Nobody that does serious cooking ever wants tile countertops. They are
difficult to clean, you cannot use a tenderizer on them, slippery,
usually not level, and generally the grout will develop leaks and mold,
a pain in the rear.

Just an opinion, but one backed by the last six years of cooking in a
kitchen with tile.

JJ
Cheap teak shipped to your door

Larry Church wrote:

"Ron" wrote in message
10.205...
As the title suggests, SHE is going to allow me to make our new kitchen
tops.

Any preferences to wood type?


Ron

I recently built counter tops for Mintlake Lodge. After much research, I
chose 12" porcelain tile with Laticrete epoxy grout. The counters are
wonderful, and even though I like wood as much as anybody, I just can't
imagine why you use it for kitchen countertops. Durability and maintenance
issues are HUGE drawbacks. Porcelain with epoxy grout never needs sealing
and you can put anything right off the stove or out of the oven anywhere on
your counter. Porcelain is nearly impossible to scratch, and in the event
you drop a pressure cooker from the top shelf and damage the surface,
chipped tiles can be removed and replaced for a 100% cosmetic and funtional
repair. Color choices for tile / grout combinations are nearly infinite,
and asthetics can be enhanced by adding borders and angles to your grout
lines. Also, you can't cut yourself (short of damaging a finger nail) on a
masonry wet saw.

I get my wood for free, but I will spend $4 or $5 a square foot to do
procelain counters again and again on future projects.

Larry Church
Mintlake Lodge