Counter Point
Granite countertops reign in the kitchen but new stones and eco-friendly materials are rising in popularity
Scan the real estate pages of any newspaper and you'll see it right away: almost every condominium ad promises "gourmet kitchens with granite countertops." That's a big change from the Formica of the '50s.
Granite has become the new standard for high-end kitchens, with some people spending $300 and up for a square foot of stone. Many factors have contributed to granite becoming so popular, but that doesn't mean shoppers don't need to do their homework.
Granite for the Masses
A decade ago, choosing granite for a kitchen would have been much more difficult.
"Ten years ago it was not as popular as it is today. It was more expensive and there were less options available," said Robert Deja, general manager of All Granite and Marble in Ridgefield Park, N.J., one of the largest fabricators of natural stone countertops on the east coast.
The reason the cost of granite has fallen is twofold, he explained. New quarries have opened up and technological advances have made it possible to cut and polish stone more quickly. All Granite and Marble works with contractors and designers, but primarily services individual homeowners who choose their granite from thousands of samples.
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Most granite used to be processed in Italy and sent to warehouses around the world.
Granite can still be found in the mountains of Italy, but more quarries have opened up in Brazil, India, China, Spain, Norway and many other countries. Another factor in decreasing prices is the introduction of the CNC machines. New devices are Computer Numerically Controlled machines that drive tools, whether cutters or polishers. They handle most of the work once done by skilled craftsmen. It was "tedious, hard. laborious work" for which old-time craftsman were well paid.
"With the CNC machine, turnaround time has decreased three-fold and there is better precision and quality," Deja said. Yet some factories still employ craftspeople for different stages of the fabrication, said Mark Shedrofsky, vice president of Stone Source and a former board member of the Marble Institute of America. Based in Manhattan, Stone Source is a high-end, decorative stone distributor. Shedrofsky said competition has also helped drive down the price of granite.
Tough Enough
At the back of the All Granite and Marble plant, Deja walks through an enormous outdoor lot. There, gleaming in the sun, thousands of slabs of granite are stacked alongside each other. As Deja points out the various merits of different stones, a soft breeze blows off the nearby Hackensack River. This is where customers come to choose their countertops. They are encouraged to lay the template of their specific counter over the exact slab of stone they've chosen "so they can pick which piece will be used, which veining they want. It's fully customized," Deja explained.
Back inside the plant, a slab of granite is laid across a massive concrete pedestal so a bridge saw can cut it. The saw is akin to a large, circular table saw but its blade is embedded with diamonds - one of the few things tough enough to cut granite.
An edge is left uncut, so it can be trimmed, designed and polished later by the CNC machine. The machines guide workers in making the edges and ensure precision; constant streams of water run over the blades to keep the diamonds from wearing out from the heat.
The Stone Engineers
Deja urges people to go "to a professional fabricator to get a good quality ... It's hard for the untrained eye to tell the difference." Some places sell engineered stone that can look like granite. It is a mixture of special glue - an epoxy made with ground-up stones. This durable, engineered stone is often called Zodiac stone or Silestone. Engineered stone will be very uniform and can have colors not found in natural granite, such as orange.
Eco Alternatives
Synthetic countertops made from acrylic and other materials are less expensive than granite, but some can easily burn or scratch.
Marble is prized by pastry chefs who love to roll out dough on their counters, but it can be more porous than granite and can be marred by kitchen acids.
Eco-friendly options include wood butcher blocks and counters made of recycled glass. In Brooklyn, for example, a company called IceStone sells counters made from 100 percent recycled glass and concrete. Another "green" kitchen countertop is PaperStone, made from a blend of post-consumer recycled paper and resin.
Kitchen Confidential
Some people argue that granite has become too ubiquitous and that consumers are looking for new alternatives. Jan MacLatchie, vice president of marketing for Artistic Tile (which has a warehouse and corporate offices in Secaucus and a showroom in Paramus) says the luxury kitchen market considers granite to be "over."
"The really unique and high-end people are moving into all different kinds of stone, such as limestone, soapstone and marble tops, versus the typical heyday of granite that began in the 1980s," she said. Some customers are also looking at concrete, slate and even hand-made artisan tile.
Despite this, luxury construction projects continue to use granite, such as the "Polished Kashmir granite" countertops touted at the Adams Square condominiums in Hoboken.
Jacqueline Urgo, executive vice president of The Marketing Directors, Inc., a Manhattan-based company that handles sales and marketing for major, residential real-estate projects, said granite is prized "because it's a tangible finish that speaks to a very wide audience."
In addition to the Adams Square project, The Marketing Directors oversee several large-scale projects locally, including Grove Pointe and the Trump development in Jersey City, the Vela Townhomes in Edgewater, and Mirabelle on the Hudson in North Bergen. Urgo, who cooks in her Manhattan home in a kitchen with white granite and a limestone floor, said natural stone appeals to people.
"It still has the high perception value to the customer base and it looks beautiful. The non-consistency makes it so appealing ... it adds texture and variation of color. It adds a very rich feeling," Urgo said. "You touch it, it's rich, it's cold. It speaks to luxury."