Monday, February 14, 2011

Why People Choose Granite


Building a new house or remodeling kitchens, Granite is the popular choice most of all the homeowners because it looks like very beautiful and different stone look. Slight crystals found within the granite grasp the light and modify the countertop's appearance, and no two slabs of granite are accurately alike.
Other advantages of Choosing granite counters include:
  • Reasonably priced

  • Color runs all the way through

  • Available hundreds of color choices

  • Easy to clean

  • Tough and hard to scratch

  • Burn resistant

Saturday, February 5, 2011

How To Laminate a Countertop



  1. Paste and nail jointly two layers of ¾-inch-thick particleboard to make a substrate for counter.

  2. Rough-cut laminate pieces to size using a trim router fitted with a ½-inch, carbide-tipped straight cutter.

  3. Brush contact cement onto front edge of particleboard substrate and to back side of 2-inch-wide laminate strip; permit cement to dry.

  4. Attach laminate to front edge of counter, and then push it down with a J-roller. (If laminating counter ends, cover them with laminate first, and then laminate front edge.)

  5. Use trim router to cut away excess laminate.

  6. Sand laminate flush with substrate using a belt sander fitted with 100-grit abrasive belt.

  7. Spread contact cement onto backside of laminate top and to top of counter using a 3-inch paint roller; wait for cement to dry.

  8. Put several wood dowels across cemented substrate, then lay laminate on top.

  9. Slide out dowels, starting at center, one at a time while pressing down the laminate.

  10. Use J-roller to press laminate into the cement.

  11. Trim the overhanging edges of the top laminate using a trim router.

  12. File the edges of the top laminate smooth.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

IceStone Countertops



IceStone
is the perfect choice for environment friendly (green) kitchen countertops. It is also a great choice for bathrooms, vanities, bathroom dividers, tabletops, interior walls, and gainful flooring applications. Beautiful shower surrounds and bathtubs can be made with IceStone durable outside material. It can be shaped, water jet cut, inlaid, mounted upright or parallel. While there are 24 standard colors available, the color palette is endless.

IceStone surfaces can be made in approximately any color because by adding pigment to the background mix, and then selecting from a range of sizes and colors of glass. Customers love the reliability and flexibility of IceStone surface material as they can put it on a floor, wrap it up a wall and then put it on the countertop.

IceStone durable surfaces are strong like granite, not as porous as marble and heat-resistant like stone. The chemical composition is kind and 99.5% inorganic making it a very safe material from the standpoint of toxicity and fire resistance. The manufacture, fitting and maintenance of IceStone surfaces follow basically the same process as used with natural stone. Due to its high recycled content and Cradle to Cradle Certification, IceStone materials can be used towards LEED points.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Benefits of marble countertops



Marble is made up of calcite and dolomite. It is very beautiful and it is used for building sculptures as well as furniture.

If you want to acquire a new kitchen countertop for your kitchen, some advantages of marble countertops that you should be aware of.

  • Its beauty in spite of, marble kitchen countertops represents class, sophistication, and true stylishness.

  • There are many colors to choose from where marble kitchen countertops are concerned. There are bright colors as well as dark, which include a variety of shades of pink, gray, white, gold, black, blue, purple, etc.

  • Marble kitchen countertops are very smooth and soft. Their brightness and sheen is unparalleled.

  • Marble comes from all around the world, from places like Britain, India, Italy, Spain, France, and China. You have your choice from where you want your classy marble to come from!

  • While they do need extra care at times, marble kitchen countertops are more strong and durable than most other countertops. Yes, they can get stains and their smoothness can become rough under great temperatures, but if you have the time to care for them, they will last for years!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Styles in Kitchen Countertop Fabrication



The method of kitchen countertop fabrication has not changed a lot as the time of the ancient Greeks and the only noticeable change is that the entire process has become more automatic. The kitchen countertop fabrication implies enormous stones being taken from the quarries, out of which marble and granite slabs are cut to use for different purposes. After they have been taken out, the marble and granite slabs are cut and polished to suit the needs of dissimilar customers. Although the plan of kitchen countertop fabrication and installation has not changed a lot, the equipment that people use has improved with the most modern technology.

The kitchen countertop fabrication needs saws, polishers and routers to cut and polish the marble and granite countertops. The saw has different utilities in the kitchen countertop fabrication process initial with cutting of stones into slabs, for which one usually needs a diamond saw. Besides diamond saws there are also bridge saws that are used to cut the slabs into more exact shapes, such as for marble and granite countertops, flooring and mantels.

The polishers also have an essential role in the kitchen countertop fabrication because they sand down the surface to the outside that differs according to the customers' desire. The marble and granite slabs can be polished to a mirror finish from the course rock they once were but most modern polishers can make a variety of finishes during the kitchen countertop fabrication process. The finishes that one can get include smooth, soft look, slick look and mirror finishes, which are also the most common. To shine the marble and granite slab rotating pads are the most common instruments to use in arrange to obtain the preferred effect.