11-26-2018, 10:28 AM
I like granite. I was about to get it in my old house, but I ended up selling without replacement since I didn't think I would get my money back on a partial kitchen upgrade (counters only). We built new in 2014 and got granite then. I couldn't tell you what the price was, but I do go to Home Depot a lot and they generally advertise prices as low as $50 per square foot installed. I will tell you that this is for basic colors with no real edge profile. On the other hand, I am in my kitchen for at least an hour a day (I love cooking) and I could not tell you what edge profile I have. It generally isn't something you notice. I think it's just a slight roundover.
Good installers are priceless. Whoever did ours actually did a good job considering whoever did the framing and drywalling was probably drunk. The walls are badly out of square, and the cabinet/granite installers did the best they could given the limitations. It's not really noticeable to anybody but me but there are parts that are bad. In any case, granite is an excellent choice because it's extremely heat and cut resistant, and can be cleaned very easily with rubbing alcohol or any other variety of cleaners. There are many ways to ruin a solid surface, though in all honesty it's also a very good choice.
I will say on an unrelated note that if I could do my kitchen over I would change three things - one, I would not get dark floors, two, I would not get dark cabinets with a glaze finish and no real grain variation (both of these are for the same reason - very hard to keep clean), and three, I would not bother with a circular shelf. Our corner base cabinet came with a Lazy Susan which results in a massive waste of space. Additionally, it broke - twice - with fairly light loads. I ended up removing it and adding a simple plywood shelf, and now we have effectively doubled the space in that cabinet. They might work in small confined spaces, but not larger cabinets (if anywhere at all).
Good installers are priceless. Whoever did ours actually did a good job considering whoever did the framing and drywalling was probably drunk. The walls are badly out of square, and the cabinet/granite installers did the best they could given the limitations. It's not really noticeable to anybody but me but there are parts that are bad. In any case, granite is an excellent choice because it's extremely heat and cut resistant, and can be cleaned very easily with rubbing alcohol or any other variety of cleaners. There are many ways to ruin a solid surface, though in all honesty it's also a very good choice.
I will say on an unrelated note that if I could do my kitchen over I would change three things - one, I would not get dark floors, two, I would not get dark cabinets with a glaze finish and no real grain variation (both of these are for the same reason - very hard to keep clean), and three, I would not bother with a circular shelf. Our corner base cabinet came with a Lazy Susan which results in a massive waste of space. Additionally, it broke - twice - with fairly light loads. I ended up removing it and adding a simple plywood shelf, and now we have effectively doubled the space in that cabinet. They might work in small confined spaces, but not larger cabinets (if anywhere at all).