Our Kitchen Granite Countertops Are Really Great Looking And Durable

by Nancy
(Kansas City, MO, USA)

I purchased a pre-owned home that had good "bones" to the kitchen in that the kitchen cabinets and kitchen cabinet hardware were still in good condition. There was also a ceramic tile backsplash that looked good as well.

Unfortunately, the former owners had done a shoddy job installing the kitchen counter tops themselves. They had screwed two sheets of 1/2-inch plywood over the existing mauve Formica countertops and then covered them with plain old white glazed ceramic tile.

We definitely had a mishmash of competing kitchen colors going on in our kitchen. It just wasn't working with or kitchen design ideas. When we decided to replace our kitchen counter tops, we began by shopping for onyx countertops because we were enthralled with the unusual patterns, colors, and veining.

We discovered that using onyx countertops was not going to work for our kitchen design ideas because of the limited availability of sizes to fit our rather large surface area. We also learned that onyx countertops were a softer product requiring more care than other natural stone kitchen counter tops. We also discovered that they did not have very good stain resistance.

Our salesman suggested using kitchen granite countertops and what a world of difference this made in selection and cost. Once we decided on a beautiful granite color with lots of browns, grays, and speckled gold flecks, we then picked from countertop edges that were available.

After visiting a number of different suppliers, we handpicked the three granite slabs that would be used for our job. I must mention that it was quite a job to remove the existing tiles, cement, plywood, and original countertops.

The installers that we used were professional, on time, and cleaned and applied granite sealers to our new kitchen granite countertops to finish off their installation. We've had our granite countertops for about two years now and are very pleased with our choice.

After cooking, I use a daily natural granite cleaner with a neutral ph. Once a year I reseal my countertops with a spray granite sealer I purchased at my local big box hardware store. It takes a few minutes to spray on the sealer, and then I wipe it off with a soft dust cloth after about 15 minutes.

I cook almost every day and have had no problems with stains, scratches, or cracks. I am very pleased with my granite countertops and am looking forward to using kitchen granite countertops again for my upcoming bathroom remodel.