Type of counter top and gaining popularity (sand, white, black)

[Seguinite]

Why would anyone come to your website when granite isn't even in your list of the top 8 (or 6!) choices?

[gentlearts]

I only want quartz. It can look like many other materials.

[burdell]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

Could be soapstone which can be gorgeous and can be otherwise. I have had soapstone counters before and absolutely loved them but they are for a pretty specific sort of look because 1) they only come in shades of gray and 2) they definitely develop a patina which some find beautiful but others don't. I personally loved having soapstone counters and people who visited would literally stand there and stroke my counter tops subconsciously, but to be honest when I came back in with new countertops in my new house I chose granite and not simply for the cost. The color wasn't what I wanted.

I built an entryway table a few years ago and topped it with a piece of soapstone whose base color is a light blue, and has many darker gray pots as well as a few streaks of yellowish-orange, from some angles it kinda looks like the side of a Spanish Mackerel. I like it a lot but would caution against its use where it might get easily dinged. Soapstone is basically talc and is quite soft, if I hold a nickel 6-8" above it and drop the coin the result will be a tiny chip in the stone.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by burdell

I built an entryway table a few years ago and topped it with a piece of soapstone whose base color is a light blue, and has many darker gray pots as well as a few streaks of yellowish-orange, from some angles it kinda looks like the side of a Spanish Mackerel. I like it a lot but would caution against its use where it might get easily dinged. Soapstone is basically talc and is quite soft, if I hold a nickel 6-8" above it and drop the coin the result will be a tiny chip in the stone.

Wow, your soapstone was a lot softer than mine! I mean, mine had a good hand to it so to speak and it could scratch if someone was determined to scratch it, or if someone cut something acidic on it but otherwise it wasn't as soft as you're describing.

[burdell]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

Wow, your soapstone was a lot softer than mine! I mean, mine had a good hand to it so to speak and it could scratch if someone was determined to scratch it, or if someone cut something acidic on it but otherwise it wasn't as soft as you're describing.

I believe the table tops in my high school chem lab were soapstone, pure black, and quite hard. I don't know if there are different grades or if some destined for use in places like labs are treated somehow. I was quite surprised to see how easily I could chip mine, I'm talking a really, really tiny little chip but still, I didn't expect to drop a nickel such a small distance and see any mark at all in something with 'stone' in its name. But I love the look of the piece I have and it's fine for a tabletop that mostly has the day's mail, etc. placed on it but I would never use it for something like a working kitchen countertop. And I'd guess color variations in different pieces of soapstone may be due to some chemical(s) that have some effect on the hardness of the material.

[K'ledgeBldr]

Originally Posted by burdell

I believe the table tops in my high school chem lab were soapstone, pure black, and quite hard.

Very old lab tables made in the 30’s- 50’s were usually made of slate- it is an inert material.
Most newer/today’s “lab benches” are made of “phenolic resin”.

[burdell]

Originally Posted by K'ledgeBldr

Very old lab tables made in the 30’s- 50’s were usually made of slate- it is an inert material.
Most newer/today’s “lab benches” are made of “phenolic resin”.

Likely what we really had as my school district's labs probably hadn't been updated since the '50s when I was in school.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by K'ledgeBldr

Very old lab tables made in the 30’s- 50’s were usually made of slate- it is an inert material.
Most newer/today’s “lab benches” are made of “phenolic resin”.

Many old lab tables were topped with soapstone. I don't know about newer lab tables though - I graduated from high school in the 80s.

https://usenaturalstone.org/from-the...ar%20of%20soap.

[steiconi]

Last time I changed a kitchen, I really wanted concrete with recycled glass. Love that look!
Couldn't find a fabricator. (I lived on an island, resources limited.)

So I chose a gorgeous stone with fossils in it, from a sample at Home Depot. Went to buy, they said it wasn't theirs, nobody else had it.

Found a lovely granite sample at another place, with lots of veins. The actual slabs were very plain.

I finally went with a nice large scale tile and latex grout.

[burdell]

Originally Posted by steiconi

Last time I changed a kitchen, I really wanted concrete with recycled glass. Love that look!
Couldn't find a fabricator. (I lived on an island, resources limited.)

So I chose a gorgeous stone with fossils in it, from a sample at Home Depot. Went to buy, they said it wasn't theirs, nobody else had it.

Found a lovely granite sample at another place, with lots of veins. The actual slabs were very plain.

I finally went with a nice large scale tile and latex grout.

I guess I was lucky, went to a local place that cut me a piece of soapstone from a larger slab they had in stock so I could see exactly what I was getting.