Autumn re-runs: Reader questions --Thorny dilemmas on stony subjects

I love it when people write to me with questions. Really. Back in the old days, it happened so infrequently that I made a blog post out of nearly every one. I don't have the room for that any more but I do reserve the right to make a post out of any question I can answer that makes me look clever of funny. Preferably both. My personal responses are always a lot kinder than what ends up in the blog, I promise. Also, I will always disguise the identity of a someone who asks me something. Here are some from last year. This post ran originally on 4 October 2009.

Help! We're getting our new granite on Monday hopefully and I'm sure they will tell us how to clean??....but was wondering how you clean your granite. I sure don't want to damage it.

Thanks in advance.

Hey, thanks for your question and congrats on your new addition. Granite is exceptionally easy to live with, despite the nonsense you may see and hear about it. You don't need any special cleaners for it, really. The easiest way to keep it looking good is to clean it with soap and water, rinse it and then dry it. You don't need to scrub it, treat it, buy special cleaners or give it any kind of kid glove treatment. Your fabricator will sell you on an annual resealing package and that's fine if it will give you peace of mind. However, in ten years of dealing with granite counters, I have never once seen anyone stain it or wear down the seal that's already on it when it's installed. The only way you can damage that counter is if you do it on purpose with a hammer. I'm sure there are anecdotes out there about so-and-so's neighbor's cousin's sister-in-law reading something on the internet about some nightmare stained granite incident, but I've never come across one first hand.

Help! My hairdresser told me yesterday about veneer granite transforming her daughter's kitchen... do you know anything about it? cost? installation?

Those granite and composite veneer overlay counters are generally supplied by an outfit called Granite Transformations. Granite Transformations is an international franchise that employs some of the most heavy-handed and shrill sales tactics I've ever come across. That alone makes me wonder about them. Even if the finished product didn't look cheesy (and this finished product looks cheesy), I question anybody whose marketing message consists of slamming their competitors rather than extolling their own benefits. Their latest tactic seems to be touting their "green" credentials. I may be alone in this, but to me that's another red flag. In a world where polyethylene grocery bags and Mylar juice boxes are somehow green, I'd say that's a meaningless descriptor. Proceed with caution. My advice? Go to a reputable counter fabricator that sells a number of materials and see what they can do with your budget.

Help! I can't pick up a home or kitchen magazine without seeing white marble counters. Yet for our complete kitchen renovation, I've gotten total NO! gasps when I share we want marble on the island. Folks tell me Marble is for those who don't cook.

We want a sophisticated library look -the cabinets are mahogany with Jacobean stain, cabinets to the ceiling with white crown molding and we'd love white marble counters.

Do you have experience with white marble counters? The kitchen is 30x15 so the investment is great and I don't want to buy something that cannot withstand children, entertaining and years.

Have you never read my blog before? White marble counters (honed please) are my all-time favorite material, to hell with its detractors. Click on the word countertops in my glossary to the right and you'll be treated to 45 articles I've written on counters. About half of them are devoted to singing songs of praise to white marble. your kitchen sounds beautiful, send me a photo when it's done.

Marble is not high maintenance, but marble is also impossible to to keep looking pristine. If you have an obsessive personality, marble is not your material. Find a white quartzite instead. It will keep a glossy shine and repel damage almost as well as granite will. But if you like the idea of your life leaving a mark on things, then marble is for you. Trust me, white marble will scratch and stain and get more and more beautiful with each passing year. It's marble's nature and there's nothing you can do to counteract it completely.

Just about every horizontal surface in Southern Europe, indoors and out, is made from white marble. Most of it is hundreds of years old. It looks spectacular and is but one of the many ways that the people of Southern Europe get tied to their surroundings. Think about it. If five generations of your family lived in the same home and the matriarch of each generation chopped vegetables in the same spot on the same marble counter, each of those women left a physical mark on that counter. Every time you walked into that kitchen and looked at that counter, you would have an instant reminder of the women who proceeded you to that spot. Wow. Far from detracting from the beauty of the surface, that kind of history and character is the ultimate enhancement. Having white marble in your own home is an opportunity to capture some of that history and character for yourself and for your family.

You keep hearing an emphatic NO! because you haven't spoken with me. I say go for it!

Help! I’m sitting here crying because I’ve looked at so much granite that I want to give up. I’m trying to brighten my kitchen up so I put in Biscotti colored cabinets (already installed 3 weeks ago) to go with a new countertop and flooring (waiting for granite color before picking tile color). I have mainly white appliances. New range top is black and the top section of the dishwasher is black. Other than that it’s all white. My small appliances are black. (Toaster, coffee pot, can opener.) The wall color can be changed to whatever. My dining room table and chairs are light oak.

I’ve run the gamut from light to medium to dark granite and now I’m back to light. I’m ready to give up completely and put the old countertop back in which was wood block.

Hey, chin up. You're fortunate to have a life where you have choices. Having too many choices is a symptom of a life of plenty and certainly nothing to shed tears over. Too many choices can also be intimidating and overwhelming and it sounds like your stuck on overwhelmed. I have no idea what the color "Biscotti" is without knowing who the manufacturer was and I'm not even going to try to make a recommendation. What I do recommend strongly though is that you find the most reputable granite fabricator in your area and give them a call. Please note that this will not be in a big box store. Set an appointment and then take one of your cabinet doors over to the fabricator and look at granite slabs in their yard. You cannot pick a granite counter from small samples. Run away from anyone who tries to tell you otherwise.

I would never turn someone loose with all the options available, it's too much to process. Instead, I do pre-selections for my clients. I talk to them, find out where their interests are and then show them three options rather than 150. If they don't like any of the first set of three, then I show them a second set of three and sometimes a third set.

You need someone to do something similar to that for you in a granite yard. Talk to a salesperson before you go look at slabs. Tell him or her the primary colors you're interested in and then be honest about your budget. Let the salesperson guide you through their slab room. A reputable fabricator will have a good cross section of what's available, so pick something from what you see that day. Just breathe and know that based on your budget and the other colors you're using in your renovation, the right granite will end up picking you. So get out of the way and let it.

Autumn re-runs: A microscopic view of some counter materials

This was one of my favorite posts last year. It ran on 21 December 2009. As proud of it as I was at the time, it's a work of scholarship for crying out loud, I ran it last year during Christmas week and no one saw it. Now I ask you, what other design blog partners with a scanning electron microscope manufacturer to test a marketing claim? Who?

Me, that's who.

Dartmouth College

Another great contact I've made through Twitter in the last few months is the Aspex Corporation in Pittsburgh, PA. Aspex has been in business since the early '90s and they have embraced social media with a savvy and confidence that makes them stand out. The Aspex Corporation makes Scanning Electron Microscopes among other things and that a company in a very technical field and a kitchen designer could strike up a casual acquaintance is a great example of the expansion and simultaneous contraction of the world made possible by social media.

A scanning electron microscope (or SEM) is an instrument for visualizing the surfaces of objects and materials not possible through ordinary optical microscopes. Rather than using a lens to magnify reflected light (an optical microscope) SEMs use a focused beam of electrons to scan a surface.

Aspex Corporation

The electrons bounce back to a detector and the detector generates an image. SEMs can only "see" a small section of an object at a time. So the object being examined is placed on a Sample Stage in the SEM and the stage makes small, incremental movements called rasters. The rasters are then compiled into a complete image and displayed on a screen. It's pretty cool stuff. Most people have seen SEM images of ant's heads or snowflakes and that's a quick explanation of how those images were made.

Well Aspex is running an offer to scan and analyze any sample that can fit inside the chamber of one of their SEMs for free so I took them up on their offer.

I enjoy cutting through marketing speak to an almost unhealthy degree and counter materials are a product category rife with it. For as long as they've been around, I've heard the claims made by quartz composite manufacturers that their products were "perfectly smooth and non-porous." Since this claim is always made during a comparison with the surface irregularities of granite my BS meter goes off.

Quartz composites are a perfectly fine material and I specify their use all the time. In my mind, they are an alternative to natural stone counters but not a substitute for them. They have a very unique look and there are specific times when their use is called for. At the same time, sometimes the over all look of a room calls for granite or soapstone or marble. These materials are not interchangeable and each one has its strengths and weaknesses.

So when Aspex Corporation made its offer to scan any sample I could fit into the chamber of one of their SEMs, I decided to put to the test the quartz composite claims of perfect smoothness and non porosity.

I took two samples that had been sitting on the end of my desk for years and shipped them off to Aspex.

The samples I sent were a piece of Santa Cecelia granite and Sienna Ridge by Silestone. This is by no means an accurate sampling of an entire industry's products. Rather, this is a test of two very specific and very well handled samples. The evidence presented here is anecdotal at best but I still there's something valid to be learned.

photo from Aspex Corp.

Here are my samples upon arrival at Aspex.

photo from Aspex Corp.

Here they are relaxing in front of the PSEM eXpress, Aspex Corporation's bench top model.

The degree of magnification in the following examples is expressed with a scale in each image. The scale is in microns and a micron is another word for a micrometer. A micro meter is a millionth of a meter, put another way, a micron is 1/1000th of a millimeter. Microns are abbreviated as µm. To give you a little more perspective, a human air is 100µm wide and a red blood cell is 8µm in diameter. Salmonella bacteria are 2µm in length and 0.5µm wide.

So here's what my sample of Santa Cecilia looks like.

In this image, the scale at the top reads 200µm. So if you took two human hairs and set them side by side, they would be as wide as the scale.

In this image the scale reads 1000µm. So if you took ten human hairs and set they side by side, they would be as wide as the scale.

Here's another Santa Cecilia granite image at 1000µm.

Now it's quartz composite's turn.

Here's my quartz composite sample with a scale that reads 200µm.

Here is is at a higher magnification, 1000µm

And another shot of it at 1000µm.

Pretty cool, huh? Now, I will grant the quartz composite people an acknowledgement that this sample is smoother than this sample of granite, but I would hardly call it "perfectly smooth and non porous."

So what I take away from this is that I won't be swayed by claims that I should specify quartz composites over natural stone because they are smoother and non-porous (and more hygienic by implication) and I will continue to use composites where they would look best and natural stone where it would look best.

What do you think?

In the meantime, poke around on Aspex Corp's website. You can even send in something of your own with this form. They have a pretty cool contest every week where they invite people to guess what a scan is. Here's last week's:

Care to hazard a guess?

Why it's a Post-it note being pulled back from the pad of course.

Thanks Aspex!

Win a set of Whiskey Stones from the Granite Gurus

Whiskey Stones? Yes, Whiskey Stones.

Whiskey Stones are the brainchild of Andrew Hellman, the founder of Teroforma and a great fan of single malt scotch. Whiskey Stones are made from Vermont soapstone and they take the place of ice cubes in a cold drink. Soapstone is inert and can't react with what ever drink you're chilling it with and soapstone's softer than glass so it can't scratch. More than anything though, it can chill without diluting. Brilliant.

Anyhow, the cool kids at Granite Gurus are giving away a set in a give away to take place this Sunday. Pop on over to their website and enter.

Granite Gurus is a terrific resource for no-nonsense information on natural stone and it's written by Steph Southwick, a regular commenter on this blog and a fellow geology geek.

Seriously, Steph is the only other person I've run across who takes the geology and chemistry of natural stone as seriously as I do. She's someone I can talk Schist and Sinter with and for that reason alone everyone should follow her blog.

So don't forget to head over to Granite Gurus between now and Sunday to enter to win a set of Teroforma's Whiskey Stones.

Help me help my new house

Hi, I'm Julie Warner, author of Kitchen and Home Appliance Blog for my family's appliance company, Warners' Stellian.

This is my second post as a guest blogger for Paul (here's my previous post).

Paul suggested I use this opportunity to solicit help from you all in decorating my first house, which I will be moving into in June.

My friend took this picture of me during the home inspection (notice the legs in the pantry in the background). I'm sitting between the living room and kitchen, probably giggling nervously at the prospect of making so many design decisions.



The homeowners' current colors of blue and yellow don't particularly suit my taste. And actually, they're the exact colors of both my high school and college (Go Marquette!). So, these feel more like my past than my future.

I'm thinking gray -- darker in the living room, lighter in the kitchen. The living room has a lot of light, as does the kitchen, to a lesser degree. We're ripping up the carpet to reveal the hardwood floors of this 1953 house.

My friend (and future roommate) that took this photo is inheriting the furniture for our living room (pictured in its current home):



Not pictured is an oversized chair that matches the couch. The biggest hurdle?



Blue laminate countertops. Right now they pretty much match the living room wall (the bright color starts to make sense right about now).

What I'd love your help on:

Wall colors
Are grays a good choice?

Ceiling fan
You can kind of see the blue ceiling fan in the above picture. I'd like to replace it with something less....blue. I'd be open to creative ideas.

Accent colors
I'd love to do a gold or mustard in the living room, but I'm lost for the kitchen because of the challenge of the blue countertops. For instance, I'm afraid to set out my red Viking food processor.

Furniture
The couch is a bit drab, but I'll gladly take it because I'm saving my pennies for a European dishwasher, Electrolux steam washer, Miele vacuum and Vermont Castings grill (I'm such a product of my environment).

I'm also not sure if I should paint the wood furniture black. We could probably fit another chair or loveseat, if I can come up with a good idea for what I should have.

I also need to devise a plan for the small eating area (behind the breakfast bar in the picture), for which we have a blond wood table and four chairs. We can paint those too, if we want.

Help?

Concrete Detail: an interview with artisan Richard Holschuh

Hi everyone, my name is Bob Borson and I'm an architect in Dallas, Texas. I have a website of my own www.lifeofanarchitect.com where I write about what it's like to work with and be an architect. Paul asked if I would sit in for him one day while he is away at the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (KBIS) taking place in Chicago and prepare a guest post, and I jumped at the chance. This is my second post on Kitchen and Residential Design (my first was here), and Paul has been gracious enough to let me speak with his readers again. Little does he know what a great birthday present he has given me because today is my 42nd birthday and I am very happy to be here.

The word “concrete” derives from Latin meaning “growing together”. A technology developed by the Romans and lost for centuries, it has become the ubiquitous modern material. Simply put, it is a matrix composed of cement, aggregate, and water. Blended together, these basic ingredients morph from liquid to solid, and crystallize over time into an entirely new substance. Faithfully assuming the form into which it is placed, concrete is a construct of intentional design. In the broader sense, concrete means solid, tangible, and real.

Details are the finer points that give relevance to broad gestures – they bring character and expression to what otherwise be commonplace. They convey identity and value through a careful investment of intent. Details are the distinguishing qualities that appeal to the perceptive eye and soul.

These interconnected concepts of the “overall” and the “distinct”, the “general” and the “specific”, come together to form a whole system and a design synergy: a unified moment of creative response to an environment. Captured in solid form, this is Concrete Detail.

I recently interviewed concrete artisan Richard Holschuh to learn more about concrete as an interior finish material, his methodology for working with the material, and the finished ethereal qualities of one of the oldest known building materials.

Richard, tell me who you are and what you do.

I’m a technician (well-versed in tools and materials: making “stuff”), learning to find and trust my inner concrete artist. Having worked in construction as a carpenter most of my life, I can readily implement a set of drawings and arrive at a given result. Taking that beyond the prosaic act of straightforward “doing” and into the realm of abstraction and then conceptualization is the welcome challenge I find before me now, as I become immersed in artisan concrete. I say “artisan concrete” to distinguish it as a creative, versatile medium well-suited to the task of rendering functional art, in the form of countertops, sinks, surrounds, and other surfaces. My goal is to imbue this commonplace material with uncommon grace, expression, and personality. When the maker and the made begin to flow together and are given directional impetus by a client’s needs, the end result can be amazing. It is truly a synergy of people, places, and the physical. And perspiration. It’s not as easy as it looks!

What are some of the practical aspects or considerations of using concrete as a finished product?

There is no ideal surface; they all have their inherent characteristics. I think I can say (without stretching it) that, design-wise, concrete is the most versatile material available. The reason is this: we’re working with a fluid that becomes a solid mass, faithfully assuming the form into which it is placed. So, the considerable care and skill (and inventiveness) invested into the form, or mold, will determine the result, by default. Simply put, this is a creative process – we actually MAKE this, virtually from the simplest of materials; nearly all other architectural surfacing options are a subtractive process, machining a (basically) two dimensional cutout from a sheet stock of one type or another. It can be quite limiting, whereas we create “from the get-go” and can work in three dimensions handily, without having to assemble a whole from “what’s available”. This is why I prefer the term “artisan” over “fabricator”. Functionally, concrete will perform at least equal to most other solid surface materials, such as natural stone, acrylic, composites, engineered stone, etc. It can be priced very competitively, especially considering its handcrafted origins. Finally, I must point out that “not all concrete is created equal”; the end result is very dependent on the vision (both aesthetic and technical) and abilities of the artisan chosen. A major case in point is the sealer used on the final product (that’s another story). Concrete doesn’t have to be stain-prone. Or crack... I guarantee against cracks.

Can you describe the process you go through when making a counter top?

Since precast artisan concrete is custom by nature, the process necessitates close collaboration between the craftsman and the client. The objective, of course, is to draw upon the vast array of techniques available through the medium in order to create an appropriate design response. While the choices can be bewildering, a good designer will help to steer the conversation in the right direction. Restraint becomes liberating.

I am particularly interested in colors and foreign object inlays. How does someone know what color they will be getting? Do you have a sample mock-up process?

Choosing a color is one of the first steps. Any color or combination is possible – we work with a concrete coloring supplier that can match Benjamin Moore’s palette. We simplify this by offering a 16 color standard palette (4 x 4 chips available) with a full custom option (in this case we do mock-ups). Typically, these are integral pigments made with powdered oxides; other coloring techniques include acid staining, surface dyes and washes, and multi-colored casting. After the color decision is made, we move on to other aspects: this can include embedding objects in the surface such as fossils, crushed glass, stainless steel bars, or your company logo. Features such as pitched drain-boards, built-in trivets, fruit bowls, and recesses to house a cutting board are often included. The possibilities are only limited by one’s imagination (and design sense).

What are some of the design standards (thickness, weight) people who want to design a concrete counter top should know?

Our standard thickness (if there is such a thing in custom work!) is 1 ½ inches; while any edge profile is possible, a pencil or eased square edge is very often chosen. Under-mount sinks are usually specified, but we also create integral concrete sinks in any shape, especially in bathrooms. Clients are often concerned that the weight may be an issue, but concrete’s mass is similar to granite, at about 18 lbs./sq.ft. Modern cabinetry can handle this load with no problem, as it is spread evenly around the perimeter. Integral reinforcement, both primary and/or secondary, are used as a matter of course and as needed to handle special stresses, such as overhangs, clear spans, and narrow sections such as the front and back of a sink hole. The templating and installation steps are nearly identical to any other countertop material, so there is very little time actually spent on site. The processes of actually forming, casting, and finishing the tops are all performed in the shop/studio, to maintain quality control and strict oversight of the many details involved.

How long does the process take once your services are retained?

The typical turnaround time on an individual project, once critical decisions are made and templates have been taken, is three to four weeks. Technically speaking, we can complete the actual fabrication in about 7-10 days of actual work, but there are always bumps and delays and concrete takes time to cure properly, so we need to build in some reality time for scheduling. Some more complex jobs, such as forming a custom sink, can take a little more time. It’s the front-end portion – design and decision-making – that takes the longest, to be honest.

How does the cost compare to other counter top choices?

The cost for this custom work can vary widely, as you might expect. However, we often ballpark countertops on a square foot basis, with added features affecting the bottom line as the design process proceeds. The unit price ends up being very competitive with other mid-range surface choices, at around $85-90/sq.ft. More complex work and special features are considered on a case-by-case basis; for instance we charge about $1200 for a concrete farm-style sink. Integral vanity sinks run about $600-750. A fantastic value, I think, for a handcrafted one-of-a-kind piece with unlimited avenues to explore.

Is there a maintenance program people should follow?

Maintenance depends completely on the sealer choice and use patterns. “Old school”, traditional concrete countertops were sealed (and some still are) with a penetrating sealer and waxed. These require regular re-waxing and will eventually acquire a patina, which can be a wonderful look. Then there are a multitude of topical sealer choices, some more durable than others and some requiring occasional re-application. They tend to be susceptible to abrasion, extreme heat, and perhaps difficulty to repair on site when damaged by abuse. Just as there is no such thing as a” perfect material” in the real world, satisfying every possible criteria, there is no perfect sealer. One that comes very close to that ideal, however, is reactive sealing, with a lithium densifying technology – you may encounter this in the newly popular diamond polished slab floors in commercial (and some residential) applications. A version of this (more a treatment than a sealing approach) is beginning to be used for countertops. It is water-based, food-safe, very natural in appearance and – wonder of wonders – actually improves over time! Cleanup is simply water and soap. This is the approach we are now taking, after having worked through the gamut of sealer options; we strive for constant innovation and improvement in our techniques, components, and final results.
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I would like to thank Richard for the transparency he has provided into his work. When I started this interview I can admit that my knowledge of concrete was limited to retaining walls, sidewalks and driveways. I know people who have concrete counter tops but I myself have never specified one. I was not aware of the possibilities available to me as a designer - from shape, texture, color, finish and material inlays. Down below you can see the progression on the fabrication process. If you have any specific questions, I will make sure to get you the answers to need; Richard and I are now like this (fingers crossed).

Is it granite, gabbro or basalt?

This post ran on 17 October 2008 originally
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This is Absolute Black. It is always labeled and sold as granite but it isn't granite. It's a mineral called gabbro.

When magma gets trapped in a single layer underneath the earth's crust, it will gradually cool and form gabbro. Now if the same material were to be pushed up from below under great pressure, it would form granite. But then again, if that magma were to come in contact with water it would turn instantly into basalt. Are you still following me here? Gabbro, granite and basalt are essentially the same material in different forms. In order to form granite, magma needs a good hard squeeze so its component materials can separate and form large crystals. If magma cools very quickly upon contact with air or water, it will form basalt. And if magma is left alone for a couple million years it will form gabbro.

Why is this important? Well, it's important because those three phases of former magma have different properties. Basalt is the most brittle of the three which is why it doesn't get used as counter top material. Most granites are strong enough to be sliced into 3cm sheets without too much trouble. But gabbro, due to its uniform crystal size and density is stronger than granite. This means that it can handle longer, unsupported overhangs --like on a bar. It can be carved into more ornate edge treatments and since it's so uniform, it is more water resistant. Absolute black is a great stone to make into a sink, whereas you wouldn't want to use most granites for that purpose.

The downside to it (if it's truly a downside) is that it's always black or very nearly black. Chances are good that if you're looking at a uniformly black or very dark grey granite, you're not looking at a piece of granite at all, but rather a piece of gabbro.

Now, due to that uniform crystal size and density, gabbro can be shined up to a mirror-like surface and that's where the problem with it is as it's ordinarily used comes in. It is impossible to keep clean if it's being used as a kitchen counter when it has that mirror finish. I have never heard of someone who had it and liked it. But the problem isn't the material, it's the finish. It will show every finger print, water spot, smear and smudge. It would drive me insane.

Here's a slab of absolute black with a honed finish. The honed finish tones down the black quite a bit, and in so doing, it eliminates the mirror effect.

Here's a whole kitchen done in honed Absolute Black. It's a much calmer counter than the shot at the top of this post, wouldn't you say?

Now, because true Absolute Black "Granite" is a premium, a lot of less-than-honorable stone suppliers will take a less-expensive predominantly black granite and call it Absolute Black because most people can't tell the difference.

Sometimes; similar, dishonorable suppliers will actually dye inexpensive granite with black pigments and sell it as more expensive Absolute Black.

Not that I'd know any of these less-than-honorable business people personally...

Anyhow, if you're in the market for absolute black, make sure that what you're buying is just that. If it looks like this, it ain't absolute black.

And as a completely unrelated yet completely cool side note, the paving stones on the streets of Pompeii are gabbro.

Sometimes I just love geology. Even if the only person I fascinate with this stuff is me.

Working up a lather with soapstone

This post ran on 16 October 2008 originally.
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Another metamorphic rock that makes its way into homes is steatite, commonly called soapstone. It's composed primarily of the mineral talc with a healthy does of magnesium for good measure. The magnesium is where it gets its grey color. Soapstone formation occurs in regions of tectonic subduction and in the presence of water. Let me whip out my rock phase illustration again.

By the time a slab of soapstone ends up in some one's home, it's between 400 and 500 million years old to give you some sense of the timeline involved in its formation.

Soapstone is soft. You can write your name in it with a fingernail is how soft. Due to its high talc content, it feels somewhat like a bar of soap to the touch, hence its name.

Even though it's very soft, it's an excellent material for kitchen and bath counters. Unlike a lot of stone, soapstone is neither alkaline nor acidic and is completely inert. That means that virtually nothing can make it react chemically. Vinegar and lemon juice, the great etchers of marble, have no effect on soapstone. It's virtually non-porous, so oils and dark-colored liquids can't stain it.

The stuff's used for table tops in chem labs for a reason.

Most people oil their soapstone with mineral oil but this doesn't do anything but enhance its color and minimize the appearance of the hairline scratches it will accumulate over time. In its un-oiled state, soapstone is grey. Add mineral oil and it turns black. With repeated applications, this oil-induced black color will become permanent, but that's due to the oil oxidizing on the surface of the stone.

Soapstone's an excellent heat diffuser and that's why it gets used to make fireboxes and wood stoves. It's also water proof and that's why it gets used to make sinks and cookware.

Soapstone is a great material to use in a kitchen. Its grey-black color is an achromatic neutral and that means it will go with anything. If you're considering a kitchen renovation and you want to try something different but still a natural stone, think about soapstone.

Onyx isn't what you think it is

This post ran on 15 October 2008 originally.
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The polished rock pictured above is true onyx. Onyx is a form of quartz called chalcedony (what a great word) that's usually associated with volcanic activity. As a form of quartz, chalcedony is composed of silica. It's formed when water dissolves silica to the point of saturation. What precipitates out of the saturated solution is chalcedony. Chalcedony, or true onyx, is a semi-precious stone that's used primarily to make jewelry.


The materials I'm showing above are sold as onyx, but they are an unrelated stone. Repeat, they aren't really onyx. That certainly doesn't distract from their beauty, but knowing what things are is important.

The stones shown above are a form of calcite called sinter. If you go to a stone yard and ask to see a slab of sinter they will look at you like you have three heads, so play along and call it onyx. Sometimes, knowing something and keeping it to yourself can be really satisfying.

Sinter, or commercial onyx is formed from calcite in a way similar to how travertine is formed. Water dissolves calcite from limestone to the point of saturation and what precipitates out of that solution will form either sinter or travertine depending on a couple of factors. If there are air bubbles present at the time that the calcite gets deposited then the resulting stone will be travertine. If there are no air bubbles, then the resulting stone will be sinter, or commercial onyx.

If you've ever been in a cave, the stalactites and stalagmites are made from calcite and if left to form large enough deposits, they may end up as a vanity counter several thousand years in the future.

What this means too is that this material is a sedimentary rock. Of the three types of rock (igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary), sedimentaries are almost always the most fragile and commercial onyx is no exception. It can't handle everyday stresses and it is very easy to chip and crack. People who don't know any better sell this stuff as real, silicaceous onyx. If it were silica-based, it would wear a lot better than this material actually does. Keep in mind that it is as high maintenance as travertine. I think travertine's gorgeous, it's my favorite flooring material. But I wouldn't put it on a counter if you put a gun to my head.

It can't handle heavy traffic or exposure to acids. It's extremely porous and makes a pretty lousy kitchen surface. Besides, most of it is supremely busy and a little of it goes a long way. In the bathroom pictured above, it looks interesting without being overwhelming. But just barely.

In the kitchen above it looks like the scene of a grisly murder or a slaughterhouse. Seriously, it looks like these people have a meat back splash. Ugh. This material is very expensive and as the kitchen above illustrates beautifully, expensive doesn't always mean tasteful.

The less garish form shown on the tub surround above is usually called honey onyx. I've used the same material as a desk top in an office and it looked interesting without being too too. Get up close and personal to a slab of the material pictured above some time if you get the chance. It's really interesting. It looks like half crystallized caramel. It's a little too wild for my tastes, but I can't walk past it without stopping. Sometimes, stuff that comes out of the ground is just jaw dropping.

Let's meet marble and the metamorphics

This post ran on 14 October 2008 originally.
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That sounds like the name of a Do-Wop band. So since I touched on igneous rocks in general and granite in particular yesterday, today I want to talk about the metamorphics.

My diagram above shows sedimentary rocks on a sea floor being subducted under a tectonic plate. That sedimentary rock will turn into metamorphic rock given enough time, enough heat and enough pressure. So what was once sediment on the bottom of the sea turns into metamorphic rock as it gets pushed down into the slow cooker that sits directly below our feet. If it doesn't run into anything, it will turn into an igneous rock eventually. But then I wouldn't have anything to write about.

So in our case, the now metamorphic rock is going to run into another continental plate and instead of continuing its long journey down, it's going to be thrust upward like in this diagram.

The blue section in this diagram shows how metamorphic rocks end up back on the surface of the earth after their time spent below ground. That blue section is how we get three common metamorphic rocks used in homes: marble, quartzite, soapstone and a fourth, mysterious stone called serpentinite. I'm going to write a post on soapstone later, so for now I'm going to concentrate on marble, quartzite and serpentinite.

Everybody knows what marble is but what a lot of people don't know is that it used to be limestone, a sedimentary rock. So even though the chemistry of the original limestone and the resulting marble are identical, their molecular structures are different thanks to time spent in the depths of the earth. The same thing happens to turn sandstone into quartzite. Serpentinite is another metamorphic rock that's usually mislabeled as marble (Rainforest Green and Rainforest Brown are examples of serpentinite). Serpentinite starts out as ultramafic rock in the mantle of the earth that gets thrust upward. Serpentinite never spent any time at the surface of the earth and it isn't a transformed sedimentary rock. It's instead the transformed, formerly molten core of the earth.

OK, real life example time.

Here's a slab of Carrera marble. It's a pretty common stone so far as marbles go and most of it starts at around $60 a square foot when it's being made into a kitchen counter. It's composed of calcium carbonate and other minerals and that's what makes it softer and less stain resistant than granite. Despite what everyone claims are its negatives, I'd be safe in saying that it's my favorite counter top material. It's a classic, it holds a temperature perfectly, it looks great and 11 million Italian families can't be wrong. Embrace the stains people.

So here it is in a traditional kitchen. The subway tile on the back wall is also made from Carrera in this kitchen. In life, this is a gorgeous kitchen in a nearly timeless style.

Carrera also looks great in a modern setting. The William Ohs kitchen shown above proves that pretty well.

Marble can also be black with white veins of silica in it and that's stunning in its own right. Although at the end of the day, I think that white marble's easier to work with aesthetically.

This is a piece of white quartzite my client fell in love with last week. White quartzite often gets mislabeled as marble, but they are very different stones. Marble is composed of calcium carbonate and quartzite is composed of silica. The two stones behave very differently. As silica, quartzite will be harder and less prone to staining than marble will. If you look at quartzite up closely, you can see that it has a grainier appearance than marble does. That's from its once having been sandstone.

Quartzite usually has some bright colors in it on a white background. When it looks like this it's often mislabeled as granite and that's unfortunate because it's not granite. Quartzite is more porous than granite is despite their being made from the same elements essentially.

This is a quartzite from Brazil that's always mislabeled and sold as a granite. It's usually called Blue Louise and it is an eyeful. Again, it's beautiful as a piece of stone but as Tim Gunn would say, it's a lot of look. Proceed with caution.

The other big difference between quartzite, marble, serpentinite and granite is the price. Quartzite and serpentinite are always wickedly expensive whether they're labeled properly or not. Marble and granite tend to be more affordable.

Finally, the slab of stone above is always labeled as a marble and it's usually called Rainforest Brown or Rainforest Green. It's not a marble though, it's a serpentinite that's been pushed up from the very bowels of the earth. It's made from a veritable soup of elements ranging from manganese, cobalt, nickel, iron and silica. Even though it's sold as a marble, it's a lot more resilient than marble is and it's usually harder. These stones are great to use in bathrooms, but I wouldn't want to prepare food on them in a kitchen owing to their toxic mineral content.

Granted, the amounts of cadmium, chromium and the rest of them are trace amounts; but I'd like to keep my cadmium intake down to zero thank you.

So there's my run through of some common metamorphic rocks. Tune in tomorrow when I tackle the sedimentary rocks people welcome into their homes.