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Does anyone have Silestone counter tops and what do you think of them? I am seriously thinking about changing my counters to Silestone. I am looking for an easy care counter top. Not getting any younger now and want easy so I can garden and quilt more. Thanks for your input.
Beebonnet
We've had Silestone for 3 years or so. I LOVE it. No maintenance, always looks good. I definitely encourage anyone to have it. We got one that looks more like granite than many granites that I've seen.
Oh, Thank you Judy. That's the find of information I can really use. My formica after 12 years is staining badly. It's a light color and I want to stay with light although the silestone I am looking at is much busier than the formica. Now I just need to get the ball rolling.
I am also planning on using a man made stone product in my kitchen redo. If you are considering Silestone, you might also want to look at Cambria and Zodiac (Dupont). They are all comparable products with I think the same price ranges. My research shows that manufactured stone is the easiest countertop to deal with in terms of maintenance. It seems to be more scratch resistant than corian and much more stain resistant than anything else out there. The only negative is that it costs as much at granite with out the perceived "prestige" of being able to say "My new GRANITE countertops"... Granite you have to seal every few months - and if I'm paying that much for something I want it to be maintenance free as much as possible.
Other notes - I have had two professional kitchen "consultants" - one at a high end custom cabinet company, one an architect - neither of whom have any interest in any specific counter top manufacturer - steer me away from "Silestone" as a name brand. One said there had been some quality control issues and the other said that the Silestone was not quite a durable as the Cambria or Zodiac. They both think that the manufactured stone would hold up better and be more maintenance friendly than any other type of countertop material though - I am going with a Cambria product.
I also had a real estate agent just tell me that the granite phase may be on it's way out.
It is made of quartz, mixed with resin. I wound up doing granite in the end, but when I shopped around for solid surface I liked the colors that Cambria offered better, I felt they looked a little more like granite so if I'd gone with solid surface that's the one I would have bought.
No to be snoopy but just for the sake of comparison to other products like formica, can you give me rough estimate as to the cost of silestone per square foot? How does this compare to quartz or marble?
Silestone is quartz. It was a year ago that I was shopping around so I may not be remembering the numbers quite right, but I think the cost on the quartz counters was in the ballpark of $50-$90/sf (installed) depending on which one you got (some colors/patterns were more expensive than others). Granite you could get for ballpark $40-$120/sf installed, again depending on the pattern. There are some places where you can get some really cheapo granite slabs that would be less than that but the quality's not that good so I wouldn't recommend them. I don't know pricing on marble, but I imagine it's in that same ballpark. Marble's easier to damage than granite (acidic things like some cleaners, vinegar, lemon juice, etc will actually damage the surface of the marble itself) so you have to be even more vigilant about keeping it sealed.
Hi beebonnet~ I've been doing a little research re: countertops too. Far as I can tell, the Silestone-type products are the way to go. Even though some can be almost as pricey as granite or solid stone, they're suppose to be a lot more carefree maintenance wise. I agree with Lagilmore's post that it's about time granite became de-prestigous. Cambria sounds really good--hope you end up with new countertops!
Thank you so much, Coasty. The counters are next on the agenda, actually. Right now we are getting some new siding and before that it was a few new windows because we didn't put them in two of the bedrooms at the time of remodel and additions. This is an ongoing 12 year project. We are starting to backtrack some of it---like the counters.
I will go with the Silestone or Cambria because I don't like and don't need high maintenance. About the time we finish up we will probably sell it. LOL
