Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Best inexpensive kitchen countertop options

I'm not a marble guy, granite is too $$$, and quartz may be too.
I do not want a tiled counter, but butcher block is a thought.

May be forced into Formica but I'm wondering if anyone has been down this road before and has found any clever options...


Thanks

Corian

Formica

I did one remodel using granite, & loved it. Current house has quartzite/Silestone/something similar, which is purported to cost less. FWIW, I like it every bit as well.

In a rental property, I'd pick the cheapest. For my own use, I'd not use laminate or Formica, on account of I like to be able to set screamin' hot pans directly on the counter if I feel the need to.

FC

No idea of the cost (knowing him not much!) but a friend of mine did concrete countertops in his place and they look great and he did them himself.

https://www.concretenetwork.com/concrete/countertops/

Not my kinda thing but you can get the butcher block slabs at Home Depot in 8ft x 25 inch for a couple hundred bucks.
Plenty cheap and easy for the typical DIY guy.

I was able to find some 2 inch butcher block at an overstock place fairly cheap. I didn't do my counter tops but I used it on a kitchen island. I'd love to have butcher block counter tops throughout the entire kitchen.

I ended up buying granite tile and using granite chair rail as a border for my counter tops.

The concrete tops do look good, have worked in quite a few houses with them.

Whatever you choose, get it in just plain white. This way, you can always see if it's clean or dirty, and can easily keep it clean that way. If it's dark or mottled, you will never know where it needs wiping.

We did ours with 12x12 granite tiles. I know - no granite, no tile. As far as cost, it's a fraction of what a granite slab costs and you can DIY.

same here. did it back in 2010 and its been great for us. Price was nothing compared to having a slab custom made. Bought a $70 harbor freight tile saw with a diamond blade and knocked it out pretty quick.

Plain old no drip Formica here.

For you granite tile guys - how did the seams work out for you?
In my minds eye I see 12" tiles with a 1"4" grout between them which I dont want.

If the granite has tight seams a nd gets sealed I'd be a lot more interested...

Gonna look into concrete too

buddy did concrete. Look decent

Do it yourself, countertops! My stepson did this .....it looks great, and was quite inexpensive! Here are a few youtube videos pertaining to the methods!

There are many more videos! memtb


https://youtu.be/cmVYRkQoW_4
https://youtu.be/kznkcaoLNao
https://youtu.be/zGbV1EIwZDg

Concrete. Got one, work great, If you get someone that know what their doing, you can get any color or patteren.

Coworker bought some used granite for his 'lakehouse' off of craigslist or Facebook. Paid $100 from somebody remodeling a high end house. Cut the pieces down to fit his small cabin.

Might still be more than you're looking to spend, but small granite shops with low overhead often sell some of the basic granites for $40/sqft.

Lumber Liquidators has a bunch of butcher block counter slabs from $10-$15/sqft, more exotic pushing $20.

For one of my businesses, which is new kitchens, I get full slabs of granite for $250 and full slabs of quartz right off the boat for $300 to $350.

This is dependent on color, manufacturer's quantity produced and availability.

[quote=
Whatever you choose, get it in just plain white. This way, you can always see if it's clean or dirty, and can easily keep it clean that way. If it's dark or mottled, you will never know where it needs wiping. [/quote]

Ditto on a light color. We lived briefly in a place that switched a light color tan counter top to a swirly black and grey flecked marble. It was pretty to look at but impractical. Anything dark colored was hard to see on that surface. If prowling for a midnight snack you had to turn on the kitchen lights just to find a red cup, dark bowl, piece of jerky or any medium dark colored item if you put it down on the counter. Never again.

Also FWIW I don't like the curved step down edge on our current off white marble. When sweeping crumbs or granulated stuff off of the edge it spreads out rather than fall neatly into hand or container.

I’d figure out how to swing granite. It’s great looking, totally functional, easy to clean, and will last a 100,000 years.