Wis - your neighbors probably do not follow the right care instructions which are very simple: turn on water flow when you drain hot liquids into a sink. Plain common sense… My Corian kitchen sink is 16 years old, and has not had any cracks due to hot water yet! One time, a person who shall not be named, dropped a heavy knife into the sink piercing it! If it were a porcelain or ss sink, it would have needed replacement in this situation. Called Corian help line, they gave me a few contacts for repair people. A guy cut a circle around the hole, glued a patch of Corian material into it and sanded it. You will never be able to tell it had been repaired!!! No sink replacement was needed.
My mother never had any issues with her Corian sink either.
In my bathroom I have this glass top with an integral bowl. I love the way it looks. (Not like plastic!) http://www.amazon.com/Pegasus-PBI25W-White-Vanity-Integral/dp/B002PEXM5E
I had a swanstone sink (which is generic Corian) for 16 years…and really, if my sink could,have been undermounted beneath my granite, I would have kept it. I loved it. Not a mark on it after 16 years. Cleaned up every time with soft scrub with bleach. The sink was white.
I now have a granite composite…like silestone. It’s fine too. And white.
I personally can’t stand stainless steel.
Re: marble…don’t do it. It water marks and stains very easily. So many other good choices…marble isn’t one of them.
Does anyone have granite with seams? We have a 10 1/2 foot straight run of counter/cabinets on one side of our kitchen that would require a seam. How well are the seams hidden? I imagine a smaller more consistent pattern would make for a better seam.
We have one seam. Same distance as what you are describing. To be honest, I only notice it when I wipe the counter and can feel it. It does not really “show” at all. Just make sure the fabricator uses the same piece of granite so that the pattern is not a different one from one side to the next.
This required that we find a long piece of granite…which we purposely did.
We know someone whose fabricator did NOT use the same piece of granite…and it shows much more…especially since the fabricator rotated the piece 90 degrees!
I went to the fabricator when our granit was delivered, and we laid out which pieces I wanted where together. This included the seamed piece…and which exact piece I wanted for the island.
We have seams that accommodate a 30 degree angle and a 90 degree angle turn (so the seam is at 45 degrees). Both turns are pretty well matched. If you get slabs that are sequential slices of rock, the next slice down typically matches pretty well with the previous slice. Our granite is fairly dark, but with a lot of colors that are generally striped with some curving.
We also chose which slabs we wanted where. The island is much more visible, and the other slabs have cutouts for the sink and drop-in stove.
Our longest run with no seams is 9.5 feet.
I have Corian in my kitchen, love it. I also recently installed a shower with Corian walls and glass tiles on the floor. Very easy to clean.
I have 2 seams, like Ynotgo. The small seam is by sink, and the fabricator matched the large 90* very well. I liked having a female fabricator. She used the prettiest peice for the island.
My kitchen countertops are in an L shape. The one seam we have is not noticeable unless you are making an concentrated effort to find it. and is by the sink so in a VERY short part of the countertop. So it’s a stretch of granite w/seam at the sink, another stretch of granite going around the L to the stove, then a short countertop of granite after the stove.
It all depends on your fabricator and your general contractor. I have a seam 6" from my sink. When I commented to the GC that it felt rough, his answer was “I’ve seen lots worse”. Yeah, because that’s the standard I wanted! (Pm me if you want his name in DFW area)
Granite does not need to be sealed. It is an igneous rock, formed deep in the Earth at unbelievable high temperature and pressure and has no porosity. Sealants sit on the surface and do not penetrate granite. If anyone tells you to seal your granite, they probably sell sealant. If, on the other hand, your “granite” really needs to be sealed, it’s not granite.
Barfly is right. I suppose the sealant may fill in some flaws in the surface smoothness if there are any. That would make it look shinier.
Someone earlier mentioned having acids etch their bathroom granite. Acid etches limestone, dolostone, and marble because they contain calcium carbonate. However, it is possible for some water bearing calcium carbonate to have found its way into the granite through fractures.
If you are worried about etching, you could play geologist and take a small amount of 5% to 10% hydrochloric acid to the granite yard. Drip some on the back (unpolished) side of the granite in areas that look like they may be filled in cracks (dikes in geology terms). If you see any bubbles, avoid that granite.
No problems here with my Corian kitchen sink. Really like the integrated sink. I have beige Corian in kitchen, powder room, and master bath, though with my master bath I have drop-in sinks, not integrated.
I have a granite countertop in the kids’ bathroom. The liquid soap container has left a ring there. Any hope I can remove it? Am reading this thread with interest since we are on Year 3 of planning to renovate out master bath and have still not put it into motion.
@cbreeze and @pizzagirl and others with corian. We have corian, too, and I was surprised to learn that the overflow drain on four bathroom sinks had detached ( 20 year old home), and plumber said how difficult it is to reach that area to reglue. So we are very careful not to let water line reach the sink hole. I wondered why we would get some moisture under the sinks, occasionally.
Heads up- perhaps corian has redesigned these sinks.
Others have had this problem,
https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/advice/t-394221.html
@CountingDown, if your counter is true granite, then the soap container should not have left a ring. However, if your counter has sealant on it, then the ring may be in the sealant, not the granite. In that case, you can strip the sealant to remove the ring. Contact a company that supplies granite (a high quality company - not a large 'box store") and ask them. They may have a product that will help.
Needing to follow instructions for a kitchen sink is NOT my idea of a good surface. There will be that one time you pour hot oil and… Corian is not good if you have to follow rules for fluids used in the kitchen. btw- you can be as careful as you should be then someone comes along and pours something too hot- not reasonable.
Oil should never go down the sink, period. Corian or not.
Oil plus detergent works. Where do you put it then? Not the trash- or do you use a gazillion paper towels to soak it up??? I do not care about the “should:” here- practicality rules. Oils are liquids, not solids at realistic temps so they won’t solidify (even in the freezer). The toilet ends up in the same waste system.
I would never pour oil down a sink. Maybe I’d feel differently if I didn’t have a septic, but I doubt it. I put grease in a bowl until it cools and then into the trash. Paper products in the trash have always absorbed any liquid residual.