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Granite Transformations, anyone?

16 years ago

We are building a new house and are interested in a quartz type countertop (i.e. Silestone, Caesarstone etc.) Recently we heard about Granite Transformations (link below), which seems to be the same idea - i.e. ground stone suspended in a polymer adhesive - only it's about 2/3 the cost of the standard quartz counters. Has anyone used this product before (or even looked into it) and can you recommend it? We are going to arrange a visit to an acquaintance's house to see their new installation in person before pursuing this any further, but I'd love to hear any feedback you have before then.

Granite Transformations

Comments (3)

rmkitchen
16 years ago
I don't have it but at my local mall, just outside the Restoration Hardware, Granite Transformations has a kiosk. Based on what I've seen, it is nothing like a quartz countertop: those are solid.

This is a v. thin covering which goes over your existing countertops. (Again, this is all based on the kiosk mock-ups where they have their product cut away so you can see the formica or tile countertop underneath.)

Based on this, for me to ever consider it it would have to be waaaay more than 2/3 less than a quartz countertop. (as in, it would have to be much less expensive) But I've no idea its durability -- it could be great. But given how thin it is and based on what you wrote of its price, I'd rather get the real deal, a solid surface.

It'll be interesting to hear what you think of your friend's countertop. Let us know!
bluekitobsessed
16 years ago
My neighbor installed GT. She was very impressed with the company in general, the fact that it could be installed over an existing tile countertop in one day (it was), and the fact that because it was thin she didn't need to redo adjacent things. She also chose a coordinating glass-tile-look backsplash from GT. It's been in about 1 year and I haven't heard her complain.

However...she always chooses practical/inexpensive/low-maintenance-even-if-fake, and I always choose real-even-if-high maintenance (e.g., she has Pergo and artificial plants, I have hardwood and fresh cut flowers). IMO her GT product and backsplash look fake!!! In short, I personally can't recommend it, but that's my bias.
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I had bad experience with "Granite Transformations" doing our kitchen. they quoted 3,900 but my husband got it down to 3,390. we had existing tile...but supposedly their whole concept is NO DEMO. If they didnt take off the bullnose tiles the stove wouldn't fit. Fine, but they took it off everywhere. the cement was in my silverware all the drawers in my dishes and pots and pans. 2nd visit measure. 3rd visit 4wks later-install. they had measured wrong! they fogot to allow for the removal of all the bullnose. so it was even bigger and blockier and longer in places than it should have been. plus this one ledge was undercut so the wall stuck out farther, so they said they'll come back to fix that. so many ph.calls later we get the original salesman to look at it. then another appt to re-measure, that gets lost. comes back again and discusses with me in great detail of how this is going to go. 4 wks go by with 3 un-returned phone calls, they apologized saying they were waiting for the slab to come in. Now this is where I get mad. My husband takes off work to be here for the "install", and get this, the guy RE-discusses OPTIONS (with my husband)of how to fix this!! So what happened to all the decisions that I had already made? I don't know, Out the door,GONE, complete waste of MY time! they spent 4 hrs. here re-measuring and table sawing and sanding, when it was suppossed to already been measured and cut overTHERE! and just installed here. We started this in June and now its mid-October. For 2,000.bucks more we could've had this done right and look better than this huge block look. You get what you pay for and some times less than that...a horrible experience to live with.
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I have shopped Houzz for a few years now. I only wish I would have seen this thread sooner! I just had GT of Chico Ca install kitchen counters. WHAT A NIGHTMARE! First time they were to big. They didn't follow what I had specified. The second attempt they were to small and didn't fit. Third time they were installed but the work was so sloppy! Unlevel counters, epoxy oozing around the sink. The list goes on... I have photos of all of it and the company offered me a lousy $200 to cover the cost of touching up my badly scratched cabinets. I hate my kitchen now. It does look cheap as others have stated. What a huge and very costly mistake.
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There have been some great threads on Granite Transformation. Do a search at the BOTTOM of the page. Good Luck!
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We installed line voltage driven LED strip lights from Maxite under our cabinets in the home office. We're quite pleased: easy to install, nice even warm light, much less heat generation versus the previous xenon lights. They're on an LED-compatible dimmer, and perhaps the only shortfall is that they don't dim as far as the xenons did, but no flickering.
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olchik
16 years ago
FWIW, I just saw something like this done on Kitchen Renovations.

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