Back to the Weekly Home Page

Classifieds

Palo Alto Online

Grout is out

by Carol Blitzer

Looking for an easy way to bring your kitchen into the 21st century? In addition to replacing your 20-year-old appliances with energy-savers, you might want to consider losing the grout and converting to a slab.

But what should that slab be made of? Interior designer Susan Davis, of Spectrum Fine Homes, Inc., in Mountain View, tends to steer her clients away from polished granite and more toward a honed finish. "It's softer looking, less reflective," she said.

Another Davis favorite is limestone. "I like the Old-World look of limestones," she said, adding that with sealers they can be appropriate for kitchens and bathrooms. "If you clean your stone with a stone soap, it actually seeps into the stone and forms somewhat of a sealer," she added.

But most of all, she said, it's really important to match a client's lifestyle with the counter-top materials. "Certain people could never tolerate marks on their stone. Some think marks add to the Old-World look," she added.

Not many ask about concrete, although it's showing up at decorator show houses. "Concrete is really interesting material but it's high maintenance," she said, adding that it's as porous as stone, it needs to be sealed. It also shows hairline cracks.

Davis finds the man-made materials, such as Silestone or Zodiac, really interesting, and a good alternative to the higher-maintenance granite. "Certain granites must be sealed," she said, especially those with the most veining and lightest colors.

Sometimes it just comes down to what you like.

"I love tile," Davis said. "People still respond to tile. What they hate about tile is the grout lines. But the luminescence of some glazes, crackly lines, really appeal to some people. ... Certain tiles are gorgeous. I use a lot of tile backsplashes because my clients love tile but not cleaning the grout."
@12subhead:Granite

It's sleek, elegant and tough. It's also "the hardest material there is, formed under heat and pressure," according to Mark Georgia, a kitchen specialist at Expo Design Center, East Palo Alto.

Basically, granite is solid rock, made of quartz crystal, feldspar and mica. But the "No. 1 reason people choose it is it's beautiful and has more natural patterns," he said.

As for durability, Georgia said it's uncommon to crack with heat - such as placing a hot pot down - but even granite won't tolerate dropping a bowling ball on it from above. In fact, he suggests never standing on any counter top - say, to change a light bulb - unless you've laid down a piece of plywood to spread the weight.

Maintenance includes re-sealing every one to two years, depending on use. Granite near a cooktop could get splattered with oil, which will wear away the sealer faster.

Prices for a granite counter top, installed, run about $40-75 per linear foot. Expo estimates its sample granite counter top (L-shaped, 26.75 square feet) at $1,739.
@12subhead:Silestone

Nearly as hard as granite is Silestone, which is made in Spain of ground-up granite and resin. The major advantage is Silestone does not need to be sealed. "It could be used in a commercial kitchen," Georgia said.

"It's getting to be very popular because it's very low maintenance, other than normal washing," he added.

Silestone comes in a choice of more than 30 colors and carries a 10-year warranty against manufacturer's defects.

Expo's sample Silestone counter top would run $1,418.
@12subhead:Corian and other solid surfaces

Another popular choice is a solid surface made of minerals blended with an acrylic polymer. Several manufacturers make them in literally hundreds of colors, including Corian (by DuPont), Surell (by Formica), as well as Avonite, Gibraltar and Fountainhead.

In addition to the many colors, ease of maintenance assures solid-surface popularity. "It scratches, but it's easy to fix," Georgia said, noting that one could scour it with cleanser and a ScotchBrite pad. The lower the gloss, the easier to maintain, he added. Darker colors show the scratches more.

For people averse to grout, solid-surface counter tops offer a smooth, apparently seamless surface. The sink can even be bonded to the counter without a joint. Some people prefer the counter to be coved into the backsplash, but that can add considerably to the cost, Georgia said, with an additional $50/linear foot.

Ideally, "you want a light pattern with some visual texture," he advised.

Cost of Corian is $48-68 per linear foot. Sample counters at Expo ranged from $1,284 for Corian to $1,324, for Avonite.
@12subhead:Lava stone

For those who love the look of ceramic tile, but hate the grout, a San Jose company manufactures large lava-stone tiles, under the name of Vulcanite. Volcanic lava is quarried, cut into 16-inch by 25-inch to 36-inch by 25-inch tiles, then glazed at a high temperature.

"It tends to soften the tile and give more of a hand-made look. Once you make something into a massive size, it develops a coldness," noted Paul Burns, president of Fireclay Tile. Of course, a counter made up of small tiles has even more warmth, he acknowledged, but then you've got all those grout lines.

Lava stone can tolerate hot pots, similarly to a high-fired glazed tile, Burns said. "It should last forever. The lava is actually harder than granite or clay," he added, and because there are very few grout lines, there are few edges that are vulnerable to chipping.

Maintenance of lava stone depends on the glaze finish. Some require just soap and water; others need to be sealed every six months with a penetrating sealer.

According to Burns, lava stone offers an alternative to granite, for people who want more color flexibility and a softer look. "It's not better, it's just different," he said.

Lava stone comes in 20 colors, as well as 200 custom colors. Price is on the higher side, at about $120 per square foot installed, Burns said.
@12subhead:Cast concrete

In addition to stone and man-made products, counter tops can be fabricated of cast concrete or even stainless steel, for a more commercial-kitchen look. So far, both of these choices tend to be expensive because each counter is custom-cast or fabricated. It's difficult to compare the costs without the contractor measuring a specific space.

Bill Brown, of Bill Brown Construction, Saratoga, said the cost for cast concrete is comparable to the higher-end stone counters. Although cast concrete is porous, it can be sealed every year or two. He doesn't recommend a combined cast-concrete counter and sink, though, because the sink simply doesn't wear as well as a porcelain one.

Cast concrete is "not like a plastic or a milled stone. It's more organic feeling," he said. "The whole crafted feel is one of the biggest pluses."

Another plus is the range of colors that can be created by mixing white cement with a variety of artists' hues. He's even working on creating a purple one for a local designer. And other materials, such as brass, steel or copper, can be integrated into the counter top.

Still, concrete will crack over time. "Most people want builders to provide them with bomb-proof, maintenance-free products," Brown said, adding that "everything eventually becomes passé. Maintenance is part of life."

Sometimes it isn't a matter of choosing one material. Designer Davis has used cast concrete as a backsplash. "Concrete's a neat material because you can do interesting things with color. It has what looks like an inlay of different colors," she said.

And although many of her clients are getting rid of tiles to avoid those grout lines, "I don't discourage people from using tile. There are stone tiles, where the edge is very sharp and you can butt them up real close, with less than a 1/8-inch grout line," she added.

Carol Blitzer can be e-mailed at cblitzer@paweekly.com.
Resources: Cast concrete: Bill Brown Construction Co., Saratoga; (408) 873-4790, ext. 102 Granite, solid surfaces: Expo Design Center, East Palo Alto; (650) 289-6300 Lava stone: Fireclay Tile, San Jose; (408) 275-1182, www.fireclaytile.com Stainless steel: Pacific Coast Stainless Steel, (650) 578-0211