Countertops

[BillGalbraith]

I've been looking at countertop material. I'll be building some cabinets that are only waist high, with countertops that will have light duty, like holding up the computer, one near the door to collect **** headed for the house, etc. I was looking at laminate, which is a little pricey (over $1/ft), and I understand it's a pain to install and trim correctly. Started thinking about cheap tile .... composite wood flooring .... then drifted to the 12 inch VCT tiles. You can get them at Lowe's (again, sorry for sounding like a Lowe's commercial) for $0.68/ft, and they have a LOT of colors available. Of course, if these get scratched, the color goes all the way through, so I figured if they are tough enough for the floor, they'd last a long time as a countertop. Maybe a little polyurethane on them to seal them and make them shine.

No plans of using this for the workbench tops, though.

Any thoughs on the composite wood or VCT, or anyone else use anything else creative?

 

[TONE]

I did one out of aluminum. Looks just like stainless. Theres photos in the link below.

 

[BillGalbraith]

I love the photos, but you have almost no words on them. Did you buy the aluminum stock and bend it yourself? Did you use a brake, or just secure it to the top and pound it down with a rubber mallet. How are they holding up? Did I see something that you spend $150 on them? How many square feet is that?

 

[aqr81]

Tone - every time I see pics of your garage I drool

Bill - Interesting idea on using the VCT on this surface. I don't recall reading that approach here yet. That could look pretty good and I imagine would function fine as a non-workbench surface.

 

[TONE]

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54947

 

[BillGalbraith]

Okay, I'm in the process of building some cabinets with countertops, and thought I'd show some in-progress pictures. Note that this is NOT A WORKBENCH, so I don't want to hear about how this isn't going to hold up to any heavy work. I'm not expecting it to. It will hold up the laptop that plays music, a nice place for the sink and will hold food and drinks if we ever have a party in the garage. The cabinets will hold car manuals, etc.

I call the countertop material "Krick-Rok". The carton said "Click-Lock" and "Made in China", so that joke wrote itself. It's a laminate flooring. I think it will hold up pretty nicely, since it's designed for foot traffic. I got the idea originally because you can get some flooring from Homer for less than $1 sf, but the stuff I liked was $2.48 sf, and I had to wait a week to get it. There is 3/4" plywood under it, and I was able to do the whole thing with only one sheet and some scraps. The sink is a black composite that was on clearance for $54, marked down from $219. I'll get a black faucet, but that is many weeks down the schedule before the septic line is hooked up.

The cabinets will be finished out with black framing, and oak doors stained to the same red. I haven't decided if I like the vinyl toekick material as a backsplash. Since it's flooring, I think it's appropriate. I need to put a moulding on the front face and paint that black as well. The a/c unit needs to be painted black. You can see the black frig to the left of the sink. The HUGE bathroom is behind it (4x5 for a toilet and shower). That's the next project.

I have electrical outlets buried below the countertop as well, with the wiring for the 4-corner speakers. I'll put in some lights on a switch that turn on when you open up a door. I've used Christmas lights in the past for stuff like this, and will probably repeat that here. I expect to have a hole on the countertop to run cords through, for power and speakers. I have the laptop set up for car babe pictures as the screen saver, with over 500 pictures which rotate. It's quite mesmorizing sometimes.

 

[ket-tek]

I thinks it look good. How you plan to trim out the edges?

 

[Stick Figure]

for my tool box top i ended up just doing MDF and stain. I used just a black a stain and let it soak so even if it got scratched it wouldn't really show. Seemed to work, the G/F kept asking how to get her arms stronger so i had her pull an inline 6 crank and throw it on the bench ... needless to say it scuffed it pretty good, but no visible wood marks. For holding a stereo or something like that i would guess just about anything visibly pleasing would work.

 

[BillGalbraith]

I thinks it look good. How you plan to trim out the edges?

My fallback idea is just a wood moulding, like a chair rail, painted black. I'm looking for something like a rubber rub rail from a boat, or something like that, but it also has to be cost effective. I don't want to spend $1000 on the edges.

 

[SL6RAM]

I used 3/4" plywood with a pine strip routered front edge. I coated it with 4 coats of poly. It's held up really well, looks pretty good, and was cheap. I can also redo the finish if it gets really beat up.

 

[csp]

One of mine is a stainless elevator door. It's about 25" deep and 103" long and very heavy. The core is steel.

 

[rickycobra]

I would use some nice wood but it might look odd later one depending on what the other counter tops looks like.

 

[BillGalbraith]

I thinks it look good. How you plan to trim out the edges?

Just for a complete answer to your question, I also considered using a stair nose moulding, which matches the flooring, but that is $29.94 for a piece 78.75 inches long. I would need 4 of them. Ouch. That's about as much as I spent on the flooring material itself.

 

[lupinsea]

I used steel c-chanels for the edging of our kitchen cabinets. Cost about $70 in steel, my time, and some screws.

Also used a flooring product for the counter tops. In this case, linoleum sheet product.

 

[ket-tek]

Just for a complete answer to your question, I also considered using a stair nose moulding, which matches the flooring, but that is $29.94 for a piece 78.75 inches long. I would need 4 of them. Ouch. That's about as much as I spent on the flooring material itself.

Yeah $120 bucks in rubber is up there. But do it once do it right i guess.. If your gonna live there for quite a while, I'd go with you you would really want, instead kinda wishing later that you had done what you like the best at the beginning.

The rest of it does look nice tho.. Be sure to post some pics of what you end up doing with it..

 

[BillGalbraith]

Yeah $120 bucks in rubber is up there. But do it once do it right i guess.. If your gonna live there for quite a while, I'd go with you you would really want, instead kinda wishing later that you had done what you like the best at the beginning.

The rest of it does look nice tho.. Be sure to post some pics of what you end up doing with it..

I ended up with some moulding from HD, at $1 a foot. It is being painted right now, and should be installed on Thursday, along with the rest of the face of the cabinet. Still have to make drawers and doors, and stain them to match the flooring. Will post photos when I'm done.