Solid Surface vs. Granite in the Marine Industry
Andrew 0:08
Alright, so we use a lot of solid surface, mostly corian and LG hi-macs material and have for years ou know and I've wondered why and Matt people have to ask every now and then do they ask why don't we use granite.
Matt 0:22
Um yeah and I wouldn't say that I 100 percent know the answer but.
Andrew 0:25
Pat why don’t we use granite
Pat 0:28
Uh well a variety of reasons number one it's it's very heavy um can be uh expensive depending on the granite you know that you're you're choosing and stuff like that um in addition uh on a boat where you have a bunch of flecks you know you can actually have cracking of the granite and the other thing is um with the solid surface you're able to do buildups uh where if you're doing a glued build up or you want to have a large Edge on there you can do a build up and it's a uh why you can do that with granite it's it's easier to make a seam that's basically invisible with solid surface with granite you're generally going to see the seam if you're gluing those you know two pieces of granite.
Matt 1:10
So generally speaking solid surface is just easier to work with and more flexible.
Andrew 1:18
And more durable if you’re saying that the flex that a boat goes under you run the risk of granite. What about laminate? So your laminate obviously you know people still do laminate countertops that’s kind of a dumb question if you’re talking about exterior right but we do a lot of interior countertops is it just you know people that are spending money on a boat, they want not laminate countertops is that the answer?
Pat 1:48
Yeah Yeah i think the laminate countertops is kind of a 1970’s kind of look and stuff like that and you’re able to do the rounding over at the edges you know where like a laminate countertop you’ve got a seam there that’s pretty much a sharp seam so if you’re falling or tripping or something you're you know hitting up against it you know kind of tear yourself up versus a nice round solid surface.
Andrew 2:09
Have you explored any other materials? I know years back we had a cardon material that’s since gone um but what about anything besides you know solid surface corians?
Pat 2:22
Well you of course with the solid surface you got the corians and the LG Hi-Macs which are in effect the same. Some of the other materials you know some of the dash materials the fenix material uh which you know could be used for a countertop application.
Matt and Andrew 2:42
That’s a phenolic
Pat 2:44
Good job yeah. It is a phenolic that could be used in an application usually that’s a black material that we’re using but overall there are dozens and dozens of solid surfaces out there.
Andrew 3:00
Right like you hear quartz and stuff like that those are just other.
Pat 3:01
Yeah quartz is getting more towards the granite from a standpoint of fabrication we don’t do the fabrication of the quartz material it’s more a stone type of material you know going back towards the you know the granite and stuff like that.