On May 24, 8:36*pm, "Bill Stock" wrote:
I'm told we need a new kitchen countertop. :-)

Apart from the Granite vs. eStone question, picking a fabricator/installer
looks like a real minefield. I was leaning towards granite, but there's a
wide range of qualities from the little I've read. I was under the
impression that you could kick the tires on the Granite (pick your lot), but
the one website I looked at had a long list of conditions (arranging to have
your existing CT removed for measurement, having your sinks/tap onsite
before measurement, then they would order your selection). This seems like
bad news, since the selection I pick could be far different than what gets
installed.

So is engineered stone less of a crapshoot than Granite? What to look for in
an installer other than references? It sounds like a full service kitchen
place would be less hassle than a countertop installer, but we don't want
new cabinets, so why pay for the overhead.

Will your present cabinets support the half ton of stone? If not, just
buy stone patterned Formica (which looks every bit as good) and save
way over half the cost.
Overheard an interesting tale at the box store checkout a while back:
Seems to happen now and then that a mishap at the edge of an under
mounted sink on a stone top results in a nasty edge chip in the stone.
Rather costly to replace, hard to ignore. Likely not a problem in a
trophy kitchen if the maid is careful. HTH

Joe