@dexdan, where do you live? We found some good Corian fabricators for our shower walls, bench and pan but WOW, the cost is $$$!!! Especially for our custom Corian Grifform shower pan.

Thanks, Julie. I’m a little south of Philadelphia. I did mean to add ”that wouldn’t cost $$$, but after the last scrubbing, I may start my usual rationalization of upfront costs vs. weekly cleaning labor (me!) costs. 😉

We live in the SF Bay Area and our quote for Corian shower walls, bench, pan and baseboards came in at over $17,000!! We paid $5,500 for our Corian tub surround last year in our guest bedroom so I was shocked when I got our shower quote. FYI, these prices are for Glacier White which is the cheapest Corian color!!

Context please. A Corian shower doesn't require nearly the labor and waterproofing that a tile shower does. Apples to apples, please, although that's difficult to do with a repairable, sanitary, grout-free and mildew-free solid surface shower.

@Joseph Corlett, LLC here's what we received with our Corian quote. Our quote includes coved corners inside the shower as well as coved corners on any baseboards.

@Julie K

$17k?!? Whoa! How big is the shower? I would never pay that much for a shower. I would get another quote.

@mark_rachel, our shower is roughly 72" x 36" so not a huge shower! I'm waiting for two more bids and hopefully those will be more reasonable. Prices in the SF Bay Area for anything involving labor are insanely high due to the high cost-of-living out here!! :-(

I built a small solid surface shower for a GC over twenty years ago and was shocked that I had to charge him $7,000.00. He marked it up to 10K; the customers were delighted. 17K sounds pretty reasonable these days expecially in HCOL areas.

Julie K- don't know if you went with the Corian, but you are in a hard-water area. I had Corian shower walls which showed a lot of hard water deposits in spite of the fact that I had a water softener. Also, my Corian shower walls for a shower-over-tub were $8,000 in So. Cal and that was 10 years ago.

If you believe hard water is tough on Corian, wait until you see what hard water does to natural stone, particularly the calcites.

@pippipal thanks for the head's up. We're still 2+ months out from demo but we're planning to go with Corian walls, Grifform shower pan and bench along with Corian baseboards in our primary bathroom remodel

The water in our home is 8 to 9 gpg. I got the hardness number from our local water municipality because I needed the info for our Miele dishwasher setting for AutoDos.

Hearing what you paid for your Corian tub surround 10+ years ago totally blows my mind! We paid over $5500 for our Corian tub surround in our guest bathroom last fall and I thought that was ridiculous for such a small space, lol!!

.

I built my house 15 years ago. i specifically chose corian for my kitchen and master bath. i still love it. i based it on my preference.

We put Corian in 25 years ago and they are still in great condition. We had them polished etc. About 10 yrs ago at $400 and they looked new again. Sink is molded into the counters and that I love. Gutting the kitchen in a few months and looking to use Corian again. In fact, if the original color worked with new design I’d reuse them!!!

Joseph C.

Looking at Cesaerstone Turbine and it has a warm undertone ( more green than purple like many greys) What Corian would you recommend that I look at… I dont want to be dealing with water rings. Flooring to the left not my first choice but I am old and have fractured my back and this is Stepwise technology (low slip) The cabinets white dove.

thanks

Sorry, but I try to stick to technical answers. I leave the color choices to others.

@annecyle, you may want to confirm that whatever Corian color you choose is through body.

I have a very expensive custom Pearl Gray Grifform shower pan that's not through body and I've already had to have a few small nicks repaired by the fabricator. I dropped a heavy shower hook while playing with possible placements on the wall and the nick was so deep it couldn't be sanded out.

I assumed all Corian colors were through body but learned the hard way that they are not and my designer said she didn't know that when she suggested the color for my pan!

Julie K " I assumed all Corian colors were through body but learned the hard way that they are not"

I have never heard of such a thing. This is from the Corian website:

"Corian, on the other hand, provides consistent coloring throughout the entire piece. If you were to crack open the surface, you would find a uniform color all the way through."

From another site...

the color and pattern are consistent throughout the entire countertop, so it will not change its appearance with wear and tear that naturally occurs over time.

@Chessie, all I can tell you is that my Pearl Gray is definitely not through body. I was told by my fabricator there are a handful of colors that are not through body including PG. These are the nicks in my shower pan.

Edited to add the fabricator came out yesterday and tried to sand it but it was too deep. Photos are before sanding. 

I'm trying to decide whether it's worth having them dig out a deeper hole so they can add matching glue to blend in better with the pan or just live with it.

I wish someone had told me because I would have been perfectly happy with a through body white pan!

Julie:

The color in Corian goes all the way through. What you are seeing is "bruising". Similar to "stun marks" in marble, when Corian suffers a sharp blow, it can turn white which is exactly what's happening here. Someone dropped something hard.

The fabricator isn't abrading enough. I'd put a belt sander with a 50 grit on it to remove the bruise, then follow a grit protocol to restore the finish. It's going to take a bit of work, as he has to keep the pitch on the floor without making a "butterdish".

I would not recommend an insert repair in a shower or sink floor. It looks great when it's finished, but the adhesive cannot widthstand the thermal cycling, fails, and becomes contaminated. Now you have a fine black line circling your repair.

"Is Corian the same color all the way through?

Consistent Color Throughout

Natural stone cannot offer uniformity. Every slice will look different from the next. Corian, on the other hand, provides consistent coloring throughout the entire piece. If you were to crack open the surface, you would find a uniform color all the way through."

If your fabricator doesn't even know that the color in Corian goes all the way through, no wonder he can't abrade away a bruise.

Per the Corian distributor my fabricator does more Corian showers than anyone in the Bay Area.

https://www.sullivancountertops.com/

@Joseph Corlett, LLC, I sure wish you lived on the west coast instead of the opposite coast. I would have hired you for our shower!! ;-)

Julie K This is right off of your fabricator's website. I would guess that the one guy you got is not very experienced with this material.

."Corian Solid Surface® is versatile and durable with solid beauty that goes all the way through, which makes it ideal for any situation."

@Julie K it’s too bad Joe can’t clone himself...I think we could keep him super busy!

We’ve had granite counters for 15 years. They still look new. I love the look and feel of natual stone. I’m thinking quartz will be outdated just like Corian is now. Both are man made in similar manufacting. It’s being marketing as the trend, but those are usually marketing strategies.

HU:

Corian isn't "outdated". It's like subway tile and apron front sinks which are also classics. Glacier White Corian has been around for over 50 years, has a proven track record of sanitation, repairability, maintenance, and has never had an argument with a floor or backsplash, unlike some of the geometric/swirly mishmash we see here so often.

Sooo funny the disdain for Corian. 35 years ago it was NEW in kitchens (that's what the trade show claimed anyway) and it cost more per foot than lake shore property!!! My I have never understood why anyone wants a rock hard surface where breakable items will be dropped!! Stone is so unforgiving. But bottom line use and function do not drive modern Kitchens. We have waaaaay too much money in this country.

I love natural stone because you will never get the same pattern twice and it is beautiful. I hate Corian because it is sterile and frankly looks cheap, just like subway tile. Blah. Believe it or not, i also like formica laminate, especially with today's color choices.

"I love natural stone because you will never get the same pattern twice..."

True, but you will get Houzzers wondering why their fabricator couldn't magically make mother nature alter the slabs so the movement in their seams would line up perfectly. Never a problem with "sterile" solid color Corian.

@Joseph Corlett, LLC, how simple is it to sand/patch/repair a patterned Corian, something like Silver Birch? We're still agonizing over whether to switch to Corian from our planned quartz. But do you get the same "future-proof" benefits once you move away from solid color Corian?

Seams in particulate Corian as pictured above can be inconspicuous to the point of near-invisiblity. This is Avonite, but the results can be the same:

You'll have a difficult time getting natural stone or estone to do that.

Thanks!

Laugh. I also like real fur. Nothing comes close to it but some might argue the fake stuff is softer and feels better. However I will put fake natural looking green plants in my home. Don't like bugs inside.

If you like the look of Corian then you really don't need others comments to justify it. Just go for it. Relax and be happy :-)

My mother did Corian bathrooms in .....1971....and they still look good.

I've had Corian in both my kitchen and master bathroom in a prior house. I really liked the product. I had almost a pure white in the master bath, and a speckled grey/black/ivory in the kitchen. It felt soft, almost velvet-y to the touch and performed well as a counter.

When I built my current house, I decided I wanted granite. I also like my current granite counters (called arctic cream), and it too has performed well as a counter surface. It's different than Corian. Notice I said different, not better. We're debating at least some subjective qualities here, which are going to vary from person to person.

I like how the granite sparkes, and has depth and variety to it. I LOVE the natural variation, little inclusions, and swirls - but if you hang out here long enough you'll see people whining about that exact same variation. I dislike how hard and "clattery" it feels, particularly when you set glass dishware on it.

They each have their pros and cons, which as I just mentioned above will vary from person to person, because we all value different things differently. Know what you are buying and why, but get what you want. Life is too short to chose a counter material based on someone else's perceptions of it.

''True, but you will get Houzzers wondering why their fabricator couldn't magically make mother nature alter the slabs so the movement in their seams would line up perfectly. Never a problem with "sterile" solid color Corian''

Then go with the corian and you dont need to justify it.

Great thread! We want to install white Corian with matching backsplash instead of white quartz because I like the sterile, modern industrial look and the fact that it's not as hard as quartz and can be repaired. We're clumsy, and cook three meals a day, often with the help of an an enthusiastic seven year old. I don't want to think about ceramic plates and juice glasses hitting the quartz and sending shards ricochetting all over the kitchen. But I am hearing conflicting things about whether it can go behind a gas range as a backsplash. We are going to install a Bertazzoni 30" range that will sit flush with the splash. We had one in our old house with a ceramic tile splash and butcher block counters and it was fine. Bertazzoni told me it's fine since it vents out the front. But I am still leery. Any ideas? Thanks!

I would just install a stainless backsplash behind the range - they are inexpensive, tough and style neutral

Reading through this thread, I was just wondering if you can put in grip bars and whether you can have a niche in a shower with Corian walls?

Could you have those things if you used a quartz wall?

Could you use Corian as a niche (with the rest of the wall tile or quartz or anthing else), to make cleaning easier - no grout or moisture absorbtion / leaks, less or no chance of mold?

Thanks!

Yes to all of your questions.

Planning to rip out Formica and install 27 linear feet of LG HI-MACS Arctic Granite countertop. Anyone use Arctic Granite? Also, Joe, my Formica gets warm, but never really hot, over my dishwasher. Anything special the (near retirement, very experienced - only sells solid surface) installer should be checking for, between the dishwasher and countertop so it doesn't melt?

@wannaknow2, here are some pics of our Corian shower with Corian shower pan and Corian niche. The pic with the two smaller niches are in a tub/shower combo with a Corian tub shower surround.

Also we have coved corners in both corners so the only seams are the ones inside the niche. Cleanup is a dream and the walls/pan are very easy to keep clean!

"Anything special the (near retirement, very experienced - only sells solid surface) installer should be checking for, between the dishwasher and countertop so it doesn't melt?"

Just follow the manufacturer's instructions and it will be fine.

@Devin Harner I installed corian countertops a year ago along with a 5" corian backsplash behind our 30" Bertazzoni. It has done fine with the heat and flames, No problem at all. I love these counters. After owning marble, it is so nice to not have to worry about how my husband and guests are treating this surface. Everything wipes up and wipes out. Fantastic. We are installing them next week in the kitchenette/laundry room in our guest unit.

Thanks for sharing, Julie K! Functional AND beautiful AND easy to maintain. Very encouraging.

Your forgot solid surface is the most sanitary and repairs the most inconspicuously.

@Julie K and @Kendrah both of your rooms are beautiful!

I'm a natural stone snob. Price differences are not that much from other materials. Never ever had my stones (granite, marble) resealed. Wash with soap and water and use a cutting board while cooking. Love to use granite gold polish cuz I like the smooth glassy feel. Cool to the touch. Dont like busy patterns but love the subtle unique patterns where no two will ever be the same. Anything you love will fit in your home. It defines you. Enjoy