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Whitney Lemons
Whitney Lemons
Comment
sochi

Hi again - I heard from my fabricator. They used an industrial silicone-based sealant from GranQuartz, called 413S. I'm not certain that it is available to individuals (as opposed to fabricators), but it might not hurt to ask your fabricator about it. I've pasted in a link to the product on the GranQuartz website. Here is a link that might be useful: Silicone Stone Sealant

Q

Reply to: Hi again - I heard from my fabricator. They used an industrial silicone-based sealant from GranQuartz, called 413S. I'm not certain that it is available to individuals (as opposed to fabricators), but it might not hurt to ask your fabricator about it. I've pasted in a link to the product on the GranQuartz website. Here is a link that might be useful: Silicone Stone Sealant

Q

Comment
breezygirl

Answers to your question about my walnut counter-- No. I don't worry about it getting damaged by water. At this point, I'm honestly more worried about scratches, dings, and dents. Before the walnut went in, I was worried about the prep sink+prepping=water damage. I stewed for many months trying to decide on what kind of material to put on the island because I really, deep down, wanted wood but was worried about wear around the sink with the water. I haven't given it a second thought now that I'm using it. My counter was made by a local woodworker for less cash than Grothouse. I looked into DIY options from other companies, but was cautioned that it was tough to get someone hundreds or thousands of miles away to get the sink cut out in exactly the right place. Plus, we weren't in a position with space and time to DIY. With the cost of someone on my end to cut the sink and faucet holes and do the finishing, the total was about what it cost to have one made locally where I was able to help chose the individual boards. I had planned on using Waterlox for the finish after strong recommendations here, but my woodworker has been using Osmo Polyx Oil, a green, food-safe product. He has had great luck with it for many years on counters so I went his experience. The wood doesn't even look like it has a finish on it. The great thing about it is that I can rub it in a spot or two that might need a little touch up. It will only take a couple of minutes, and I wouldn't have to do the whole top. I love the walnut. I spend hours a day in my kitchen cooking every meal, and it makes me happy to work at the island. I admit to petting that beautiful, soft, glowing wood every day! I'm glad that my comments helped you. I almost didn't say anything for risk of offending. :)

Q

Reply to: Answers to your question about my walnut counter-- No. I don't worry about it getting damaged by water. At this point, I'm honestly more worried about scratches, dings, and dents. Before the walnut went in, I was worried about the prep sink+prepping=water damage. I stewed for many months trying to decide on what kind of material to put on the island because I really, deep down, wanted wood but was worried about wear around the sink with the water. I haven't given it a second thought now that I'm using it. My counter was made by a local woodworker for less cash than Grothouse. I looked into DIY options from other companies, but was cautioned that it was tough to get someone hundreds or thousands of miles away to get the sink cut out in exactly the right place. Plus, we weren't in a position with space and time to DIY. With the cost of someone on my end to cut the sink and faucet holes and do the finishing, the total was about what it cost to have one made locally where I was able to help chose the individual boards. I had planned on using Waterlox for the finish after strong recommendations here, but my woodworker has been using Osmo Polyx Oil, a green, food-safe product. He has had great luck with it for many years on counters so I went his experience. The wood doesn't even look like it has a finish on it. The great thing about it is that I can rub it in a spot or two that might need a little touch up. It will only take a couple of minutes, and I wouldn't have to do the whole top. I love the walnut. I spend hours a day in my kitchen cooking every meal, and it makes me happy to work at the island. I admit to petting that beautiful, soft, glowing wood every day! I'm glad that my comments helped you. I almost didn't say anything for risk of offending. :)

Q

Comment
skmom

@ GG, I used Waterlox original on the wood. My kitchen gets a lot of use as we have five kids and a busy kitchen. As far as keeping the wood waterproofed it’s perfect. Water beads right up, it’s awesome. We also have two bathrooms with wood counters that have Waterlox on them, one is the bathroom our three teenaged boys use daily, the other is our powder room and only bathroom on the main floor so it also gets a TON of use. Waterlox is darn near perfect to keep the wood safe from water. Now, as far as it getting a patina... my kitchen island has some minor scratches in the finish (it is not down to the wood) and our boys’ bathroom counter has some cloudy marks on it from some products that reacted... pretty sure it was bleach... but none of this has affected the waterproofing. Our powder room hasn’t had any issues except the one time a guest left a big glop of hand soap that I missed for a few days, it ate through the finish... I’d used a new kind of soap, some natural crap with botanical stuff in it... now I only use foaming soap in that bathroom because it’s not going to drip big glops of stuff when a messy guest uses it. LOL! But the nice thing about using Waterlox is that it can be touched up without having to refinish the entire surface (like what you have to do with something like polyurethane) so it’s easy to periodically touch up the scratches, you just put it on the area and feather it out a bit. Only downside is that until the product dries it STINKS to high heaven... and you need an open area for it to cure properly... so I only do touch ups when I can open up the house overnight and use fans for air movement, it needs the air movement to cure properly. (I much prefer when I can apply it in our garage, but I can’t do that for touch ups, and I couldn’t do that for our island as it had to be installed first.) If you decide to use Waterlox and do it yourself, I found a YouTube series by “askwoodman” to be MOST helpful in learning how to use Waterlox. He gave GREAT tips that I use all the time now. (My hubby does the building and designing, and any painting that is done with his sprayer... I do all painting that is done with a brush, any staining, any Waterlox finishing, and much of the sanding, especially any sanding between coats of finishes.) I typically use about 5 coats of Waterlox, but I think I got about 7 right around the sink area and under the sink area just to give it a little extra. It takes 24 hours between coats.

Q

Reply to: @ GG, I used Waterlox original on the wood. My kitchen gets a lot of use as we have five kids and a busy kitchen. As far as keeping the wood waterproofed it’s perfect. Water beads right up, it’s awesome. We also have two bathrooms with wood counters that have Waterlox on them, one is the bathroom our three teenaged boys use daily, the other is our powder room and only bathroom on the main floor so it also gets a TON of use. Waterlox is darn near perfect to keep the wood safe from water. Now, as far as it getting a patina... my kitchen island has some minor scratches in the finish (it is not down to the wood) and our boys’ bathroom counter has some cloudy marks on it from some products that reacted... pretty sure it was bleach... but none of this has affected the waterproofing. Our powder room hasn’t had any issues except the one time a guest left a big glop of hand soap that I missed for a few days, it ate through the finish... I’d used a new kind of soap, some natural crap with botanical stuff in it... now I only use foaming soap in that bathroom because it’s not going to drip big glops of stuff when a messy guest uses it. LOL! But the nice thing about using Waterlox is that it can be touched up without having to refinish the entire surface (like what you have to do with something like polyurethane) so it’s easy to periodically touch up the scratches, you just put it on the area and feather it out a bit. Only downside is that until the product dries it STINKS to high heaven... and you need an open area for it to cure properly... so I only do touch ups when I can open up the house overnight and use fans for air movement, it needs the air movement to cure properly. (I much prefer when I can apply it in our garage, but I can’t do that for touch ups, and I couldn’t do that for our island as it had to be installed first.) If you decide to use Waterlox and do it yourself, I found a YouTube series by “askwoodman” to be MOST helpful in learning how to use Waterlox. He gave GREAT tips that I use all the time now. (My hubby does the building and designing, and any painting that is done with his sprayer... I do all painting that is done with a brush, any staining, any Waterlox finishing, and much of the sanding, especially any sanding between coats of finishes.) I typically use about 5 coats of Waterlox, but I think I got about 7 right around the sink area and under the sink area just to give it a little extra. It takes 24 hours between coats.

Q

Comment
jmorawiec

Just recently finished our kitchen remodel. We chose Monte Carlo quartzite, which I'm told, is sometimes sold as Taj Mahal. We went with the leather finish and love it! I sometimes do miss that shiny finish, but if I had to do it over again, would go with leather again.

Q

Reply to: Just recently finished our kitchen remodel. We chose Monte Carlo quartzite, which I'm told, is sometimes sold as Taj Mahal. We went with the leather finish and love it! I sometimes do miss that shiny finish, but if I had to do it over again, would go with leather again.

Q