Home Building - Bathroom - Bathroom Countertops

When it comes to bathroom countertops there�s no limit to how creative you can be, because most countertops are custom-designed for each installation. There are hundreds of colors, patterns, and materials to choose from, but not all of them work well in the bathroom where water and condensation are a constant concern. Your best choices are marble, granite, ceramic or porcelain tiles, solid surface materials and laminate surfacing.

Finally, go to a tile store and look at their �porcelain� tiles. If you turn them over, you will see base clay ranging from white to brown to gray. The definition of �porcelain� in the tile industry has nothing to do with the clay content or level of firing. Rather, tile manufacturers define as �porcelain� any tile fired to the point where it absorbs less than 3% moisture.Composite Stone is the hot new surface when it comes to tops and a big rival to granite. It is a stone-synthetic composite made of about 90 percent quartz particles and 10 percent acrylic or epoxy binder. Some of the composites look like natural stone, but not one that you could identify. Others are so close to real granite that you're left wondering if it�s real or not? Since the composites are man-made materials, they do not have the unexpected variation of granite or marble and they do not need to be sealed. The four major choices - Silestone, Okite, CaesarStone and DuPont's Zodiaq - all use the same process. The only differences between them for the end users are the colors and textures offered. Taken together, the four companies offer more than 130 countertop choices. Cost is between $110 to $250 a linear foot, installedPlastic Laminate is the most common and least expensive countertop material, by a considerable margin and is available in just about any color and texture you can imagine. The four major manufacturers - Wilsonart, Formica, Nevamar and Pionite -each offer more than a hundred colors and patterns. The latest rage is having your plastic laminate custom-designed to your own color, texture and style, but be prepared to spend a few bucks here. Laminate is a breeze to clean because of its smooth surface. Cost is between $25 and $50 per linear foot, installed.Bone china has bone ash added to the kaolin and vitrifies (becomes glass-like) somewhere between cone 2 and cone 5 (2034 to 2205 F). Though not as hard as true porcelain, bone china is more durable than soft-paste porcelain. The bone ash greatly increases the translucence of the porcelain.Tile adhesive is a chemical that is responsible for the binding force between the tiles. It should be placed with perfection; otherwise the tile gets cracked after sometime. Sometimes, the adhesive remains trapped between the tiles leaving no place for the grout. This error ruins the look of the tiling project. Hence, it is important that you remove the excess adhesive between the adjacent tiles.

Wood is attractive and versatile, but it is very vulnerable to water damage and its porosity makes it hard to clean - especially in the bathroom. If you have to have a wood top in your bathroom be sure it�s well sealed with polyurethane or marine varnish. Note: extra care should be taken to seal around the edges of plumbing fixtures so standing water can't seep in and cause wood rot. Cost is between $25 and $40 a linear foot, installed.

Author: Tammy Crosby