Countertop usually refers to a horizontal worksurface in
kitchenA kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation.In the West, a modern residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design. Many households have a...
s or other food preparation areas,
bathroomA bathroom is a room for bathing in containing a bathtub and/or a shower and optionally a toilet, a sink/hand basin/wash basin and possibly also a bidet....
s or lavatories, and workrooms in general. It is frequently installed upon and supported by
cabinetA cabinet is usually a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors or drawers for storing miscellaneous items. Some cabinets stand alone while others are built into a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood or, now increasingly, of synthetic...
s. The surface is positioned at an ergonomic height for the user and the particular task for which it is designed. A countertop may be constructed of various materials, both natural and manmade, each with its particular attributes with respect to functionality, durability, and aesthetics and may incorporate or house appliances or accessory items relative to the intended application.
Kitchen countertops
The common fitted Western
kitchenA kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation.In the West, a modern residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design. Many households have a...
, developed in the early 20th century, is typically an arrangement of assembled unit cabinetry covered with a more-or-less continuous countertop work surface. The "unfitted" kitchen design style exemplified by
Johnny GreyJohnny Grey is an architect, designer and author.-Background:Grey trained as an architect at the London Architectural Association School of Architecture. After graduating in 1977, he set up a design studio and furniture workshop...
may also include detached and/or varied countertop surfaces mounted on discrete base support structures. Primary considerations of material choice and conformation are durability, functionality, hygienics, appearance, and cost.
When installed in a
kitchenA kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation.In the West, a modern residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design. Many households have a...
on standard (U.S) wall-mounted base unit
cabinetsA cabinet is usually a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors or drawers for storing miscellaneous items. Some cabinets stand alone while others are built into a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood or, now increasingly, of synthetic...
, countertops are typically about 25-26 inches (635–660 mm) from front to back and are designed with a slight overhang on the front (leading) edge. This allows for a convenient reach to objects at the back of the countertop while protecting the base cabinet faces. Finished heights from the floor will vary depending on usage but typically will be 35-36" (889–914 mm), with a material thickness depending on that chosen. They may include an integrated or applied backsplash to prevent spills and objects from falling behind the cabinets. Kitchen countertops may also be installed on freestanding islands, dining areas or bars, desk and table tops, and other specialized task areas; as before, they may incorporate cantilevers, freespans and overhangs depending on application. The horizontal surface and vertical edges of the countertop can be decorated in manners ranging from plain to very elaborate. They are often conformed to accommodate the installation of
sinkA sink is a bowl-shaped plumbing fixture used for washing hands, for dishwashing or other purposes. Sinks generally have taps that supply hot and cold water and may include a spray feature to be used for faster rinsing...
s,
stoves (cookers), ranges, and cooktopsA kitchen stove, cooking stove, cookstove, or cooker is a kitchen appliance designed for the purpose of cooking food. Kitchen stoves rely on the application of direct heat for the cooking process and may also contain an oven, used for baking.In the industrialized world, as stoves replaced open...
, or other accessories such as dispensers, integrated drain boards, and
cutting boardA cutting board is a durable board on which to place material for cutting. Common is the kitchen cutting board used in preparing food; other types exist for cutting raw materials such as leather or plastic....
s.
Materials
Countertops can be made from a wide range of materials and the cost of the completed countertop can vary widely depending on the material chosen. The durability and ease of use of the material often rises with the increasing cost of the material but this is not necessarily so; some costly materials are neither particularly durable nor user-friendly, albeit stylish. Some common countertop materials are as follows:
- Natural stones:
- Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
- Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
- Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
- Soapstone
Soapstone is a metamorphic rock, a talc-schist. It is largely composed of the mineral talc and is thus rich in magnesium. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occurs in the areas where tectonic plates are subducted, changing rocks by heat and pressure, with influx...
- Gabbro
Gabbro refers to a large group of dark, coarse-grained, intrusive mafic igneous rocks chemically equivalent to basalt. The rocks are plutonic, formed when molten magma is trapped beneath the Earth's surface and cools into a crystalline mass....
- Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
- Silicate mineral
- Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
- Wood
- Hardwood
Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...
- Softwood
The term softwood is used to describe wood from trees that are known as gymnosperms.Conifers are an example. It may also be used to describe trees, which tend to be evergreen, notable exceptions being bald cypress and the larches....
- Metals:
- Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
- Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
- Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
- Aluminum
- Crafted glass
- Manufactured materials:
- Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
- Cast-in-place
- Precast
- Processed slabs
- Compressed paper or fiber
- High Pressure Laminates
- Post-formed high-pressure decorative laminates
- Self-edged high-pressure decorative laminates
- Quartz surfacing or Engineered stone
Engineered stone is a composite material made of crushed stone bound together by a polymer resin. It is used primarily for kitchen countertops. Related materials include geopolymers and cast stone...
is 99.9% solid @ 93% aggregate / 7% polyester resin, colors and binders
- Solid-surface acrylic plastic
A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...
materials
- Solid-surface Polyester
Polyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate...
acrylic
- Terrazzo
Terrazzo is a composite material poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of marble, quartz, granite, glass or other suitable chips, sprinkled or unsprinkled, and poured with a binder that is cementitious, chemical or a combination of both...
- Tile
A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops...
- Cast-in-place materials
- Natural stone suspended in a resin
- Post-consumer glass suspended in a resin
- Epoxy
Epoxy, also known as polyepoxide, is a thermosetting polymer formed from reaction of an epoxide "resin" with polyamine "hardener". Epoxy has a wide range of applications, including fiber-reinforced plastic materials and general purpose adhesives....
- Phenolic resin
Natural stone
The natural stone or
dimension stoneDimension stone is natural stone or rock that has been selected and fabricated to specific sizes or shapes. Color, texture and pattern, and surface finish of the stone are also normal requirements...
slab (e.g. granite) is shaped using cutting and finishing equipment in the shop of the fabricator. The edges are commonly put on by hand-held routers, grinders, or CNC equipment. If the stone has a highly varigated pattern, the stone may be laid out in final position in the shop for the customer's inspection, or the stone slabs may be selected by experienced inspectors. Then the countertop assembly is installed on the job site by professionals.
Commonly, initial countertop fabrication takes place at or near the quarry of origin, with blocks being sawn to thickness and then machined into standard widths (600mm and upwards), before being surface polished and edged.
This method removes the need to ship waste material, and reduces the time needed to prepare client orders.
A wide range of details may be pre-machined by the fabricator, allowing for installation of different sinks and cooker designs. A common drawback to natural stone is the need for sealing to prevent harboring of bacteria and/or fluids that may cause staining.
Wood
Wooden countertops can come in a variety of designs ranging from
butcher blockA butcher's block is a style of assembled wood used as heavy duty chopping blocks, table tops, and cutting boards...
to joined planks to single wide stave. Wood is considered to be the most eco-friendly option when it comes to choosing a kitchen countertop as wood is a renewable resource. Wood countertops must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected after contact with foods such as raw meat. Although the use of wooden work surfaces is prohibited in commercial food production areas in the EU, and the US Department of Agriculture advises against the use of wooden chopping boards, research by the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin has shown that wooden work surfaces are no more dangerous, and in some cases safer than plastic alternatives. They have shown that while bacteria do get absorbed by the wood, they do not multiply and eventually die. While brand new plastic work surfaces are indeed easy to disinfect, once they have become heavily knife scarred they are nearly impossible to completely disinfect. This is not a problem with wooden work surfaces where the number of knife cuts made little difference.
Post-formed plastic laminate
"Postformed" (or literally "formed after being laminated" to the substrate) high pressure laminate countertop, often referred to as "plastic laminate countertop" is a material made more of wood product than plastic. The composition is of kraft paper, decorative papers, and melamine resins, bonded through high heat and pressure. This product is sometimes referred to as "Formica" or "Arborite," but these are trade names of a manufactured high pressure laminate, of which there are many manufacturers.
The postform countertop is typically a high volume factory-produced product, which accounts for the economy of the product. The material composition consists of a single thin sheet of laminate (typically .030" - .040" in thickness) that gets bonded to a 45# density particle board substrate (or other similar base material such as MDF - medium density fiberboard, or plywood), with a PVA adhesive (poly vinyl acetate - a water-based adhesive). Traditionally postform countertops were manufactured with a solvent-based contact cement (a highly flammable, volatile organic compound - VOC). However, in today's marketplace PVA adhesives have taken over for reasons of environmental responsibility (no VOC's), safety (non-combustible), economy, and strength of the glue line.
A typical system consists of the following:
1) An automated infeed system for sequencing the particle board into production.
2) The CorFab Machine, an automated feed-through machine that cuts to size, cuts and bonds build down sticks with a hot melt adhesive to the under side of the substrate, and shapes the edge detail, all in a single motion.
3) An automated laminating system that applies the adhesive to both the substrate and laminate.
4) An indexing unit that aligns the laminate to the substrate with the proper overhang.
5) A Pinch Roller that makes the bond between the laminate and substrate.
6) The Postforming Machine, that not only heats and forms the laminate around the substrate, but also cuts away the backsplash (when the to is to be used against a wall) from the main deck, all in a feed-through motion machine.
7) The AutoCove Machine, which heats and forms the backsplash upward 90 degrees, locking it into place with what is referred to as a cove stick, utilizing hot melt adhesive technology to hold it all together.
8) The final stage of the system usually consists of a trim saw that cuts the countertops to rough lengths, typically 8', 10' and 12', ready for distribution.
Once manufactured the tops need only to be cut to length, mitered, fitted for assembly, and end capped (only if it is a visible finished end). A very specific machine for cutting the postform countertop is manufactured by only a few companies, it is commonly called a Cutting Station, Top Saw, or simply Miter Saw. This machine accurately cuts the countertop to field dimensions, making it easy for the installer to make the final scribe cuts on-site to complete the work. Sink cut outs can be made either in the field or at the installers shop.
Overall, the postform countertop is the most economical countertop on the market, and has the broadest selection of surface material to choose from. Surfaces can be either a solid color, or a pattern, and textures range from a satin funiture finish to a heavily textured stone or pebbled appearanece, to a high gloss resolution. Because of this diversity the postform countertop can satisfy a wide variety of design applications, and due to its economy, can be easily replaced to provide a fresh appearance in any room.
Self edge or wood edge laminate
Self or wood edge plastic laminate countertops are also very popular for those who chose to have few or no surface seams. In this style, the top shop uses substrate for the countertop out of MDF, or
particle boardParticle board, or particleboard , is an engineered wood product manufactured from wood particles, such as wood chips, sawmill shavings, or even saw dust, and a synthetic resin or other suitable binder, which is pressed and extruded...
and then glue sheets of laminate to the substrate using Contact Cement. The laminate is then trimmed using a
routerA router is a tool used to rout out an area in the face of a relatively hard workpiece, typically of wood or plastic. The main application of routers is in woodworking, especially cabinetry....
. This method can't reproduce the curved contours of post-formed countertopping but can be made to easily conform to a much-wider range of floor plans with fewer seams.
Crafted glass
Custom architectural crafted glass, tempered glass, textured glass pieces, and the ancient art of
Verre églomiséVerre églomisé, from the French term meaning glass gilded, is a process in which the back side of glass is gilded with gold or metal leaf.In one method, the metal is adhered using a gelatin adhesive, which results in a mirror-like, reflective finish in which designs are then engraved. The metal...
, or reverse gilded glass, are applied to contemporary uses including countertops, backsplashes, and tabletops. Glass work may be customized to suit by craftsmen in the studio, then installed on site either in small components (such as a kitchen countertop composed of three rectangles of verre églomisé) or as immense, single units (for example, a glass countertop and sink basin formed of one continuous piece of textured glass). The glass is non-porous, relatively stain-proof, extremely hygienic, and "extremely heat resistant (up to 700 degrees)."
Much work is being done to "recycle" glass using sources such as post consumer glass or post industrial float glass. The material can be crushed or cut into strips that is heated until the softening point of glass, binding the loose material back into a solid form.
Tile
TileA tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops...
, including ceramic tile and stone tile, is installed in much the same way as flat lay laminate except that the gaps between the tiles are
groutGrout is a construction material used to embed rebars in masonry walls, connect sections of pre-cast concrete, fill voids, and seal joints . Grout is generally composed of a mixture of water, cement, sand, often color tint, and sometimes fine gravel...
ed after the tile has been glued down.
Solid surface plastic materials
Solid surfaceSolid surface is a man-made material usually composed of marble dust, bauxite, acrylic or polyester resins and pigments. It is most frequently used for seamless countertop installations.-Performance characteristics:...
plastic
acrylicPoly is a transparent thermoplastic, often used as a light or shatter-resistant alternative to glass. It is sometimes called acrylic glass. Chemically, it is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate...
or
polyesterPolyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate...
materials are usually prefabricated at the installer's shop and then assembled on site. The plastic material is readily glued and the glue joints are then
sandedA sander is a power tool used to smooth wood and automotive or wood finishes by abrasion with sandpaper. Sanders have a means to attach the sandpaper and a mechanism to move it rapidly contained within a housing with means to hand-hold it or fix it to a workbench. Woodworking sanders are usually...
, leaving almost no visible trace of the joint. The edge treatment for solid-surface countertops can be very elaborate. The material itself is usually only about 12 mm (1/2 inch) thick so an edge is usually created by stacking up two or three layers of the material. The built-up edge then can be shaped to a rounded edge or an
ogeeAn ogee is a curve , shaped somewhat like an S, consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite senses, so that the ends are parallel....
. Fancier edge treatments are, of course, more expensive.
Natural quartz surfacing
Natural
quartzQuartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
surfacing is made from 100% natural quartz cut from blocks into slabs. The slabs are custom cut to create countertops. Quartz is naturally non-porous and scratch resistant. As with solid surface countertopping, the materials are prefabricated and installed by professionals. Thicknesses may be 1.2 cm (1/2 inch), 2 cm (3/4 inch), 3 cm (1¼ inch) or 4 cm (1½ inch).
Engineered quartz surfacing
Engineered stoneEngineered stone is a composite material made of crushed stone bound together by a polymer resin. It is used primarily for kitchen countertops. Related materials include geopolymers and cast stone...
quartz surfacing is made from approximately 95% natural quartz and 5% polymer resins. Testing has shown that they retain much of the toughness of quartz but display increased ductility due to the resin, improving impact resistance. Countertops are custom made and are more scratch resistant as well as less porous than natural quartz surfaces. Thicknesses may be 6mm, 1.2 cm (1/2 inch), 2 cm (3/4 inch), 3 cm (1¼ inch) or 4 cm (1½ inch). Brands include Hanstone, NaturaStone, Silestone, Q, Caesarstone, Technistone, Cambria, and
ZodiaqZodiaq is an engineered stone made by DuPont composed of 93% quartz crystal and 7% acrylic resin, colors and binders. The product is manufactured in DuPont's Granirex plant in Thetford Mines, Canada. It is used most often as kitchen countertops but also as walls...
.
Concrete
ConcreteConcrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
may be utilized as a surfacing material in one of several forms: cast-in-place (in which the fabricator creates forms atop the previously installed cabinetry, places, and then finishes the material in situ), custom precast ( in which the fabricator creates site templates, duplicates the pattern in a production facility offsite, and installs the finished product atop the cabinetry), and the machining of pre-manufactured gauged slabs (similar to
natural stoneDimension stone is natural stone or rock that has been selected and fabricated to specific sizes or shapes. Color, texture and pattern, and surface finish of the stone are also normal requirements...
fabrication).
Concrete, especially precast, lends itself to a high degree of customization due to the phase-change nature of its creation, filling a specific form with a fluid material which hardens (through
mineral hydrationMineral hydration is an inorganic chemical reaction where water is added to the crystal structure of a mineral, usually creating a new mineral, usually called a hydrate....
) to a durable cast stone. Color choices, edge styles, three-dimensional sculpting, and integral features such as sinks, drainboards, and decorative embedments are design options which may be incorporated. Due to its site-specific and generally handmade nature, concrete countertops are often produced by small shops and individual artisans although there are several large-scale manufacturers of gauged slabs.
Other materials
Stainless steel, stone, terrazzo, and other materials are usually prefabricated and assembled on site as well. The difficulty of prefabrication rises with the more exotic materials. As with solid-surface synthetic materials, the edge treatments can vary widely, but the material is usually thicker so there is often no need to build up the edge with multiple layers of the material.
Many predesigned, prefabricated units (including sinks, drainboards, and other accessories) are available in stainless steel. These may be used "stand-alone" or integrated into larger custom assemblies. Some stainless steel systems stand on integrated legs and do not require the support of cabinetry.
Sink installation
In any of these styles, "self-rimming" sinks can be used. They are mounted in templated holes cut in the countertop (or substrate material) using a
jigsawJigsaw may refer to:* Jigsaw , a tool used for cutting arbitrary curves* Jigsaw puzzle, a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of interlocking pieces- Film and television :* Jigsaw , a 1949 film noir...
or other cutter appropriate to the material at hand and are suspended by their rim. The rim forms a close fit, reinforced with a sealant, on the top surface of the countertop, especially when the sink is clamped into the hole from below.
Most materials also allow the installation of a "bottom-mount" or "under-mount" sink. With these, the edge of the countertop material is exposed at the hole created for the sink (and so must be a carefully finished edge rather than a rough cut; this cut is generally done at the fabricator's workshop). The sink is then mounted to the bottom of the material from below. Especially for under-mount sinks,
siliconeSilicones are inert, synthetic compounds with a variety of forms and uses. Typically heat-resistant and rubber-like, they are used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, medical applications , cookware, and insulation....
-based sealants are typically used to assure a waterproof joint between the sink and the countertop material. The advantage of an "under-mount" sink is that it gives a contemporary look to the kitchen but the disadvantages are extra cost in both the sink and the counter top.
Solid-surface plastic materials allow a third option: sinks made of the same plastic material as the countertop can easily be glued to the underside of the countertop material and the joint sanded flat, creating the usual invisible joint and completely eliminating any dirt-catching seam between the sink and the countertop. The disadvantage is that the sinks do not have the same impact resistance of stainless or cast iron and may differentially expand and contract with extreme temperature change (as might be caused by a pot of hot water dumped into the sink). In a similar fashion, with stainless steel, a sink may be
weldedWelding is a fabrication or sculptural process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence. This is often done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes...
into the countertop; the joint is then ground to create a finished, concealed appearance.
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