Countertop Chaos: Eric G's Ultimate Buyer’s Guide

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Foreign.

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The House with Eric G.

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Your go to source for everything home improvement.

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Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or just looking to make your space shine, Eric G.

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Is here to guide you through the latest tips, tricks and trends.

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Coming up.

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In this week's first hour of the show, Eric G.

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Talks everything countertops and what are the best materials for the job.

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And then down below that was in the raised bar because I built this later.

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I actually built that lower section out of the paper stone because I wanted something that's going to be durable, something that was going to match that pretty well but give myself a really nice softer surface to work with and I really like it for that.

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That is something you can do and I use power tools to finish.

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It worked out great.

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So grab your toolbox, put on your thinking cap and let's get to work right here on around the House with.

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Eric G.

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Welcome to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

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I'm Eric G.

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Thanks for joining me today.

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This hour is brought to you by our friends at Monument Grills.

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Check them out@monumentgrills.com if you're looking for that perfect barbecue for summer on a budget, high quality, something that's gonna cook and make you look like a rock star behind the grill.

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Check them out@monumcgrills.com today.

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I've had a request from a couple people here recently.

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We haven't talked much about countertops.

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Whether you're doing an outdoor kitchen, that bathroom remodel, that kitchen, or maybe even a workshop, we've got something here for you today in this first hour where we're talking everything countertops.

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Now if you do have a question for me, head over to aroundthehouse online.com you can send it over here like a couple people did and said, hey, can you talk more about this?

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And that's what we're doing today.

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So that way I can help you get your question answered.

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When it comes to countertops, there's one thing that I want you to remind yourself of is the overall plan of the project you're working on.

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Out of my 30 plus year career of actually designing people's kitchens and bathrooms, the biggest mistake that I see is people get things out of order.

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So many times people will flip their house, hey, I'm going to put it for market, but I'm going to throw this on real quick.

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Guess what happens if you throw a countertop on that's made out of stone, quartz, any hard surface like that, other than like a butcher block.

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The Chance of removing that to change the cabinets out underneath it is less than 50%.

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Many times that sink cutout loves to break as you're removing those countertops.

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So pretty much I tell people you might be able to save it, but really you're better off starting over because you're going to pay a premium to have somebody sit there and try to cut that silicone loose and get that adhesive loose so you can take the countertops without breaking them off the cabinets.

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So don't do countertops too early.

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If you're thinking about replacing the cabinets down below, wait and do it all at the same time and save yourself thousands of dollars in doing this.

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So don't get too, too quick on that one, guys.

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That could save you a ton of headaches because the chances of breaking it is greater than not.

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So be very careful.

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And that's counting that you can find somebody that can remove it and replace it that'll even try it.

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I have tried in the past and you just gotta have that great relationship.

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Most people won't touch that.

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As far as granite fabricators to remove and reinstall, they want nothing to do with it.

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There's exceptions out there, but many won't even tackle that project.

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So when you're thinking about countertops, I want you to think about the overall look.

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What do you want that to look like?

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Your budget?

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And what's the durability factor?

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What do I mean by the durability of this?

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This is a big one.

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If you go into Europe and take a look there, they love marble.

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It looks great.

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But the Europeans look at a countertop surface way differently than us.

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Over here in the United States, marble is soft.

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It loves to stain.

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It loves to get its own patina, that little bit of red wine, maybe the pickle juice, whatever that will stain those countertops.

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And most people will not be going in there every six months to two years and putting a new sealcoat on it.

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It just doesn't work that way.

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So the problem with marble as a countertop surface is maybe even the kids blue toothpaste that can soak into that.

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And now you've got a problem.

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So that's why a lot of people do not go with marble.

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Because we expect it here in the United States to look like the date was installed, which is not a realistic expectation for most people.

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You don't want to have to go through and worry about it and deal with it.

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So what are the alternatives?

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You're going to be looking at man made materials like quartz.

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Now quartz.

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There's a difference here.

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There's quartzite, which is a natural stone, and then there is the manufactured countertop material that is quartz.

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Now this is a mostly quartz material product.

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And then there are binders, there are epoxies, there are all these things that hold it together that really make it super stain resistant.

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That is a great way to go.

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Now one of the issues that we're having out there with countertops that are made from stone or man made materials is the silica dust issue.

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And why is this?

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The silica dust issue is where fabricators that have not been following the safety guidelines of the industry for years.

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These are the clowns that you see out there grinding and cutting out in the driveway, dry cutting, dust going everywhere.

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They got a bandana around their face and they're just taking in all this silica dust.

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Where many of the ones that have treated their employees much better, they're using a water based, so no dust or limited dust and they've got a respirator on and they're working safely.

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Because of these companies that are not holding their employees accountable, that aren't teaching them the best practices.

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There's a huge issue, especially in California and other places where they're just saying, hey, it's not worth dealing with the employees getting sick, even though that there are best practices to follow where they won't get sick.

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So we're having this whole issue with that.

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So we're gonna see probably quartz companies, even some granite stuff probably not come out.

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Anything with a high silica content is going to be an issue.

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Now what some companies are going with is they're going with a no silica dust type formula or they're going into the sintered stone like the porcelain, which is more of a clay type product if you think about it.

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So they take a sintered stone.

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So it's not really a tile and it's not really that brown clay that you would think with a tile.

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But the porcelain, they take all these materials.

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Think of it as like tile though, a big 4 by 10 piece of or 5 by 10 piece of tile.

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This is sintered stone.

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So they take it heat compression and they make a super durable surface.

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Now we'll talk about the applications of this, but I've had that in my house.

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It is durable, it is bulletproof.

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I've had it on my outdoor kitchen before I built the COVID I had 2 inches of freezing rain on it.

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I've had it 117 degrees in the sun.

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It just takes it.

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Now if I was going to do that outside with quartz, we'd have some serious issues because the binders in it are not UV friendly.

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So the sunlight in an outdoor kitchen is going to be an issue.

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So that's one of the things you need to think about when you're starting to tackle of what countertop material do I want to use now?

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When we come back here in a minute, I want to talk about a room by room.

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What is the best use of that?

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So we're going to start out with bathrooms here and we're going to talk about my favorite materials to use as a countertop and a bathroom, whether you're on a budget, whether you want to do this right and really dive into something that's going to be gorgeous.

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But doing it this way is really one of those things that thinking about it room by room and application by application is pretty smart because there's a lot of materials we're going to talk about today that you're not going to even see in the home center.

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But it's a great way to use a material that might be something that you could tackle as a DIY project.

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And I'm not just talking the IKEA butcher block stuff.

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We're talking about some stuff that'll hold up to weather, water and all those other things.

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So we'll do that just as soon as around the House returns.

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Don't change that dial.

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We got more about countertops and what's the right product, the right budget and the right durability for your bathroom, kitchen, outdoor kitchen or anything in between.

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We'll be right back.

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To find out more information, head to aroundthehouse online.com don't change that dial around the House.

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We'll be right back after these important messages.

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So many people without welcome back to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

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I'm Eric G.

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Thanks for joining me today.

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This hour we're talking countertops.

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But first we're sponsored by our friends over at Monument Grills.

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Check them out@monument grills.com for the latest in barbecue tech.

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And if you're watching the final episode of around the House Northwest, you'll see the Monument Grill today that is out there that I'm using.

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Man, I love cooking on this thing.

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Lots of power, lots of technology and makes it easy to cook on, no matter if you're cooking pancakes on their griddle or if you're throwing on that big stake.

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They got you covered either way.

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We've been talking about countertops.

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In this last segment, we were talking about kind of Generally, some of the things to think about.

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And now I want to go in room by room and try to help walk you through the right place to use the right materials.

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So when it comes to a bathroom, this is something that you should really spend some time on.

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The things that we have are chemicals from all of the things that we put on our face and our hair and our teeth, you know, from the dyes that are in the blue toothpaste for the kids or the red or whatever else we have or all the makeups and things like that.

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You want something durable.

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Now, marble looks gorgeous, but you got to be really careful and really stay on top of sealing it.

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But if you've got kids, it's probably not the best thing to use.

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Now, the other thing I want you to think about is, in a bathroom, you don't only just have the countertop.

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Maybe you're gonna clad the wall.

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That's what I did, And I went with the most durable in there.

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Now, here's the choices you have.

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You have marble.

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You have granite.

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Those are slab materials.

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So traditionally, you're gonna go to your fabricator or your designer, your home improvement store, and you're gonna turn around and go grab that from them.

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They're gonna come out and template it and make it.

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Now, there's a lot of materials you can use inside that bathroom.

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For me, I decided to go with the slab porcelain because I could get it in thinner sections.

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I could do a mitered edge on my countertop to make it look like it's three inches thick, and I could use it for my big slab pieces in the shower system.

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Because I was doing a steam shower, I went that direction, because with a steam shower, not only do you have to do the walls, you got to do the ceiling, too, and have a little bit of a slope to it so it's not raining when the steam hits the cold ceiling pan.

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So what you have to do is design that whole system out.

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Now, I went one step further.

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I actually took it and went even deeper.

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I wanted to green match it.

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I wanted to book match it.

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I wanted to sit there and have that shower system look awesome.

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So what did I do?

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So I've got my shower system in there.

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I actually went through and put the the WEDI system in there, so the Vapor 85, so I wouldn't get any steam or moisture coming through.

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Because that's the one thing when you're designing the steam shower, you gotta really think ahead of what you're doing, because many of the waterproofing membrane Systems out there aren't rated for steam, they're not rated for vapor, they're for water.

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So in something like that, you really want to have that dialed in.

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So I did the Vapor 85 system and then I did the slab porcelain.

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So the back wall of my shower, I book matched the ends.

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So now the end walls of the shower.

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So the back wall, it's wider than it is deep.

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Think about it.

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We used to be a bathtub in there.

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So that back panel is one piece.

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I did a niche recessed into the wall, had that in there.

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And then the green matches off to the side and it also carries out over the top.

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So the green looks like it came out of one big sheet.

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And it did turned out really cool the way we did it.

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Actually that was a two sheet thing because I had to come up with a grain matched in the porcelain.

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So I came up with two book matched pieces and did it that way.

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Turned out really awesome.

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So that's what we did there.

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And then I used that same material for the countertops for the two floating vanities that I had in that room.

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Now you can do tile.

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If you want to do it as a DIY project, you can do it as a large format piece of tile.

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You can do it, you know, of course, out of the the slab core to the slab granite.

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You can do it out of wood.

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Not my recommendation.

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It doesn't hold up well unless you're doing something like teak or something that's meant for that, which is very expensive.

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Now there are other materials that I've used out there like paper stone.

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What is paper stone?

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It is a paper and resin composite.

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So what they do is they take recycled paper pulp in many cases.

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So what you'd see them making cardboard boxes out of it or whatever else, that kind of pulp.

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Then they mix in all these binders and it works really well.

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So it is a high performance composite surface.

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And it is so cool because you can cut it like you would wood and it has its own kind of patina and it looks absolutely gorgeous.

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Now here are some things you can do with this.

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This was originally designed as a boat bulkhead and then it got used in the skateboard industry for skate ramps.

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So yes, there's a lot you can do with this.

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There are endless applications for it.

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You can use it for exterior cladding on the outside of a building.

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You could do a kitchen countertop with is super durable.

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Now the one thing that's interesting is if you leave water on it on a flat surface.

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Yes, it Will raise up and you'll go, oh, my gosh, I ruined my countertop surface.

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No, you did not.

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It will dry back out and heal itself back down and you'll be fine.

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But paper stone is a great product.

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Take a look@paperstone products.com for those guys.

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It is an interesting one.

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They're a Pacific Northwest company.

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I've used them for years.

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I did my working surface of my outdoor kitchen with this stuff.

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Freaking awesome.

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Loved it.

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Great material to work with.

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So don't be scared about some of these other materials.

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Yeah, you're gonna pay a little more for it, but you can.

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If you are a woodworker, you can work with it, but it is dense.

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You almost need to pretend like you're cutting metal with it.

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It is so dense.

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Have a good saw, have a good router.

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Take your time, slow down the bits.

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This stuff is heavy.

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Have a friend help carry it.

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It's about as heavy as stone, but it works really well.

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So think about that kind of that aesthetic you have in your bathroom.

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Whether you're doing just countertops, whether you're doing the whole inside of the shower system, which I love the slab porcelain for that.

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You know, that is one thing that I think is really dated these days that I always say you got to be very careful of.

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I don't like doing the 3cm or the inch and a quarter quartz on any kind of a backsplash.

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You do a backsplash, do it at tile.

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If you're going to do the slab, then go to porcelain where you can get the thinner stuff.

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Or you can have.

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If they've got a CNC machine, you can have that.

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Thicker slabs cut down.

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Yes, it's expensive because you're blowing a ton of material away, but you can do it if you want to.

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So it's something to consider when you're working on these kind of projects.

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But really think about how you're going to live in it, how you're going to maintain it.

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And with a kit, with a bathroom, for instance, you want to think about the bathroom sink.

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Are you going to do a top mount?

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Yeah.

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Not my favorite.

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Yes, you can do laminates.

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There are plenty of laminates out there.

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And if you're doing that mid century look or you want to do something like that, that's one thing.

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And yeah, laminates are great, but you're stuck with a top mount sink.

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And yes, you can order them.

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Have a made.

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Now that's one of the issues that you have to.

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Just as a side note, when you buy those kind of vanity kits from the home centers from the big box retailer.

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Those are most of the time, and I say most like 95% of the time they are designed to be freestanding units like a piece of furniture.

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Problem is is most of our bathrooms out there are designed to have that vanity up against an end wall someplace.

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Now when we come back, we're going to dive into kitchens because that's one that really makes a difference.

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We'll do that just as soon as around the House returns.

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Don't go anywhere.

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Let's sound that better keeps us foreign.

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Welcome back to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

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I'm Eric G.

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Thanks for joining me today.

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This hour is brought to you by my friends at Monument Grills.

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Check them out@monument grills.com they got a huge selection of grills over there.

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Whether you're looking something for that tiny backyard that you got or you want something that's big, six burners that you can cook all the burgers and dogs and everything you Want for your 4th of July party coming up.

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And by the way, many times you can get these things at Lowe's and probably get them to assemble it for you as well.

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It's not a bad way to go.

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Find out more@montymcrills.com so we've been talking countertops today and there's a couple products we have not talked about when it comes to countertops.

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One of them is concrete, which I absolutely love, but you got to do it correctly.

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Now with concrete, it loves disdain.

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That is one of the things you need to think about.

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So you can do it in a bathroom, you can do it in a kitchen.

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Recommended as much for an outdoor kitchen.

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But the one thing you need to keep in mind with that is that it needs to be waxed because you want to actually use a wax on it.

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So it's food grade, especially in a kitchen.

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But you want to have something that's going to protect it and not have a finish that's going to flake off.

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This concrete is porous.

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Now I have done some concrete countertop projects and you want to do a mold out of those.

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I actually have built them upside down and I used either high gloss laminate as my form or I used a melamine.

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But the high gloss laminate was the best because it really gave you a good polish and basically you'll go through and you want to put some form release on there.

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The best guy to follow if you want a step by step guide is to Google up this guy out of the Bay Area.

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And I learned countertops from him.

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Sheesh.

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25 years ago.

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And he was the leader of concrete countertops under there.

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And so this was Chang Design.

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C H E N G Fu Tung Chang.

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He is the guy that really took concrete countertops to the next level.

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His website is concrete exchange.com.

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he started this in: 1978

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Now I've gone to lunch with him one time before.

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Neat guy.

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Probably 15, 20 years ago, we hit lunch and he is a based in Berkeley, California.

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He is one of the OGs, if not the OG of this.

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He has done so much for the world of concrete countertops and he's got a whole architectural system out there.

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But when it comes to concrete countertops and their store that they have there, they really take you through from the forming supplies to the concrete countertop mix.

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If you're gonna do a concrete Countertop as a DIY project, take a look@concreteeexchange.com it is great.

Speaker A: 00:26:01

So they have an all weather mix, they have the concrete countertop slurry, they have the all the materials here from the polyurethane concrete countertop sealer.

Speaker A: 00:26:13

They have all the cool stuff.

Speaker A: 00:26:16

And I tell you what, they have even cleaners.

Speaker A: 00:26:20

And I tell you what, it is a amazing resource for doing concrete if you're gonna do it.

Speaker A: 00:26:27

So they have pigments, they have all the stuff you can do.

Speaker A: 00:26:30

Now the cool thing with him, he was known for taking, you know, basically fossils and setting them in.

Speaker A: 00:26:37

He would put in metal bars so you could set a hot plate on there.

Speaker A: 00:26:41

He would do all this stuff you can buy mold rubber, you can get the reinforcing mesh.

Speaker A: 00:26:48

There is all the different nano, nano coat concrete sealers, all these different things here, which is really cool.

Speaker A: 00:26:55

And they've also got the countertop form and like bullnose and things like that.

Speaker A: 00:27:01

If you want to do a bullnose or a perfectly square edge, he sells those pieces for that, which is really cool.

Speaker A: 00:27:10

Something to take a look at if you're going to tackle a concrete countertop.

Speaker A: 00:27:14

Now, concrete countertops are a living surface.

Speaker A: 00:27:17

Yes, you will.

Speaker A: 00:27:18

Stain could crack.

Speaker A: 00:27:21

All these things can happen because it's concrete.

Speaker A: 00:27:23

So you have to expect it.

Speaker A: 00:27:25

Now for me, the most durable surface is going to be slab porcelain again or one of the sintered stones.

Speaker A: 00:27:32

That is a great material to use for this and I think it's really durable.

Speaker A: 00:27:39

Now if you want that beauty of natural stone, the world is your oyster.

Speaker A: 00:27:43

You can go marble, you can go granite, you can go quartzite.

Speaker A: 00:27:48

Any one of These different products.

Speaker A: 00:27:49

Now, let's talk about a myth that came out here a number of years ago.

Speaker A: 00:27:54

And from my understanding, this myth was created by the quartz countertop industry to talk people out of buying granite.

Speaker A: 00:28:03

There were people out there claiming that you were getting radon out of these stone countertops.

Speaker A: 00:28:10

Here's the problem, guys.

Speaker A: 00:28:12

An inch and a half or even a 3 quarter inch thick piece of stone is not going to be putting off measurable radon.

Speaker A: 00:28:21

It just, it's just not going to be something that's that big a deal.

Speaker A: 00:28:25

Now, are there exceptions out there?

Speaker A: 00:28:27

I'm sure there are, but generally that's not a big deal.

Speaker A: 00:28:31

Now I would find out where your granite's coming from.

Speaker A: 00:28:34

I would be a little concerned if it's coming out of China or some of these other countries that don't have environmental regulations that could have chemicals that have leached down into this stone.

Speaker A: 00:28:45

So that could be an issue.

Speaker A: 00:28:47

But pretty easy to test that to see what's going on.

Speaker A: 00:28:51

That's the only concern I would be looked at.

Speaker A: 00:28:54

But many of the granites are coming out of places like Brazil, Italy, where it's not as big a deal that you see because they just didn't have that manufacturing base.

Speaker A: 00:29:04

And you didn't have people just going out dumping semi trucks of chemicals out in places that they shouldn't have been.

Speaker A: 00:29:09

A little easier on the environmental regulations, at least in some areas.

Speaker A: 00:29:13

But it's something to think about.

Speaker A: 00:29:15

Now, if you're on a budget, laminate can be a great option.

Speaker A: 00:29:19

Nothing wrong with it.

Speaker A: 00:29:20

You could do it yourself.

Speaker A: 00:29:23

You can go through if you, if you're good with a router in your attention to detail.

Speaker A: 00:29:27

Yeah, you can do it yourself.

Speaker A: 00:29:28

You can go down to your home center or have a contractor come out.

Speaker A: 00:29:31

A lot of different ways to do laminate that'll be your least expensive in a kitchen.

Speaker A: 00:29:36

Next up, probably a DIY wood countertop tile.

Speaker A: 00:29:42

And then you're going to jump into kind of the quartz, the world of quartz, the slab quartz.

Speaker A: 00:29:47

The budget off brand stuff will be your least expensive.

Speaker A: 00:29:51

Now here's one thing to think about when you're looking and having a conversation at your slab yard, whether it's quartz, granite or whatever.

Speaker A: 00:30:00

There are different grades.

Speaker A: 00:30:02

There are A, B, C, D grades.

Speaker A: 00:30:05

Depending on how the manufacturer calls it.

Speaker A: 00:30:08

They ship out stuff that is not perfect.

Speaker A: 00:30:11

There could be flaws.

Speaker A: 00:30:12

There could be areas where it's a little pockmarked.

Speaker A: 00:30:16

It could be the color is a little off.

Speaker A: 00:30:20

There are different grades.

Speaker A: 00:30:22

Understand what you're buying when you're dealing with this.

Speaker A: 00:30:25

Is that an A grade material?

Speaker A: 00:30:28

Are you saving money and getting a B grade material?

Speaker A: 00:30:31

These are things that you should know before you go in and write that big check for these countertops.

Speaker A: 00:30:37

And that's how I would really dive into this and take a look.

Speaker A: 00:30:40

If you want something that's going to be durable to heat.

Speaker A: 00:30:43

If you're a person that likes to take your hot pan off and set it on the countertop slab, porcelain is going to be your best bet.

Speaker A: 00:30:50

You will ruin quartz.

Speaker A: 00:30:52

It's got plastics in it.

Speaker A: 00:30:54

You're going to maybe crack a tile laminate.

Speaker A: 00:30:58

You'll destroy if you're cutting on it.

Speaker A: 00:31:00

Don't.

Speaker A: 00:31:00

You're ruining your knives no matter what you're doing.

Speaker A: 00:31:02

So never cut on a countertop surface, whether it's wood or anything else.

Speaker A: 00:31:05

If you're going to do wood.

Speaker A: 00:31:07

Something to think about as long as you're oiling it and you're dealing with it as a food grade surface.

Speaker A: 00:31:13

I wouldn't do wood everywhere.

Speaker A: 00:31:14

It's really bad around a sink, but it can be a really cool area.

Speaker A: 00:31:19

You just got to worry about the hygiene with it because if you're leaking raw chicken juice on it every day, it's not the best situation.

Speaker A: 00:31:27

Now the other thing to think about is there's plenty of epoxies out there too.

Speaker A: 00:31:31

Now these are projects that can go completely sideways.

Speaker A: 00:31:33

You want to learn what you're doing before you do epoxy.

Speaker A: 00:31:37

I've seen people take laminate countertops and go over the top of them with epoxy.

Speaker A: 00:31:41

That can be cool.

Speaker A: 00:31:43

But I've also had buddies that have tried these epoxy countertops and it baked off too fast and they had a heck of a mess.

Speaker A: 00:31:51

It starts smoking, it's bubbling and you're starting over or you're grinding the material off and you're doing it again.

Speaker A: 00:31:59

So you want to make sure you do it right with high grade materials and you'll be good to go.

Speaker A: 00:32:04

Now when we come back, we're going to talk about some of the things you can do in those other situations.

Speaker A: 00:32:09

Whether it's a wine room, whether it's an outdoor kitchen or you want something outside like in your garage or a workshop.

Speaker A: 00:32:17

We'll do that just as soon as around the House returns.

Speaker A: 00:32:20

Don't go anywhere.

Speaker B: 00:32:21

To find out more information about the around the House show, head to aroundthehouse online dot com.

Speaker B: 00:32:27

We will be right back.

Speaker A: 00:34:28

Welcome back to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

Speaker A: 00:34:31

I'm Eric Chi.

Speaker A: 00:34:32

Thanks for Joining today, this hour is brought to you by our friends at Monument Grills.

Speaker A: 00:34:36

Check out your new barbecue@monument grills.com Quick note here.

Speaker A: 00:34:41

This is the last weekend of original shows on around the house Northwest television show.

Speaker A: 00:34:48

This is a show that's been airing in Portland, Oregon and you can stream it.

Speaker A: 00:34:51

It's been on YouTube.

Speaker A: 00:34:53

What happens to that content afterwards?

Speaker A: 00:34:55

I'm not entirely sure.

Speaker A: 00:34:56

We'll see what happens out there many times when shows come down and networks are done with it.

Speaker A: 00:35:02

This is through the great television network.

Speaker A: 00:35:04

We had a great team on this show, by the way, guys and I talked a little bit about it this last week in the midweek special.

Speaker A: 00:35:10

But we have really.

Speaker A: 00:35:12

And that's up our podcast.

Speaker A: 00:35:14

If you're listening on the podcast player, you know it.

Speaker A: 00:35:16

But if you're catching us on the national radio show, we have a full podcast, thousand episodes in the back catalog and our midweek update that tells what's going on.

Speaker A: 00:35:25

And we talked about this a bit this last week.

Speaker A: 00:35:28

But here's the thing.

Speaker A: 00:35:30

I had a great team.

Speaker A: 00:35:31

We had a lot of fun.

Speaker A: 00:35:33

But that show, we did all we could do at a local television station.

Speaker A: 00:35:38

We did so much to make things happen on that show.

Speaker A: 00:35:43

Bradley, my first guy, Bradley Davis, such a professional, probably the most professional guy I worked with in tv.

Speaker A: 00:35:50

Yeah, at him and I, we fought toe to toe sometimes, never blows to blow.

Speaker A: 00:35:55

But we were, we argued hard because we both had passion.

Speaker A: 00:35:59

And that guy did the impossible with me.

Speaker A: 00:36:02

Yeah, we did probably 80 television shows back to back, 52 weeks a year, two people.

Speaker A: 00:36:10

We were the leanest television crew in the world shooting an hour television show.

Speaker A: 00:36:17

It was crazy.

Speaker A: 00:36:19

We had 40 plus minutes of content every week and no breaks.

Speaker A: 00:36:23

We just rock and rolled and had to go.

Speaker A: 00:36:26

Whether we were sick, whether I was hurt, heck, I had a broken knee.

Speaker A: 00:36:29

I was out there doing concrete work on a stool because the show had to go on.

Speaker A: 00:36:34

And then of course, the new version of it where we retooled it to a half hour show.

Speaker A: 00:36:39

And Hayden, Collin, Sparks, all the people that helped on that, hats off to them, put their heart and soul into the program today.

Speaker A: 00:36:48

We've been talking countertops here and I wanted to talk on this last segment of this hour about those kind of special places, whether it's a dog washroom or an outdoor kitchen, all these specialty places that you want to think about how you're going to use it.

Speaker A: 00:37:05

And what I do is go, okay, outside if you're going to be doing an outdoor kitchen or a potting area or It's a little bar area outside that you're trying to do.

Speaker A: 00:37:14

You need to think about two things.

Speaker A: 00:37:16

Is it going to freeze and are you gonna ever get UV on it?

Speaker A: 00:37:20

And yes, you will get uv.

Speaker A: 00:37:22

It will reflect off of a pool, water, window, glass, whatever.

Speaker A: 00:37:27

So those are the places that you want to use more natural products like tile, stone, maybe not quartz.

Speaker A: 00:37:35

If you're gonna get moisture into it, you want to use something that's sealed.

Speaker A: 00:37:38

So then I would go to a slab porcelain.

Speaker A: 00:37:40

You can go with a paper stone product.

Speaker A: 00:37:43

Something like that would work.

Speaker A: 00:37:45

But really, when you're dealing with outside stuff, you need to think about the durability of what you're looking for.

Speaker A: 00:37:53

Yes, you can do stainless steel.

Speaker A: 00:37:55

Yes, you can do it.

Speaker A: 00:37:57

If it gets sun, you're gonna be able to cook an egg on the dang thing because it's gonna be so hot.

Speaker A: 00:38:03

So you gotta think about the use and your budget.

Speaker A: 00:38:06

That's one of the biggest things.

Speaker A: 00:38:07

With this stuff you can get the paper stone production.

Speaker A: 00:38:11

Cut it, sand it glued up, put your seal coat on it, wax it up, call it good, make it look amazing and have something durable.

Speaker A: 00:38:20

Yes, you can do that as a DIY project.

Speaker A: 00:38:23

Butcher block, maybe.

Speaker A: 00:38:25

Problem is, any time that you have a surface that you want to be clean and something that's porous, it's a tough go.

Speaker A: 00:38:33

It's a tough go.

Speaker A: 00:38:35

So think about that.

Speaker A: 00:38:36

In my kitchen outside, I used the sintered stone, which is the slab quartz.

Speaker A: 00:38:41

A slab quartz slab porcelain going around the outside.

Speaker A: 00:38:45

Couldn't use quartz because it's outside and then down below.

Speaker A: 00:38:48

That was in the raised bar because I built this later.

Speaker A: 00:38:51

I actually built that lower section out of the paper stone because I wanted something that's going to be durable, something that was going to match that pretty well, but give myself a really nice softer surface to work with.

Speaker A: 00:39:05

And I really like it for that.

Speaker A: 00:39:06

That is something you can do.

Speaker A: 00:39:09

And I used power tools to finish it.

Speaker A: 00:39:11

Worked out great.

Speaker A: 00:39:12

Is it harder to work with than wood?

Speaker A: 00:39:14

Yeah, because it's super dense and it's heavy.

Speaker A: 00:39:16

But I tell you what, be careful with it too.

Speaker A: 00:39:20

Those little slivers you cut off or you're trimming things, be careful with that because that stuff can get as sharp as a knife.

Speaker A: 00:39:27

So you need to be careful with how you work with that material.

Speaker A: 00:39:30

It can be like glass as far as that edge being sharp.

Speaker A: 00:39:32

So you need to be careful with it, respect it.

Speaker A: 00:39:35

Tile outside can be great.

Speaker A: 00:39:37

You just need to work with materials that don't take on water.

Speaker A: 00:39:40

There's a lot of materials you can use outside these days, but there's also still a lot of ones you can't.

Speaker A: 00:39:46

So make sure that if you're getting something damp, even if you're wiping it down and it freezes at night, if it is porous and it's ceramic or something hard like that, it can crack.

Speaker A: 00:39:58

Cause pock marks.

Speaker A: 00:39:59

Cause finish issues, you don't want to have to deal with that.

Speaker A: 00:40:03

And of course, grease, if you're cooking outside, you want something that's going to stain.

Speaker A: 00:40:08

Wood, marble, all those issues can be just that.

Speaker A: 00:40:11

They can be serious issues.

Speaker A: 00:40:13

So think about the material, what you're going to use, what you're going to work with.

Speaker A: 00:40:17

And there's so much you can do nowadays, if you look at what people are doing for floors in homes or even commercial buildings, heck, I saw them use that slab porcelain.

Speaker A: 00:40:29

My old radio station, they were doing in the high rise, they were doing the downstairs lobby area, and they put four by eight panels down on the floor.

Speaker A: 00:40:37

It was incredible.

Speaker A: 00:40:39

Big, huge slabs.

Speaker A: 00:40:41

So you're seeing that more and more.

Speaker A: 00:40:42

And yes, you can do that with countertops.

Speaker A: 00:40:44

Do you need to have something to cut with?

Speaker A: 00:40:46

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker A: 00:40:48

Do you want to keep the dust down?

Speaker A: 00:40:49

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker A: 00:40:51

So think about that, how you're going to fabricate it and whether you're going to hire somebody or if you're going to do it yourself.

Speaker A: 00:40:58

Now, laminates, not the best for outside, because laminates are going to be used typically over particle board or even plywood.

Speaker A: 00:41:08

It's going to expand and contract.

Speaker A: 00:41:09

It's going to soak up humidity.

Speaker A: 00:41:12

It's just not going to work well.

Speaker A: 00:41:13

So that and wood countertops are something I wouldn't traditionally do outside.

Speaker A: 00:41:17

Yes, you can do stainless, you can do metal.

Speaker A: 00:41:20

I have.

Speaker A: 00:41:21

I've done copper countertops before.

Speaker A: 00:41:22

They look gorgeous.

Speaker A: 00:41:24

Problem is, if you get the wrong cleaners on there, you're going to polish up the area that patina doubt, and it's going to stick out like a sore thumb.

Speaker A: 00:41:31

So you want to make sure that you've got with a copper countertop that it's done correctly.

Speaker A: 00:41:36

It's got a wood base underneath it and it's bent over the top of that.

Speaker A: 00:41:40

It can look absolutely gorgeous.

Speaker A: 00:41:44

But you're not going to want to keep that looking like a fresh copper penny all the time because you're not going to want to polish it.

Speaker A: 00:41:49

But when it starts to get green and brown and get all those cool colors, it can look awesome.

Speaker A: 00:41:54

So when you're thinking about countertops, the other Thing is, you need to plan your backsplash at the same time.

Speaker A: 00:42:01

What are you using to protect that?

Speaker A: 00:42:03

So make sure that you've got that material.

Speaker A: 00:42:06

Look at a bigger piece of it.

Speaker A: 00:42:07

If you've got just a little tiny piece, go down and head down to your slab yard to the material place.

Speaker A: 00:42:13

Go take a look at the full size piece so you understand the scale of it.

Speaker A: 00:42:18

So many times you'll see a small piece, it's maybe a 6 by 6 or an 8 by 8 section.

Speaker A: 00:42:22

When you're out shopping and all of a sudden you're like, I had no idea that had a big leopard pattern in it.

Speaker A: 00:42:27

Couldn't see it from the countertop sample that I had.

Speaker A: 00:42:32

So always go down, get your eyeballs on it and take a look.

Speaker A: 00:42:37

And that way you can really find out what the right material is going to look like in your spot.

Speaker A: 00:42:42

If you've got a designer, maybe they can take some pictures of it.

Speaker A: 00:42:46

I have had companies in the past and there's probably one in your area that will take pictures of the slab material.

Speaker A: 00:42:54

And if you are doing a kitchen, for instance, or an outdoor kitchen, you got some big pieces.

Speaker A: 00:42:59

I have done virtual layouts with that so they take a picture of that material and they actually do a layout with it so you can see where the pattern is.

Speaker A: 00:43:10

Because the worst thing is if you've got a big sink in a island, for instance, but you want that island to be your big chest, awesome statement piece.

Speaker A: 00:43:20

You don't want the sink cut out to be right smack dab in the most beautiful spot of it.

Speaker A: 00:43:24

And yeah, there are other materials out there where they're taking geodes and glass.

Speaker A: 00:43:31

And there's so many different materials out there you can use that are probably not as common.

Speaker A: 00:43:37

But that semi precious stones, you can backlight.

Speaker A: 00:43:41

That quartzite you could backlight sometimes.

Speaker A: 00:43:45

All these different materials you can use.

Speaker A: 00:43:47

You can do waterfall edges that go to the ground.

Speaker A: 00:43:50

Just keep in mind you're adding those square footage.

Speaker A: 00:43:52

You want to make sure that you've got a material that's going to be durable.

Speaker A: 00:43:56

And if it's opaque, backlight it with LEDs.

Speaker A: 00:43:59

This time it's so much easier than it was 15 years ago.

Speaker A: 00:44:03

You can really do some cool lighting and really make it glow, which is something that's super, super cool.

Speaker A: 00:44:09

All right, guys, if you want to find out more about the show here, head over to aroundthehouse online.com for more information.

Speaker A: 00:44:16

I'm Eric G.

Speaker A: 00:44:17

Thanks for tuning in on the two around the house here.

Speaker A: 00:44:20

And if you're listening on the radio.

Speaker A: 00:44:21

An hour two is coming up.

Speaker A: 00:44:23

Make sure and stay tuned for that.

Speaker A: 00:44:25

If not, you can always catch it on the podcast player.

Speaker A: 00:44:28

Thanks for tuning into around the House.

Speaker A: 00:44:30

We'll see you soon.

Speaker B: 00:44:31

To find out more information about the around the House show, head to aroundthehouse online.com and make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Speaker B: 00:44:39

Just search at around the House.

Speaker B: 00:44:41

Eric G.

Speaker B: 00:44:42

Thanks for tuning in to the around the House Show.

Speaker B: 00:44:45

We will see you in the next hour.