Do not use Lowes..... Do not use Lowes as a contractor! On June 23, 2015, my life and my son’s life was turned upside down causing not only unnecessary stress to us but, causing me to incur thousands of additional dollars in costs due to the construction of the bathroom. On June 23, 2015 I initiated an agreement with Lowes to remodel a 5X7 bathroom. I paid in full $14,913.00. My son and his wife were supposed to move in to this condominium at the end of August as the bathroom was to be completed in 15 days of actual work or by the agreed upon date of August 15th. The events of the last 5 1/2 months were perpetuated by the poor and ineffective project scheduling and by the contractor hired by Lowes. However, it always seemed that Lowes had the back of the contractor and not us the customer who had paid in full the entire cost of the bathroom renovation prior to the start of the construction. The guarantee of satisfaction we signed with Lowes on June 23rd 2015 had no effect on the construction. Therefore, after deliberate consideration and consultation it is obvious that the bathroom renovation was not completed to expected and reasonable standards of satisfaction. 5 1/2 months’ later the bathroom was never completed to expected and reasonable standards of satisfaction. Examples of the extremely sloppy workmanship include: The door and door frame should have been replaced with a quality door as agreed to in initial contract. Door is damaged, poorly spray painted so its surface is like sandpaper and the frame is damaged too so that the correct hardware could not be installed. Old rusted hinges were reused with caked on paint of years of use. The threshold is not the marble one we selected and it is the wrong color. The bathroom is beiges and browns and the threshold is an orange composite material. The wall and the tile molding was never completed behind the vanity. The grout is coming out from between the tiles in the shower. Instead of re-grouting the tiles calking was use on the surface only. The ceiling has gouges in it from when the bathroom was demolished and the light fixture was removed. The vent fan does not sit flush against the wall due to a wall that is not vertical. The light switch was poorly installed and now it cannot be aligned. Due to the inexpensive door when the towel bars were connected to the door the door was hollow so they could not be anchored correctly. Other expenses we incurred were my son's 2 months’ rent in his Manhattan apartment since the timeline for the renovation changed from the end of August to the end of November. And you can’t move into an apartment that has no toilet. (Expense of $3,358.00) Also… *** You have to see the photos of the mess in the apt. Nothing was covered. Everything is covered by a layer of dust. Floors, walls, windows, all the furniture, television, bedding, couches all appliances and more. In the middle of the living room is a 4-foot pile of bathroom debris (tile, floor, wall board, ceiling, plumbing and probably asbestos & lead too. The floors were left in such a damaged condition due to the contractor's dumping the demolition refuse into the living room that we needed to scrape the damaged floors for $2,126.00. And finally the couches were discarded because the debris that covered them and it was not worth the risk to use them. Their replacement value was about $1800.00 In all we are requesting compensation in the amount of $ 22,197.00 without the cost of painting the entire apartment that is covered with dust that probably contains asbestos and lead. Photos are available if you contact me at Bschreier@aol.com.

We put a charcoal gray (anthracite) Blanco Silgranit sink into our last home (about 12 years ago) and after a few years of use, we were less than pleased with its performance, especially for the price tag. At first, it was amazing and we loved how it looked! Over the years, we used it for everything - normal kitchen/dish washing use but also occasionally to wash out paint brushes, soaking clothes, even washing show chickens in it. (No utility room sink, so the kitchen sink was the go to spot.) We kept it clean and well cared for. We believed all the hype back then that Blanco sinks were impervious to just about everything and I guess we should have been more careful. It basically started looking blotchy and losing its color on the bottom. It then started pitting on the bottom and was no longer a smooth surface, especially around the drain. And the blotchiness wasn't really stains but rather "burns", according to what we had read online. By the time we were ready to sell the house, it was pretty unsightly and we had to replace it. (Due to the less than helpful Blanco customer service folks who refused to honor any sort of warranty, we went with a Kraus sink.) But we only had the Kraus sink for a few months before moving, so not sure how that one will hold up. So now I'm trying to decide what to do with our new (but 15 year old home). I like how durable stainless sinks are and how cost effective they are but since spots and smudges on the stainless steel appliances drive me crazy and I'm CONTSTANTLY wiping them off, adding one more stainless item to care for in this kitchen doesn't seem like a wise decision. Anyway, thought I would add my 2 cents. I still can't decide if I want to do another composite sink (but do a more reasonably priced manufacturer like Kraus) or go with something else. If I do composite again, I will definitely go with a darker color and be super diligent about ONLY soap and water going into the sink.

Swanstone makes both a 'swanstone' sink and a composite. Their black is darker than most. Jacuzzi makes an 'Astracast', but they seem hard to come by. Seems like we are missing a couple brands, here... And what I'd like to know is whether any of them are heavier or tougher than the others, or whether its OK to choose based only on shape and color.

Hi Haley, Sorry I just saw your comment. Here are some photos I have in my archive. I can take different angles tonight if these aren't helpful. FWIW, 6 months later and we still love this sink. The dark color matches our black stainless appliances, but also just makes the sink more of a shadow, which is good to avoid drawing eyes to dirty dishes! We use the faucet hose+sprayer to give it a good rinse every evening after cleaning up dinner to keep food from drying in place. We've given it 1 deep cleaning (we also have a grid on the bottom, so deep cleaning involved a thorough cleaning of that, too). The water filter is good for filling water to cook or a tea kettle. The soap dispenser is actually really nice because it keeps the counter tidy. The faucet is touch activated (got it before the remodel) and it's amazingly handy. We added an air button for the disposal (which by code has to have a manual light switch on the wall, which for us is not in reach of the sink) and it has never been pressed accidentally and is very useful so I recommend it. The dishwasher air gap is required by code here so no avoiding that!