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I'm looking forward to seeing concrete counters someplace. Been hearing more about them, haven't seen them but the concept fascinates me.
Concrete countertops can to beautiful, I'm a cement mason and artist and I really fell in love with these countertops when I first saw them in the early 2000's since then I've made at least 30 of them in the last 10 years, at first most were for urban loft dwellers but it seems that they are becoming popular with more traditional homers. The great thing is all the possabilties they possess; they can been made to to mimic almost any stone such as granite but unlike stone they can be shaped in any form that is not possably with most other countertop materials so you go as far as your imagination can take you. The texture and the look can range from polished high-gloss marble to an exposed aggregate look and everything inbetween, shards of glass, colored stones or colored sand or all of them together can be mixed in and then latter grindded down smooth in any design imagable. They are a great alternative as far as I'm conserned, I've put them though out my own home. If you have any construction skill or are handy, they are very inexpensive as far as material goes yet they are labor intensive meaning they will take some time by the time they are ready to installed, that's why they are expensive to buy but if you have time and some know-how I would suggest building them yourself unless they design you desire is complicated but if it's just a basic countertop it can be done by a none professional for little money. The downside of the concrete countertop is they must be sealed offen because they can be stained easily just like the oil stain you see in the concrete driveway, they can also crack just like any concrete can(yet i never had that happen)and they are heavy so sometimes floor cabnets must be reinforced but other than that they are wonderful.
I like a lot of the concrete and recycled glass countertops I have seen but the people who buy in my neighborhood seem to have pedestrian tastes of the HGTV type. So I'm thinking granite or quartz are probably my best bets. I'm not a big fan of granite; from what I've seen I like quartz better but around here it is usually more expensive than granite.
The risk with letting the buyer put their own upgrades in -
is sometimes they lack vision, or the upfront cash. OR the other house they like already has upgrades.
Letting the buyer? It's their house
NEVER spend money based in a hope that your design choices will suit someone else.
The odds of hitting the mark are damned slim.
Improve to suit your needs, taste and mostly your USE.
This especially applies to the costlier material choices.
---
In this specific instance...
the OP's use, need and taste have been satisfied by beat up 40 year old laminate.
They aren't replacing cabinets or appliances or floors or lighting... or anything else.
There is no good reason (as stated by them) to not replace old laminate with new laminate.
Last edited by MrRational; 01-03-2013 at 09:13 AM..
NEVER spend money based in a hope that your design choices will suit someone else.
The odds of hitting the mark are damned slim.
Improve to suit your needs, taste and mostly your USE.
This especially applies to the costlier material choices.
---
In this specific instance...
the OP's use, need and taste have been satisfied by beat up 40 year old laminate.
They aren't replacing cabinets or appliances or floors or lighting... or anything else.
There is no good reason (as stated by them) to not replace old laminate with new laminate.
The issue is, the cost to demolish the old countertops and install new laminate is the same as the cost to demolish the old countertops and install new granite. The big difference is in the cost of materials, laminate vs granite, and there isn't a whole lot of difference in price per square foot. I wouldn't replace mine with crap and I've priced good quality laminates and they're running about $10 a square foot less than granite. That's a difference in the overall project cost of about $400-$500. From a resale standpoint, those few hundred dollars might come back and bite me in the butt...HARD. The odds are in favor of selling in the next 2-3 years, possibly even sooner than that. I don't want to drop a few thousand on this project only to find that I'm having trouble selling or am not achieving top dollar because I wanted to save the cost of an iPad.
There is nothing worse than a dated kitchen/bath that someone has put granite in hoping to make it look "upscale". It never does. Unless you are going all in with a remodel stick to laminate. The new owners will most likely want to do it all at some point and may HATE dark counters (I know I do) so uba tuba would be awful. I'm a huge fan of everything looking like it belongs to the same era, like it was all put there at the same time, even if the era isn't popular. At least it won't look like a bad DYI or flip job.
Tile is also a good choice and I don't care what anyone says about grout.
There is nothing worse than a dated kitchen/bath that someone has put granite in hoping to make it look "upscale". It never does. Unless you are going all in with a remodel stick to laminate. The new owners will most likely want to do it all at some point and may HATE dark counters (I know I do) so uba tuba would be awful. I'm a huge fan of everything looking like it belongs to the same era, like it was all put there at the same time, even if the era isn't popular. At least it won't look like a bad DYI or flip job.
Tile is also a good choice and I don't care what anyone says about grout.
My parents' kitchen has tile counters. No. Way. In. Hell.
I'm in the laminate camp. But I was under the impression you could install new laminate right over the old. Not so? In any case, not everyone wants stone. I don't like it. I don't like the hardness and I have heard the same opinion from others. And if I were shopping for a home, I'd really be turned off by a dark colored stone. I can't stand the dark but I'd have a very hard time getting rid of it just for the color, lol. I'd so much rather see a neutral laminate that I can live with and know that if and and when I choose to upgrade I can get what I want.
I'm redoing my own counters soon and I plan to use laminate everywhere except the island.
With all of that said, I'd ask some Realtors in your area for an opinion.
I also have to say I don't understand the concern over stain on laminate. I've seen many, many 30-40 year old laminate counters without stains. I don't understand how it gets "beat up" either, lol. The stuff seems indestructible to me.
There is only one reason I will think twice about laminate when I redo my kitchen. I really want an undermount sink and I don't think you have that option with laminate.
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