What is the difference between Solid Surface and Cultured Marble? We have the latter in our bathroom and I really like it, but aren’t they both just molded resin? Is it different names for the same thing? Cultured Marble doesn’t seem to come up when we talk to kitchen counter places, and I’m wondering why but don’t expect to get a knowledgable answer from the sales people I’ve spoken to.
We are in the market for new kitchen counters. Our 40 year old laminate ones needed replacing 11 years ago when we bought the house and the subsequent years have not been kind. The price of solid surface has come down to the point that it is within our budget and we are considering it along with laminate. Granite is not an option because I can’t see paying that much for something I don’t really like, and concrete is too high maintenance. I consider solid surface to be like high-end laminate: they are both non-porous plastic, but with solid surface the sink area is easier to clean.
Anything you can tell me, even opinions, are welcome and valued.
Thanks,
Amy
Replies
Amy, I can't give you the chemical composition, but it's not the same.
Cut and rout a pc of solid surface -polish it and it will look like the top.
Cut and rout a pc of cultured marble and you cannot get it like the top.
Two different things.
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To the best of my knowledge, cultured marble is marble dust mixed with resin. Pretty durable but certainly not impervious to staining or other damage. Solid surface is a more generic term and varies widely in terms of what the contents are. Some are nearly indestructable, such as Zodiaq which (again according to my memory) is quartz particles in an epoxy binder. others, such as Corian for example is relatively soft.
There is such a wide range that I think the comparison is affected by which specific solid surface material you're referring to...
PaulB
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Granite and most solid surface counter materials are very close in price now. Other features like seamless undermount sinks and solid one piece backsplashes are solid surface advantages. Laminate is still less expensive than SS or granite.
What Paul wrote.
CM has marble dust and resin in it, solid surface (like corian) is just a polymer, all "plastic".
CM is harder and more brittle, and can be polished. The 100% polymers are softer, and usually can only be brought to a matte finish instead of a gloss.
Solid surface refers to products made (primarily or entirely) from acrylic. Cultured marble consists of marble dust glued together with resin, with a gel-coat surface.
Fabricating cultured marble components is a very similar process to making things out of fiberglass. It is not at all the same thing as solid surface. The gel-coat is thin, susceptible to damage and - to the best of my knowledge - cannot be repaired. Solid surface is the same stuff all the way through.
Cultured marble is really great for shower walls and bases, OK for vanity tops, and - in my opinion - a poor choice for vanity sinks. It has no place in the kitchen because the surface isn't tough enough.
aimless
Cultured marble is white and has a colored and glazed finish.
SS is solid material all the way thru.
Both are poured into a mold.
I get SS bathroom tops from Onyx. They tell me the SS they use is too soft for kitchen use.
That's all I know.
I am not that excited about granite either.
I would get some HO feedback from people who have lived with the SS you are considering. Some people tell me they love it and others tell me it is too soft. It might depend on your lifestyle.
Rich
Soapstone?
Note that there is also the "quartz" (sand) countertop material, under a couple of different brands. This is sand and sand-like materials embedded in an epoxy-like resin. The material is the same all the way through, but isn't as easy to shape and polish as is your conventional "solid surface" material. It is more resistant to heat damage than SS (though not impervious to heat damage) and generally harder and less apt to scratch.
Also much heavier, which is not an inconsequential consideration.
Solid surface is what they are replacing cultured marble with. It is all about style
We've had a solid surface, Avonite (same as Corian), in our kitchen since 1996, and we've liked it so far. It'll never be glossy, like granite, but it cleans well. Any scratches, I understand, can be sanded out, but we haven't had that situation yet. I had been told that it's able to be burned by a hot utensil on it, but we use trivets, also made of Avonite, and they've never shown signs of burning when a hot pot or oven dish has been placed on them. Our sink is of the same material, integral to the counter top, and it's also held up well. It needs to be bleached occasionally (filled up with a dilute bleach solution and rested for awhile), as advised by the manufacturer. We also run hot water when emptying the pasta pan into the sink, as we'd been told that it's sensitive to abrupt temp changes. Again, no problems. The sink has handled an ISE 3/4 HP disposer very well, despite its weight and the vibrations from running. I wish that I had chosen solid surface for the shower surround instead of tile, as the extra expense would have been less than switching to it now, and the maintenance would have been lower. Solid surface also allows some interesting variations, like contrasting borders, inlays, and edge contours.
Thank you all for your replies - I figured there was a difference and I asked the right bunch.
In answer to a few of the questions: soapstone is a no both because of color and distance to ship from Vermont to Utah. Granite - I just don't like it, both the look and the hardness. I have seen a granite that I loved in the Hilton in NY, which looked like it came from Garnet Mountain and had big beautiful garnets embedded in it. However what looks great on a hotel lobby floor wouldn't be so hot in my modest kitchen. So even though it is only a little more than solid surface for some of the cheaper granites, I just can't see paying that premium for something that I don't like and which, to my eye, looks out of place.
Laminate is definitely the most affordable and where we started from, but solid surface is just barely in our price range and would be a step up, as well as making our house more salable. I know that there are people who don't like it, but if we treat it like plastic with no hot pans and wiping up spills then we should be OK.
Of course, replacing the warped, white-flecked-with-color 60's laminate that is in there now with anything would be an improvement. My dream counter, which I asked for years ago when it was cheap, would be a copper countertop. Unfortunately I don't think that is a possibility, both in material and finding somebody willing to try doing it.
Concrete with carbon black will give you somewhat of a soapstone look for just a few dollars per square foot in cost.
Cast inverted it's very DIY friendly.
It can be an interim solution too.
There are soapstone tiles, but even though you can fabricate minimal grout joints with them, I'm just not a big fan of tiled countertops.
If you;re not familiar, check out M. Teixeira's west coast office,, they offer DIY soapstone slabs and free shipping.
Having spent years working in labs, I always thought soapstone was a plain black, but I see from your link that has more variety than that. Thanks for the links, although it won't go in this kitchen, it is good to know for the future.
I thought about looking up your old thread on concrete counters, but figure it would take me about 12 tries to get an acceptable counter, and I just don't have the time to get it right. Maybe on the next kitchen.
Thanks!
We've got two Corian brand vanity tops (with molded-in-place sinks) in our two bathrooms. 33 years old and still looking good (even if the color is a little dated).
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
Avocado, pink, or something like that?
THere are many greener options than those discussed so far and I'd suggest you look at them. If you like stone type surface, try Fireslate (http://www.fireslate.com. More like Corian (an environmental disaster) is Ecotop (which is a lot better than the older version -- paperstone).
Thanks for the info. I don't really like stone type surface and the Fireslate is out of my price range, but I appreciate the link. Plus I seem to recall that Fireslate has real problems with staining. I couldn't find prices on EcoTop, which makes me think that if I have to ask....
I have other green products in my home such as bamboo, engineered wood, low flow toilets, and flourescent lights (which I dislike but use anyway) and would certainly consider a "green" product in the kitchen if it meets other specs. However I think one can go overboard on this. Which is greener, the laminate counter that lasts 40 years or the trendy, unproven paper product that is involved in a class action in less than a decade? And in this "everyone remodels" society, where a buyer will rip out a perfectly good counter to put one in of a different color, which is the greenest choice? Probably the laminate again - it costs a lot of resources to cut and ship granite from South America as opposed to applying some plastic to paper backing. The solid surface we are looking at the most closely is WilsonArt, which is Greenguard certified, for what that is worth.
Again, I appreciate your suggestions.
There are a lot of very nice laminates, pricey, but not like granite.You say you don't like granite with a pretty broad brush... have you seen any that is leather polished?... very relaxed.Solid surface can be had in different thickness, meaning different prices. I've installed tops made up with 1/4" corian glued to a 3/4" ply substrate...There are also cultured granites...and, not all soapstone comes from Vermont<G>http://www.tvwsolar.com
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It's not that I don't like all granite, I just don't like it enough to pay for it. I have rocks in other parts of the home under foot and on shelves, so I definitely like hard bits of earth. I just for some reason have never seen it in a kitchen where I really liked it. I do also like soapstone, but it doesn't fit with our kitchen.
One thing to keep in mind about stone, "quartz", and probably "cultured marble" (never really checked out the stuff) is that it is much harder than laminate or "solid surface" materials. This is good in that it is less likely to scratch and it wears better, but it's at the very least jarring to the senses when you set a dish down on stone and it clangs so loudly -- hard to say how much more likely you are to break a dish.This is one thing I don't like about our new quartz countertops.
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
We've had Corian in our kitchen for 23 years. Corian is made of isocyanurate (super glue) so it is a little soft and prone to scratches if someone is careless with cast iron skillets or dumb enough to slice vegetables on it. Minor scratches can be sanded out, deep ones can be repaired by someone who knows how.
One thing I like is that I can roll out pie crust and pizza crust on it or knead bread dough without having to get out a bread board or something. Afterwards, it cleans up easily.
We have a surface mount cast iron/porcelain sink because it was cheaper than one molded into the Corian. We wish we had spent the extra dough and gotten the integral sink instead.
They offer patterns now that look like stone and of course the plain white, almond, etc.
"We have a surface mount cast iron/porcelain sink because it was cheaper than one molded into the Corian. We wish we had spent the extra dough and gotten the integral sink instead."
The new sink for laminate is $460 and the integral sink for solid surface is $500, so I think we'll get the integral sink. We've discussed it a bit and decided on the solid surface. It is several hundred dollars more than the laminate, but I think it could make the difference when we sell our house.
I had a lot of scraps of Corian and the like when I was a fabber of tops and installer. The neat things are the jigs and templates that I could make from the scrap in guitar work.
I also made nuts, saddles and position dots from Corian as well as getting into coloring the seam fill and adding auto paint "Pearl" additiive ( fish scales actually) for custom inlays.
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"I also made nuts, saddles and position dots from Corian"I assume those are guitar parts, but I can't help picturing a cowboy on a Corian saddle. :)BruceT