Countertops Alternatives Alternative Diamond Spring

The smooth, nonporous surface resists even the toughest stains. And it will not promote the growth of mold, mildew or bacteria. All offer a wide range of color selections, while maintaining the look of real stone or marble. Laminate provides an attractive cost savings due to the minimized labor and reduced cost of the material.These cast polymer products offer clean lines, harmonious styling and a nonporous surface that resists mildew and staining and wipes clean with minimal effort. It maintains its ultra-smooth surface for many years without sealants or waxes. In addition to being easy to clean and maintain, it is also nontoxic, chemically nonreactive and hypo allergenic, and virtually no off-gassing at normal room temperatures. From kitchens to bathrooms it’s renewable, repairable, bacteria resistant and easy to keep clean. They leave homeowners as happy with the replacement process as they are with the product itself.

Countertop Alternatives by homeadvisor.com

If you are building a new home the best way to get an accurate idea of pricing is to bring your floor plans to the showroom. We welcome your inquiries and creative ideas and strive to work with our customer to give them the end result they are wishing to achieve. He was professional, courteous & finished in 11 days!

Countertop Alternatives by yelp.com

They are actually located right near the cabinet maker that we were using as well so they were able to communicate easily. They looked up the original contract and matched the quartz. If they said they would be at our house at a certain time, they were! On time, returned all calls, called promptly if he had a re-schedule issues. This business did an installation for us in a bathroom remodel. His crew did a beautiful job on the installation and was very careful with protecting the new floor. Roy has been great at helping us choose what type of counters, what colors do best in which rooms for hiding stains or dirt, and what holds up best, and also suggesting trims or relating issues to watch out for. We would do more with him, except we ran out of bathrooms. We carry a variety of products for every type of surface. We pride ourselves in the quality of our work and the professionalism of our staff. He likes getting out into the community enjoying all the local music venues, winetasting, and downtown activities. They were very courteous and gave short windows of time they would show up and did in that time. I went in person to their store and they were extremely nice and professional. Roy was very patient while we made our decision, when he said he would be here, he was. I was looking at the possibility of renovating my attic space into usable living space in my 112 year old home. He has been active in the schools and community and enjoys living in the foothills. He enjoys spending his free time camping and backpacking in the surrounding mountains.

Williams Sonoma Open Kitchen Pasta Serving Bowl by williams-sonoma.com

Great for family-style dining, the porcelain offers exceptional durability for everyday use. Featuring a fresh floral motif, this stoneware bowl layers easily with other. Simultaneously bold and finely detailed, every stylized piece is decorated by hand in the. The pure white glaze also pairs easily with even the most formal dinnerware, so it’s a great extra serving piece for special occasions. Based on an original hand-drawn sketch, bold stripes give this serve bowl unique personality and a sense of fun.

BEST CONCRETE SEALERS by concretesealerreviews.com

We are solely reviewing water-based penetrating concrete sealers with silane, silane/siloxane or siloxane chemistry. The natural finish of the 8500 may bother some customers looking for a gloss or a sheen but when it comes to using a product that is going to last, an invisible sealer is the way to go. Before application the concrete should be clean, dry, and free of any previous sealers, cure and seals or coatings. The 8500 can be purchased ready to use or concentrated, with the concentrated gallon mixing with 4 gallons of water to make a 5 gallon bucket of product. Although the water-based 8500 doesn’t help to resist long term staining of oils like concrete coatings do, the ease of application and longevity outweigh this. Customer reviews are very favorable with reviewers stating the water beading effect is phenomenal. Those who have purchased this sealer boast about the water beading effect but are quick to point out the darkening effect it can have even on new concrete.

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Kitchen Countertop Makeover With Giani Granite | Kenya Rae | Duration 9 Minutes 10 Seconds Reviews of this product are relatively new with discoloration issues, dirt and leaf staining. Look out for our in depth review this spring where we will detail our results and findings. Silane molecules are able to penetrate the concrete deeper than the larger sized siloxane molecule so we wish this product used some silane. A sprayer is the easiest, most effective application tool; however, a roller or brush may also be used. Since it is a penetrating sealer it is breathable and will not delaminate or peel up off of the concrete. It does not alter the surface appearance, leaves no surface film, sheen and it will not yellow. At such a high price point this can be frustrating to say the least. A concrete sealer can extend the life of a slab preventing the need to replace it down the road. There are two categories of sealers for concrete: penetrating sealers and concrete coatings. Penetrating sealers do have limitations and stains and chemicals cannot be left on the surface for extended amounts of time or they will fail. Differing from penetrating concrete sealers, concrete coatings leave a film on the surface to change the appearance. They do not have a long lifespan and need to be reapplied every year or so. Like their name implies they are extremely durable and can last up to ten years if the concrete is properly prepped prior to application. Make sure there is no rain in the forecast for 24 hours after sealing. If the product is a concentrate make sure to correctly mix it with water prior to application. If a wet on wet application is required make sure to immediately go back and apply a second coat while the first coat is still wet. Let the concrete dry for 2-6 hours before walking and at least 24 hours before driving a vehicle on the surface. It has been used by homeowners on driveways and on commercial applications such as airport parking decks. Because of the silane/siloxane used in this product the concrete becomes hydrophobic, protecting the surface from spalling and cracking.Not only does the 8500 work to keep out deicing salts, but mold, mildew and efflorescence are also kept at bay. A low-pressure, pump sprayer works well and two coats are applied wet on wet. The product is dry to the touch within a few hours and traffic is allowed back on the surface within 24 hours. A few issues were noted including staining and the warranty; you do need to reapply the product every ten years. This sealer is non-film forming and will not alter the surface color or appearance. Be careful not to overapply this product or it will become slippery when wet.A siloxane based product without any silane is not as effective at sealing concrete as a straight silane or a silane siloxane blend. A lifetime warranty is claimed; however, we could not find documentation to back this up – and being such a new product it is yet to be determined if it will hold true. It looks like all manufacturers are now catching onto the concentrated trend. Consumers state that it is easy to apply with a great water beading effect. This low odor formula is safe to walk on in less than 2 hours and can be used on a wide variety of substrates including brick, stucco, stone, pavers and more. After reading the reviews some consumers do not experience beading on new concrete; however, there were not enough reviews on the product to determine whether or not this was an isolated event. After testing out the product short term, water beads right up and there was a noticeable difference between the treated and untreated areas. Within 3-6 months of application, many customers state the product is no longer working, with the concrete absorbing water just as it did prior to sealing. It appears that adding 9 gallons of water dilutes the product way too much to be effective. What is the difference between a penetrating concrete sealer and a concrete coating? Penetrating sealers will never yellow, fade, or peel since they leave no film and are breathable. Decorative acrylics are primary used to do as their name implies and decorate the concrete with a satin or wet look finish. Durable concrete coatings are typically used in interior environments where chemical and scratch resistance is needed.Use a garden variety pump sprayer, 3/8″ nap roller or a brush to apply the sealer. Spray, roll or brush a nice thin, even coat onto the substrate. If the product is pooling or puddling in any areas make sure to work the sealer into the concrete with a roller or a brush.

Dimension Stone by en.wikipedia.org

Another important selection criterion is durability: the time measure of the ability of dimension stone to endure and to maintain its essential and distinctive characteristics of strength, resistance to decay, and appearance. Since most quarries can produce either one, a crushed stone quarry can be converted to dimension stone production. A variety of finishes can be applied to dimension stone to achieve diverse architectural and aesthetic effects. A polished finish gives the surface a high luster and strong reflection of incident light (almost mirror-like). More textured finishes include brush-hammered, sandblasted, and thermal. A sandblasted surface provides an irregular pitted surface by impacting sand or metal particles at high velocity against a stone surface. This finish may change the natural color of the stone depending on mineralogical composition, particularly with stones containing higher levels of iron. In addition, rocks and stones not normally classed as dimension stone are sometimes selected for these applications. Stone (usually granite) countertops and bathroom vanities both involve a finished slab of stone, usually polished but sometimes with another finish (such as honed or sandblasted). The slabs are cut to fit the top of the kitchen or bathroom cabinet, by measuring, templating or digital templating. Multi-wire saws with as many as 60 wires can slab a block in less than two hours. Almost all stone tile is mass-produced by automated tile lines to identical size, finish, and close tolerances. Stone monuments include tombstones, grave markers or as mausoleums. The individual monuments are then carved, shaped, and further defined by hand tools and sandblasting equipment. Granite and quartz both demonstrate good durability, especially because rain is naturally acidic. The most common monument colors for granite are gray, black, and mahogany; for marble, white is most popular. Building components include stone used as veneer (exterior), ashlar, or other shapes. Ashlar is a squared block of stone, often brick-sized, for facing of walls (primarily exterior). The stone is mostly limestone, but often is quartz-based stone (sandstone), or even marble or granite. Traffic-related stone is that which is used for curbing (vehicular) and flagstone (pedestrian). Flagstone is a shallow naturally irregular-edged slab of stone, sometimes sawed into a rectangular shape, used as paving (almost always pedestrian). Portugal produces 3 million tons of dimension stone each year. When demolishing a structure, dimension stone is 100% reusable and can be salvaged for new construction, used as paving or crushed for use as aggregates. The updating will emphasize green building, including the products it involves, such as dimension stone. Dimension stone in use can last many generations, even centuries, so the dimension stone manufacturers have not needed a product recycling program. The dimension stone color and pattern can be changed by weathering when it is very near the surface. On the other hand, changes in color and/or pattern can be positive. The presence of faults or closely spaced joints can render the stone unusable. Closely spaced, wrongly spaced, or nonparallel bedding planes can make the stone unusable, particularly if the bedding planes are planes of weakness. A quarry is not a short-term project unless it encounters one of these constraints. A quarry will produce dust, noise, and some water pollution, but these can be remedied without too much trouble. The material most likely to be recycled is concrete, and this represents the largest volume of recycled construction material. There is no national or regional trade in reclaimed stone, so a large storage yard is required, since the recovered stone may not be quickly sold and reused. Any roofing slate and interior stone in place is catalogued and moved in the same fashion. Buildings immediately spring to mind, but such things as the ornate stone walls, arches, stairways and balustrades alongside a boulevard can also be renovated and reused. Sometimes the old building is gutted, leaving only a shell or facade and the space inside reconfigured and modernized. The old stone work may only need cleaning or sandblasting, but it may need more. Next, the building walls need to be inspected for water leakages. The repointing is the removal of existing damaged mortar from the outer portion of the joint between stone units and its replacement by new mortar matching the appearance of the old. Deteriorated pieces of stone work are replaced with pieces of stone that match the original as much as possible. For both, it may not be possible to find an exact match, even from the original quarry.If the dimension stone renovationist is truly fortunate, the original builder put aside some spare pieces of the stone for future need. As such, it provides a comprehensive means for evaluating and comparing products rather than prescriptive measures of individual product characteristics. In addition to many hundreds of different stones with different colors and patterns, each stone can change radically in color and appearance when a different finish is put on it. With thousands of possibilities, the selector must start by looking at many stones in many different finishes, or photos of them. In addition to selecting a stone color and pattern, the suitability of its properties for the intended use must be considered. Dimension stone requires some specialized methods for cleaning and maintenance. Stains are another consideration; stains can be organic (food, grease, or oil) or metallic (iron, copper). Hone finish – a satin smooth surface finish with little or no gloss. Thermal finish – a surface treatment applied by intense heat flaming. Rough sawn – a surface finish resulting from the gang sawing (or frame saw) process. Color, texture and pattern, and surface finish of the stone are also normal requirements. Quarries that produce dimension stone or crushed stone (used as construction aggregate) are interconvertible.

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Quartz Kitchen Countertops Coral Springs Fl | Duration 1 Minutes 9 Seconds However, first the stone shattered by heavy and indiscriminate blasting must be removed. Other varieties of dimension stone that are normally considered to be special minor types include alabaster (massive gypsum), soapstone (massive talc), serpentine and various products fashioned from natural stone. A honed finish provides a smooth, satin-like (“eggshell”), nonreflective surface. A brush-hammered finish, similar to a houndstooth pattern, creates a rough, but uniformly patterned surface with impact tools varying in coarseness. A thermal (or flamed) finish produces a textured, nonreflective surface with only a few reflections from cleavage faces, by applying a high-temperature flame. More modern technology utilizes diamond wire saws which use less water and energy. The stone for countertops or vanities is usually granite, but often is marble (especially for vanity tops), and is sometimes limestone or slate. The majority of tile has a polished finish, but other finishes such as honed are becoming more common. At this time, the stone for monuments is most commonly granite, sometimes marble (as in military cemeteries), and rarely others. Due to costs, today stone veneers are usually used in place of solid stone blocks. There are a number of smaller applications for buildings and traffic-related uses. Veneer is a non load-bearing facing of stone attached to a backing of an ornamental nature, although it also protects and insulates. The shapes subject to foot traffic will usually have an abrasive finish such as honed or sandblasted. Roofing slate is a thin-split shingle-sized piece of slate, and when in place forms the most permanent kind of roof; slate is also used as countertops and flooring tile. For curbing, the stone is almost always granite, and for flagstone the stone is almost always quartz-based stone (sandstone or quartzite). The stone used in these applications usually has to have certain properties, or meet a standard specification. The indexes show world demand for granite has clearly been weakening since 2006, while the world demand for marble only weakened from 2007 to 2008. Energy price increases and the need for energy conservation when heating or cooling buildings have recently brought it to the fore. As an entirely natural product, dimension stone also has an advantage over synthetic/artificial stone products, as well as composite and space-age materials. There are also “green” methods of stone cleaning either in development or already in use, such as removing the black gypsum crusts that form on marble and limestone by applying sulfate-reducing bacteria to the crust to gasify it, breaking up the crust for easy removal.However, there are practical qualifications to and constraints on that sustainability. These faults and joints do not have to be at odd angles in the stone mass. If part of the stone in one area is unusable, there will be another usable part of the stone elsewhere in the formation. The landscape may also have to be restored if quarry waste is temporarily or permanently placed on adjacent land. Recycling dimension stone can occur when structures are demolished, along with recycling timber and recycling construction aggregate in the form of concrete. Not too many structures incorporate dimension stone, and even fewer of them have dimension stone worth saving. Particularly treasured are old hand-carved stone pieces with the chisel marks still on them, local stones no longer quarried or that are quarried in a different shade of color or appearance.The building is taken apart stone block by stone block and the location and orientation of each block is carefully noted. Sometimes the old interior of the building is kept as is, after repair. Firstly, the building exterior (facade) needs to be inspected for unsafe conditions. The most likely needs are mortar restoration (repointing), applying consolidants to the old stone, or replacing pieces of stone that are deteriorated (damaged) beyond the point of any repair. The consolidants re-establish the original natural bonding between the stone particles that weathering has removed. Exterior dimension stone will often change color after exposure to weather over time. Interior dimension stone can sometimes change its shade a little over time too. Stone will often change its appearance from location to location in the same quarry. Almost 90% of the effort in doing a life cycle assessment involves getting reliable data. The selector has literally thousands of options to choose from, and should examine many options. Stone being chosen for countertops or vanities should be nonabsorptive, resist stains, and be heat and impact resistant. Stone being used for flooring, paving, or surfaces subject to foot or vehicular traffic ought to have a semiabrasive finish for slip resistance, such as bush-hammered or thermal. Most flagstone surfaces are rough enough to be naturally slip-resistant. Abrasive cleaners should not be used on a polished stone finish because it will wear the polish off. Textured finishes (thermal, bush-hammered) can be treated with some mildly abrasive cleaners but not bleach or an acidic cleaner (if marble or limestone). Stains require some special removal techniques, such as the poultice method. Diamond sawed – finish produced by sawing with a diamond toothed saw. Brush-hammered – a mechanical process which produces textured surfaces.

Kitchen and Bath Fixtures and Faucets Plumbing Online Canada by plumbingonline.ca

The pot filler is one of the newer inventions to hit the market. Foods can be prepared or cut on the surface of the material without a mark.

Concrete Sealer Reviews by concretesealerreviews.com

Since they are unable to penetrate but instead coat the surface it is more like putting a bandaid on the problem instead of sealing from within. The chemically reactive and active ingredients seal the pores within the substrate adequately blocking surface moisture while still maintaining the concretes ability to breathe. New or existing concrete can be treated and performance can be improved in as little as two applications. For this guide we also talked to a number of experts about what they look for when sealing any concrete application. They are more frequently used in exterior applications to protect against the harsh elements. A penetrating concrete sealer has a long lifespan and typically requires reapplication after five plus years of service life. Acrylic concrete sealers generally wear faster than penetrating sealers and usually require reapplication much sooner, typically every year if exposed to deicing salts. Durable concrete coatings are harder and last longer than decorative coatings. We aren’t alone in that assessment, as many of our experts agree. Overall we preferred concrete sealers with proven longevity that were highly reviewed with excellent water beading characteristics.