LESLIE: Nancy in Oregon is on the line with a kitchen-counter question. How can we help you?
NANCY: Yes. Thank you so much. What I’m calling about is an overlay that I’ve seen advertised of granite over Formica. We have a very tight, sturdy, Formica countertop in the kitchen and I’m wondering whether this is a practical solution or not.
TOM: Hmm. A granite overlay over Formica? I’m not really familiar with this.
LESLIE: Are they presenting it as tiles or is it an additional layer of laminate, that looks like granite, that’s placed over?
NANCY: As I understand it, it is granite – full granite – except that they can use the base instead of starting, literally, from scratch, as I understand. Now, I haven’t had the man out; I’ve just seen it advertised but …
TOM: OK. Well, you know what doesn’t make sense to me with this? Granite cannot have any flex in it whatsoever and laminate tops, by their very design, are fairly flexible. So any type of granite veneer, if that’s what this is, it seems may not stand up well. So, I think that we would need more information to feel very comfortable recommending that. But I can tell you, just based on the description, it doesn’t sound like it makes a lot of sense.
And countertops are not so complicated to replace that it really makes any sense doing any kind of a laminate on top of that or a second layer on top of that. If you want a new countertop, get a new countertop. You don’t take a countertop and build more on top of it.
NANCY: I see. Well, I thought it might be sturdier and be less costly and so you’ve answered my question. I guess it’s not such a great idea.
TOM: OK. Nancy, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
NANCY: Well, thanks for your professional advice on this.
Leave a Reply