Galley Countertops

Well my galley Remodel is underway and it’s time to choose countertops. Would love to hear any thoughts or opinions on Quartz versus Corian or is there another material I’m not thinking of. I’d go white(ish) with whatever I go with. Fiddles are teak now but that’s a consideration as well.

Also any reason not to do an under counter sink?

Thanks!
Arthur

One of the advantages of Corian, Wilsonart, Avonite, etc. is that you won’t have seams. When we redid our galley, the counter had to go in as four pieces. The upper counter was in the way so we couldn’t just slide a solid piece in. Also the section behind the stove was only ~2” wide. With the solid surface, the seams disappear when the sections are glued together. We did have to replace the fiddles. Since the new counters are ~1/2” thicker, new teak was required. We bought the teak in Trinidad. It’s plantation teak which is similar in color to the exsisting teak.

The under the counter sink is great. We wouldn’t have anything else.

Looks really great Larry!

We went with corian. Replaced the teak fiddle with 3/4 inch custom corian edge. The admiral fought me on that but now loves the subtle grab rail in a big seaway. We love the corian but it was expensive at almost 4K for just the galley top. They used a laser measurement machine and we had no problems in the unique shape or installation.

Don’t iron your shirts on Corian. You will regret it if you do. Definite undercounter sink.

Friend just redid Galley on GH N37. Yeah an iron was in play. What I found interesting was that for stove top cooking she went with an inductive 2 burner cooktop non inset. This gives her the ability to flip up the cook top giving more usable countertop with no crumb, liquid grabbing seams. The oven is microwave/inductive. We do the same with an inset cook top. I was doubtful but her portable is great.

This woman is a very, very talented cook, bakes a lot. The galley is larger than many small homes.

Either of your choices for counter tops would be great, she went back with Corian and a portable ironing board. This boat moves constantly. Did the Great loop in 8 months. Not a dock queen.

If you are comfortable w DIY woodworking Corian gives you the ability to DIY and save some $.
Corian works very well with carbide tipped tools / blades on saws & routers.
It can also be wet/dry sanded and polished w/ rubbing/polishing compounds.

Some will say it scratches - and it will but buffing our scratches is fairly easy and avoidable with a little care.

You can even get an integrated sink w/ Corian that eliminates any exposed joint/seam

I put in Coran last winter, in the galley and two heads. It turned out great and i'm happy with it. No scratches noticed, at least not yet.

Corian's a perfectly good choice. Lots of similar choices so personal taste is the determinant. Under-counter is my preference for sinks; you can have your sink made in Corian and have it integral with the countertop. Interestingly our '84 FuHwa has plastic laminate (a Formica generic term) with an undermounted stainless steel sink for which I made a teak insert. None of the plastics are proof against heat.

I've designed kitchens since the early '80s and I'm pretty much over using Corian or other plastics for countertops. And the same for real granite. Marble would not be stain resistant. I mention real stone because you can get thin stone bonded to a honeycomb core for weight saving.

My wife's and my taste have gone to wood for all countertops in our home and one in our sailboat. All but the kitchen tops are epoxy-coated and urethaned. The kitchen tops are oiled but tend to be a little 'rustic' which we like until they're too rustic; then I scrape and recoat.

Pics: Heart Pine countertops and back splash; sink has a Teak drainboard within the Heart Pine top. Sink countertop with drainboards. The stainless steel rods lie in grooves; provides drainage and protection against hot pots.

What a great idea to put the stainless steel pieces in there. I've never seen that done before and I like it. Nice looking galley.

The first remodel of our galley was done with Formica, simply laid a new surface over the old. That looked as good as the old had when new, but Formica is not able to stand up under sharp knives cutting on it, so the next remodel had to be tougher.
We were doing the kitchen at home and were in the Quartz yard choosing that material when we came upon a 5'x11' white Quartz slab that had been broken in shipping, so I was able to get a pair of 5'x5.5' pieces for next to nothing. then I had it cut to my patterns and put it in myself. The kitchen installer gave me some of the 2 part epoxy he used in the kitchen, where the seams disappeared completely. One day I will get brave and use it to make the seams disappear on the boat, but for now, they don't look too bad, so I am in no hurry. My sink was already undermount, so all I had to do was adjust the height to fit tight under the new quartz top. Fiddles are teak, of which I still have some from the swimgrid project. The toughest part was fitting a trim of teak where the countertop meets the liner on the sloping side of the hull. If your galley has only vertical wals you won't have this fiddly part to do.

I have Corian in my Motorhome, had it in the previous MH too. Quartz is a far, far better looking product and no more difficult to DIY.

Thank you, GFC; I shamelessly stole the original idea from a late '20's Rolls Royce's running boards. They were lovely varnished mahogany with built in drains and applied metal strips to protect the varnish. The pic below is from a '23 RR. I fretted about putting screws through the strips into the Teak. Then, walking through a kitchen tile shop I saw a Corian top that had been routed with grooves on a drainboard. I spoke with the saleslady who said that they sometimes added the stainless rods; so I stole that solution!

Granite is nice and not too hard to fabricate if you take your time. An angle grinder with various grit stones works well for shaping corners both inside and out. Slabs can even be cut to length with the angle grinder though a hand held wet saw (which I allready have) is more accurate.

A dry cutting blade in a skill saw can also be used but is very dusty. Wear a good dust mask.

I bought a wet grinder polisher/grinder with a bull nose roundover bit and various polishing pads for well under $200.00 on eBay. Did a very good job.

The granite, 3/4" thick, came from Grossmans Bargain Outlet. Google for one near you. Since the granite was only 3/4" I installed a piece of plywood under the sink, routed out so the sink could lie flush under the granite and I could avoid having to drill and mount the sink in the granite.

Photo 1 is before, 2 shows the plywood with the groove routed to accept the sink, 3 sink installed, 4 fabrication, 5 the finished product.

Good Luck,

Rob

Nice work, Rob! Been there, done that. I've got a cheepie Skillsaw wet saw ($90. @ Lowes), wet angle grinder, wet gas-powered Partner saw, dry Fein Multitool, all with diamond blades, grinding pads of various grits and polishing powder. All this stuff is now readily available or rentable in big box stores or on line. Not expensive and really(!!!) not impossible nor even difficult for ordinary folk to master the learning curve.

I've done Granite tile flooring; made Marble thresholds out of an antique Marble tread; made a Marble door stop to match my wife's mother's antique doorstop; installed and ground true a slate corridor floor; repaired a broken, and then polished a Marble antique fireplace surround parts, and installed the surround. (See below.)

Really, folks, it's just not that difficult. I mean, you own boats don't you?

Thanks D. Like many projects the hardest part is starting.

Rob

DHeckrotte said:

Nice work, Rob! Been there, done that. I've got a cheepie Skillsaw wet saw ($90. @ Lowes), wet angle grinder, wet gas-powered Partner saw, dry Fein Multitool, all with diamond blades, grinding pads of various grits and polishing powder. All this stuff is now readily available or rentable in big box stores or on line. Not expensive and really(!!!) not impossible nor even difficult for ordinary folk to master the learning curve.

I've done Granite tile flooring; made Marble thresholds out of an antique Marble tread; made a Marble door stop to match my wife's mother's antique doorstop; installed and ground true a slate corridor floor; repaired a broken, and then polished a Marble antique fireplace surround parts, and installed the surround. (See below.)

Really, folks, it's just not that difficult. I mean, you own boats don't you?

Click to expand...

Wow..that fireplace surround is gorgeous!!

I’m not sure exactly what ours are but it’s some type of solid surfacing. The countertop itself is pretty thick as you can see in the picture and then they used thin pieces for the backsplash, the top of this ledge, and also on top of the fridge enclosure. I didn’t take a pic of that. It looks really nice.
Oh and we have an under mount sink.

Date night and DHeckrotte, awesome work you guys!

We really like granite.

We inherited granite on Sonas. If we were to replace I would stay with granite but lighten it up significantly.
The missus tells me that quartz scores easily when using knives etc. Though frankly we use wood and plastic chopping boards anyway.

menzies said:

We inherited granite on Sonas. If we were to replace I would stay with granite but lighten it up significantly.
The missus tells me that quartz scores easily when using knives etc. Though frankly we use wood and plastic chopping boards anyway.

Click to expand...

I really agree on the color. Black(ish) granite seems very common, but we really prefer the light gray salt and pepper granite which significantly lightens up the space.

menzies said:

We inherited granite on Sonas. If we were to replace I would stay with granite but lighten it up significantly.
The missus tells me that quartz scores easily when using knives etc. Though frankly we use wood and plastic chopping boards anyway.

Click to expand...

We have both Quartz and Granite at home, Quartz on the boat and Corian in the Motorhome. Neither Q nor G show any damage whatsoever. Corian is much more easily scratched, has gone very dull in many places. Good that it is easily sanded and refinished, as it needs it much more frequently than the others. I broke a piece of Corian, but was able to mend it and sand out the joint to make it disappear.
There are no visible joints in the Quartz or Granite. G can absorb stains a little, but they do come out.
I rank them 1 - Quartz, 2 - Granite, 3 - Corian.

DHeckrotte said:

Corian's a perfectly good choice. Lots of similar choices so personal taste is the determinant. Under-counter is my preference for sinks; you can have your sink made in Corian and have it integral with the countertop. Interestingly our '84 FuHwa has plastic laminate (a Formica generic term) with an undermounted stainless steel sink for which I made a teak insert. None of the plastics are proof against heat.

I've designed kitchens since the early '80s and I'm pretty much over using Corian or other plastics for countertops. And the same for real granite. Marble would not be stain resistant. I mention real stone because you can get thin stone bonded to a honeycomb core for weight saving.

My wife's and my taste have gone to wood for all countertops in our home and one in our sailboat. All but the kitchen tops are epoxy-coated and urethaned. The kitchen tops are oiled but tend to be a little 'rustic' which we like until they're too rustic; then I scrape and recoat.

Pics: Heart Pine countertops and back splash; sink has a Teak drainboard within the Heart Pine top. Sink countertop with drainboards. The stainless steel rods lie in grooves; provides drainage and protection against hot pots.

Click to expand...

VERY beautiful