piece of sand paper, buff out the scratch. After you get down just a little ways, take out a Scotch Brite pad that comes in the kit, go over the whole area. And once you're done, just clean off the dust and it looks like brand new, 'cause it's the same color all the way through and through. Like granite the price of solid surfaces vary. But to give you an idea of cost differences, we'll use Glenda Bulger's kitchen as an example. She paid about $6,700 for her granite countertops. That's with installation. If she had chosen solid surfaces she would have spent an average of $5,500. Ceramic tile cost less than half that amount, but some consider ceramic tough to clean. For a fraction of the expense, about $1,400, Glenda could have chose another popular material - laminate. Laminates are created by pressing thin layers of paper together under high pressure.
LM: Laminate comes in lots of colors now and you can create some really sharp looks with laminate. As you can see, we have laminates that look like wood grain, can kind of simulate the butcher-block countertop. It's lots easier to maintain and a lot less expensive than a real butcher block. And we have some that are highly polished, that look like burled wood, a lot that look like solid surfaces and then some like this that take on a look of granite.
MH: You can really dress up a laminate counter with different edges.
LM: Well, in this kitchen we used a laminate countertop with a bevel edge and a bevel backsplash. And we combined three colors, the red, the cream color and the green. And, as you can see, we brought in the colors of the wallpaper with the red, the green and the cream color.
MH: While laminates are priced right, their life span is only about 10 years. Solid surface will survive 50 years or more. Granite will outlast us all. The right choice depends on how much you want to spend, the look you want and whether you and your family will be using the same countertops for years to come.
Episode 52 1997 - 98 Season
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