more info? like... is classic house, contemporary, what color bath and cabinets...
than I will give my suggestion :-)

ashlander, if you do decide to go with granite, at that size, you ought to be able to get a remnant and do granite economically. That's what I did for my dining room buffet, which is 72" long. We ended up with a spectacular piece of Verde San Francisco and the total price per sq. ft. was half of what we paid for the kitchen and bathroom (same fabricator).

Remnant, definitely. All of those materials have remnants.

Gosh. I saw Silestone remnants that long, at 3/sf, just a few weeks ago.

Call around to fabricators, and some stoneyards have remnants too.

Now style? That needs more information, like "giacomo" said.

Giacomo, nice to see you here. I visited your website, which I notice is pretty new--are those bathrooms that you actually designed and were installed in a home? They're beautiful. I could have used seeing them before we did our bathroom...and the kitchen is just my style (same house as the bathrooms? similar cabinetry). The ceiling lights are unusual, to be sure...

I'd get Cambria or some other quartz material for the bathroom. If this is for your master bath why bother with granite and sealing and possible stains? Cambria is rated by NSF for the food industry, just as stainless steel--so bacteria is easily removed as the surface is non-porous. It is more non-porous than granite or Corian and much more so than laminate. Plus you can use a Cambria Arctic white or any other of their colors. It's not like people will be hanging out in your bathroom to look at the grain and colors in the granite. Bacteria removal and ease of disinfecting and cleaning should be your top priority. Cambria has always looked better made to me than the other quartzite products.

Greg

dm: Thanks for the tip on remnant granite. We used prefab granite for our master bath (Santa Cecelia light) and really like the look, but the width of the prefab piece did not allow for 4" granite backsplash (I think it is more like 3"). The prefab only cost $400, but with the install, price was doubled.
Giacomo: Our bathroom is quite "generic,"...only 5'x6', not counting tub, which is preformed fiberglass tub and "tile."
Vanity cabinet is shaker style in a natural maple.
Floor will be brownish vinyl/travertine look.
My overall style is very simplistic/clean lines.
I didn't know if a manufactured countertop would be cheaper than granite. Finances have been depleted by major remodel. We are paying as we go on our DIY bathroom...I blame my "just a little more" mentality when I read of items here on the garden web. LOL (But I am totally pleased with all the decisions we made).

flyleft: We'll be sure to check out remnants of silestone. Thanks for the tip.

Greg: I haven't heard of Cambria. What kind of material is it made of. I know I don't want Corian because I want something shinier. But I agree with you that bacteria removal and ease of cleaning is my/our top priority. The bathroom gets used mainly by grandkids and other family members who drop by daily.
However, it is our only guest bathroom, so we do want it to look nice.

I'm pricing remnants of granite or silestone for our vanity,and the fabricators are quoting the same price per sq. foot as slabs of granite. And the fabricating cost is just the same, ie cut outs for the sink, edging. I suppose I could try to negotiate the remmants, since they are really a freebie for the fabricators. But everyone I called so far said without prompting the price was the same per sq. foot.

We love our silver sea green granite in the kitchen, and have never sealed it. 3 years later I think I detect a few fine "holes" so will look into sealing. Some granites are so dense that sealing is not an issue. And the lower grades are cheaper than silestone for sure.

ashlander (dare I guess that's Ashland, OR? If so, hey from upstate :)),

You know, you could probably install a 39" wide counter yourself. We just fabricated and installed a 54" Silestone counter, complete with sink and faucet cutouts ourselves (we had to buy the tools, but we can sell them again). Get two people to carry it and you can definitely do it (3 cm Silestone is 15 lbs/sq.ft.). You could pick it up from the fabricator, put it in your trunk, and install it with silicone/epoxy/whatever yourselves. All necessary materials would be sold at a good tile store that sells tools to fabricators/installers. We used Intrepid for our supplies--they were wonderful, helpful without laughing at the idea of a little female homeowner fabricating her own Silestone, and had better prices than Dal.

Cambria is another engineered stone like Silestone or Caesarstone. They are all just slightly different wrt colors/size of particulates, etc. Silestone made after 2005 is impregnated w/microban, fwiw. But I think that's more relevant to kitchens than to baths, but like I said, fwiw :)

If you have access to pre-fab granite counter tops, that would be pretty reasonable cost.

I did 4 baths all with pre-fab and here is the break down
1) Powder room 25"x22", black granite, pre-fab exact size and holds pre drilled. $120, installation $0.
2) Guest bath 37"x22", I use some kind of cheap cream marble from China, used 1 slab of 8' prefab $130. Cut, drill holes and installation $200. Now, I have a spare slab of almost 5' for my garage work bench!
3) Kids bath, 78"x22". multi color red, used 1 slab of 10' prefab - $250, use the excess for the platform next to the bath tub. Cut, drill holes and polish 1 17" edge and installation $250.
4) Master bath, 82"x22". used some kind of green looking natural quatz, 1 slab of 9'x30" $400, use the excess for a 5' window sill. Cut, drill holes, polish straight edge for window sill and installation $300.

I use all vessel sink, so there is no polish needed like for an undermount sink. But the installer told me that each undermount sink - cut hole, polish and installation will be $150. The overall installation cost is pretty good because I bundle the whole deal with my kitchen granite. Although the work was done at 3 different times - kitchen first, then powder room + guest bath and finally kids and master bath, the price was negotiate and agreed ahead of time.
As for the slab, all 4 comes from 4 different shops! :-(

Here is a link that might be useful: My bathrooms

fly: You guessed correctly. I'm from southern Oregon. Are you in Portland? Love Portland, home of the Container store, Crate and Barrel and now Ikea! I'll be there the following weekend with my daughter...for my grandson's soccer tournament. I am amazed at your resourcefulness and DIY ability. Our DIY consists of DH painting the bathroom, installing the Toto toilet, installing the new vanity with drawers (old one didn't have any drawers),custom made by our kitchen cabinet guy, and hooking up plumbing...which may need to be repositioned.
Shark: Wow! I saw your bathrooms. You certainly did an awesome job on all your bathrooms...at a bargain price!

We went to Ikea today! I thought I'd be able to resist the siren song longer than I did, but hey. I like it much better than Seattle--no offense to the Seattle people :)--something about the layout, amount of natural light, maybe? Even though it was *quite* crowded today, everything flowed smoothly, there was parking up close, and there was almost an overabundance of salesfolk, with experts imported from Seattle to help the new people learn the tricks--I challenged them in the kitchen dept and we somehow stumbled our way to a brilliant solution :) I've always wanted to go to Ashland but we never quite made it all the way. Someday :) What a great place to live. Good luck to your grandson!

Re the DIY resourcefulness: a low budget is a great motivator :) But you've done a lot yourself!

Hello all,

What are pre-fab stone countertops and where can I find them?