ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area granite counter tops

I have used 16 oz. copper sheet, had the supplier brake the edges to fit the (non dissolving)plywood tops, which are two layers of 3/4" which is very stout. After 10 years it looks absolutely grand, the usage marks only make it look better. You can clean it with half a lemon sprinkled with salt if you want a bright surface, otherwise, just let it darken naturally. After 10 years, Formica looks like 10 year old plastic...The copper is attached with contact cement, just like laminate, you need to be clever using venetian blind slats to position your sheet metal in assembly.

[This message has been edited by Almost Fried (edited 09-27-2006).]

[This message has been edited by Almost Fried (edited 09-27-2006).]

Man i like the sound of that copper sheet but doesn,t it patina bad with water?

You guys must drop alot of stuff as I have black granite in the kitchen and I haven't had a problem with broken dishes. Maybe the paper plates we use are tough

Get'lectric: The patina averages itself over time. If you leave spaghetti sauce or other acid food drops on the surface it will make a bright spot. Normal wiping it down as it is used will develop a beautiful brown color. One of the places I have seen copper counters was an old coffee house, ca 1972, where the counter saw a lot of use, after a year it had patinaed beautifully, just with daily cleaning. One of the counters I made was a custom 2 burner cooktop, assembled on the top of a 24 x 30 inch cabinet base unit. Doub;e thickness plywood, jugsaw cut holes for the burner assemblies, I used a router to relieve the plywood substrate for the flush 5 x 7 x 1/8" alum. plate supporting the controls and pilot lights, then covered it all with copper sheet. 10 years later it still worked fine. And the copper surface looked grand.

Almost Fried and gfretwell, can we get pictures? Sound really cool.

[This message has been edited by Jps1006 (edited 09-29-2006).]

Should you ground the copper countertop?

There a resteraunt around here that has copper CT's and table-tops the look great. They were done in kind of a rustic style - but they are neat. Its copper sheet, with a brake edge, then NAILed to the subsurface with copper nails. Then... they beat it with a hammer - actually a few of them. I can tell that they used at least two different ball-peen's and one or two framing hammers to give it kind of a hand-wought in the turn of the 19th century look. Although they are a bit bumpy the depressions are easy to clean, and the edges are brazed with brass. Real neat looking!

My stainless counter top is bonded to the cook top EGC with a lug (circuit likely to energize). It also picks up the EGC of the receptacles incidentally via the boxes.
That an an awful big chunk of metal to be "floating" in a place with water and electricity everywhere.

This is my kitchen.



We got the cabinets for free so I had to make do with what I had. In an effort not to waste any space I used the blanks between the cabinets at the sink base for a couple pullouts next to the stove and my wrap rack.



I ended up with doors on both sides of that end cabinet. One side is about the same depth as a regular cabinet and the other side is about 5" deep. I store light bulbs in there.