Anyone installed a stainless steel kitchen counter?

[William1]

I did my mud room with tile walls and stanless over the trim and bottom half of the foors, to make it dog/puppy proof. No clawing or chew damage is possible. A commercial kitchen fabricator did all the stainless work. Expensive. Sink is stainless under bonded to solid surface. Big ehough for a 90 pound dog to be bathed.
In the master bath, we did solid surface and the same material for sinks. 100% seamless. The thing that is great about solid surface is that if it does ever get damages, it can be simply sanded to remove the surface damage. Real damage can be cut out and new parts epoxied in and be invisible.
My parents did solid surface in their kitchen and master bath in 1979. My parents are gone but the material still is perfect.

 

[sheepfarmer]

Magicman, Wow! Looks fabulous! Very attractive tilework!
William, any pictures, especially junctions of sinks with the counters?

 

[sheepfarmer]

Yes that is one brand name of solid surface countertops.

What brands have you worked with and would recommend? I am wanting it to have a built in 4 inch backsplash, a marine edge, and a flush mount sink or a seamless under counter sink. I hate my drop in sink, and the lab under counter sinks were always filthy. This would be a close substitute for the stainless steel. A brand of sink I found online is TopZero seamless under mount sink.

I did have a nice conversation with a guy at Great Lakes Stainless steel, and they seem to be on top of a lot of the problems. Impressive website and commercial installations. The underneath structure would be an inch and a half, the steel is 14 gauge, and the sink is the same kind of steel. But the price is sounding unaffordable. Contractor was being cute and only comparing price per square foot with granite. I want to know about the installation costs too. But I am thinking if I can get the same features in Corian or similar it might be better.

Have you used Dekton? It is heat resistant and might be suitable for the other counter around the cooktop.

 

[William1]

Magicman, Wow! Looks fabulous! Very attractive tilework!
William, any pictures, especially junctions of sinks with the counters?

Here are three images. Notice the countertop is 100% flush with the sink and follows the corners exactly. There were not many choices of sink color so it is not a perfect match. But sinks never are to a countertop anyways. The image of just the counter top is of the seam between two sheets of the material. Near impossible to see the splice.

 

[sheepfarmer]

Here are three images. Notice the countertop is 100% flush with the sink and follows the corners exactly. There were not many choices of sink color so it is not a perfect match. But sinks never are to a countertop anyways. The image of just the counter top is of the seam between two sheets of the material. Near impossible to see the splice.
View attachment 55874 View attachment 55875 View attachment 55876

Thank you! Looks nice. I can’t see the seam. Is the sink you show basically all one piece with thee counter? I have seen ones in Corian where the change in plastic was real obvious, but this design is very attractive. Is it easy to clean?

 

[William1]

Thank you! Looks nice. I can’t see the seam. Is the sink you show basically all one piece with thee counter? I have seen ones in Corian where the change in plastic was real obvious, but this design is very attractive. Is it easy to clean?

The seams are invisible. With granite (we have that in the kitchen) the seam is very obvious. With solid surface, other than color change, there is no visible line.
The sink is one piece and 100% flush with the counter top.
Cleaning is no different than anything else. we wipe down after use to prevent water spots. No gaps to get gunk in is a big plus. Once a year, I'll use Flitz polish to make it look new. If it gets damaged, it can be sanded to renew as the color is all the way through and not just a surface treatment like Formica.
I think a fair amount of how perfect it turns out is dependent on the installer.

As far as stainless in a kitchen goes, metal scatches pretty easy and I'd bet it would look marked up pretty fast. Not a problem if you are truly 'industrial'. But to get the nice finish back with stainless is a lot of elbow grease. Steel wool, sanding, buffing.

 

[Magicman]

The seams should not be visible with Granite. If they are, it's an installation/installer problem.

 

[sheepfarmer]

Thank you! Looks nice. I can’t see the seam. Is the sink you show basically all one piece with thee counter? I have seen ones in Corian where the change in plastic was real obvious, but this design is very attractive. Is it easy to clean?

The seams are invisible. With granite (we have that in the kitchen) the seam is very obvious. With solid surface, other than color change, there is no visible line.
The sink is one piece and 100% flush with the counter top.
Cleaning is no different than anything else. we wipe down after use to prevent water spots. No gaps to get gunk in is a big plus. Once a year, I'll use Flitz polish to make it look new. If it gets damaged, it can be sanded to renew as the color is all the way through and not just a surface treatment like Formica.
I think a fair amount of how perfect it turns out is dependent on the installer.

As far as stainless in a kitchen goes, metal scatches pretty easy and I'd bet it would look marked up pretty fast. Not a problem if you are truly 'industrial'. But to get the nice finish back with stainless is a lot of elbow grease. Steel wool, sanding, buffing.

This is your bathroom sink, right? I was looking into the Corian sinks, which a couple people said not to get, and one reason I found was that you can't pour boiling water into it. So I drain spaghetti into a colander in the sink all the time,so that doesn't sound practical to me. Contractor likes to use something called Hanex. Anyone had any experience with that? I have been looking at some flushmount stainless sinks since I hate the crevasses that catch gunk, and hate my topmount sink, but right now only ones I have found don't fit sinkbase cabinet. Nothing is simple!

 

[William1]

This is your bathroom sink, right? I was looking into the Corian sinks, which a couple people said not to get, and one reason I found was that you can't pour boiling water into it. So I drain spaghetti into a colander in the sink all the time,so that doesn't sound practical to me. Contractor likes to use something called Hanex. Anyone had any experience with that? I have been looking at some flushmount stainless sinks since I hate the crevasses that catch gunk, and hate my topmount sink, but right now only ones I have found don't fit sinkbase cabinet. Nothing is simple!

Boiling water will not affect it. A hot pan 'might' make a mark. The company you purchase from will cover it in detail. There are many companies making essentially the same stuff, Corian was the first to market in the 1970's. My parents did a kitchen and bathroom with it (white was the only choice then) and the kitchen has had hot stuff put on it all the time and never showed any damage. Much tougher than Formica.
Unless the sink is bonded like mine in the above bathroom pictures, there will be a crevase. I have a stainless sink in my mudroom under mounted to solid surface and there is a crevase. In the kitchen is granit and also under mount. The plus of an under mount is you can 'sweep' debris right into the sink.

Mudroom (note drain grooves milled in to top for drainage):

Kitchen:

 

[sheepfarmer]

Boiling water will not affect it. A hot pan 'might' make a mark. The company you purchase from will cover it in detail. There are many companies making essentially the same stuff, Corian was the first to market in the 1970's. My parents did a kitchen and bathroom with it (white was the only choice then) and the kitchen has had hot stuff put on it all the time and never showed any damage. Much tougher than Formica.
Unless the sink is bonded like mine in the above bathroom pictures, there will be a crevase. I have a stainless sink in my mudroom under mounted to solid surface and there is a crevase. In the kitchen is granit and also under mount. The plus of an under mount is you can 'sweep' debris right into the sink.

Mudroom (note drain grooves milled in to top for drainage): View attachment 55891

Kitchen:
View attachment 55892

Those are really nice! Love your mudroom sink! Did you say big enough for your dog? Wow

 

[William1]

Those are really nice! Love your mudroom sink! Did you say big enough for your dog? Wow

Thanks!
20" Deep by 36" Wide and 12" Tall