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A friend gave me some granite that came from the side of a hospital in Detroit. The sections are roughly 3’x3′, they are a full 1 1/2″ thick. I want to do a wet bar in the basement. Two things. A). I would like to do the bar top 8’x 20″; the joints should I use silicone or grout? B). I am thinking about doing the sink counter also, same length, should I take any special precautions, the wet sink 16″ wide will be in the middle of the center section.
Your thoughts are appreciated. Anyone with a strong back is also welcome.
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Make sure the cabinets are dead level. Epoxy is usually used for seaming but for your application silicon would probably work fine. Grout won't work because you want have anything backing the joint. No problems using the granite for wet locations. Use a 4' grinder with a diamond blade to make your sink coutout and use a self rimming sink so you won't have any on- site polishing to do. Sounds like a great use for some recycled material. Enjoy
Ooze
*Do you see any benefit in this? Since the granite is a full 1 1/2" thick I was thinking about cutting in a spline where two pieces come together and then either leaving a gap or closing it up. Is this overkill to a major degree? If a good idea, do you think I should leave a gap?
*How are you going to cut the spline? The only tool I know of that can do this is a wet router and they run about $40k. I would probably just butt the slabs together with the caulk in between..let caulk dry and skive off with razor for a smooth ,flat joint. I can't stress enough how stable ,strong, and LEVEL the cabinet must be in order to support granite that is this thick. The spline would definetly help you line up the slabs and keep them level, but like I said this is not an easy thing to do in the field. Either way shoud be fine.Ooze
*Thanks for the help. So far everything is very solid and level in all directions. Starting on the base cabinet and plan to do the same.
*OozeI appreciate your obvious knowledge regarding this subject. I just thought I'd add a spline idea. Cut it with a diamond grinder mounted in a jig like a woodworker wafer cutter. It wouldn't be hard to jig up my 6" Metabo using the screw holes for the handle, and like you said: it would aid alignment.Just an idea. TerryForget I said anything, for 40K maybe I should be contacting a patent attorney.
*Had already considered using the grinder. Still deciding. For what it is worth, the granite came from a building built in the 20's, in the corners were holes with 1/4" wood dowels to align them, each section weighs about 250# and went on the outside facade, I had to laugh when trying to lift each piece that 2 little pieces of wood would really be enough, though I am sure they did the trick. Don't want to mess with experience.
*JeffIf you want to dowel them here are some jigs.http://www.rockler.com/ecom7/searchrslts.cfm?&DID=6Terry