Outdoor Kitchen Countertops

[SFEditor]

I received an e-mail from a consumer today and I wanted to solicit some opinions.

She is creating an outdoor kitchen and wondered what reccommendation I might be able to offer on what material to use for the countertops. I know there is some debate on what works best outdoors, with solid surface, e-stone and granite all using resins that may be affected by UV light.

Can anyone offer me some opinions on what I should tell her?

[sanitychaser]

I have heard soapstone from more than one place, especially around grills. Never worked with it though.

Develops a nice patina with some oil and elbow grease. Or so I hear....

[lensmith]

Light colored acrylic materials seem to be more stable than dark colors. I'd stay away from most of the polyesters, including Quartz surfaces that use polyester for binders.

Granite works fine, but dark colors will get extremely hot in direct sunlight, if they are dark colors.

Sealed concrete is an option, but requires more maintenance.

[Jonnyo62]

Hello Kevin. I know I may sound a little bias but I would say Solid Surface is you best bet. Of all the three surfaces you mentioned it has the best record outside. Solid surface can be machined into raised panels etc.. Not sure if you could with the other surfaces but it would probably be cost prohibited.

Lenny what do you think about the UV?

[lensmith]

Just to give you an idea of how durable light, acrylic solid surface is outside, Aristech's office building in Kentucky is entirely clad with acrylic Avonite. It's been there for years, and it looks great.

[markm]

Don't use ES outside. It will fade and the manufacturers advise against it.

I would use granite, something like honed absolute black. A good sales rep at the stone yard can advise the best colors for outdoors. Remember that if it is in the sun the granite will get extrumely hot in the summer (fry an egg on it) so some shading would be advisable.

I'm not sure about SS, but with the above remarks it sounds like some brands would be ok.

I'd mostly be concerned about UV light and water freezing on it in the wintertime.

[ChenWeiLun]

Hello Kevin. I know I may sound a little bias but I would say Solid Surface is you best bet. Of all the three surfaces you mentioned it has the best record outside. Solid surface can be machined into raised panels etc.. Not sure if you could with the other surfaces but it would probably be cost prohibited.

Lenny what do you think about the UV?

Hi Jon,

Outdoor Applications come up all the time. All plastics will be degraded by UV including acrylic which will craze after years and years in the sun but I would rate acrylic as superior to polys which really tend to yellow alot and chaulk after outdoors exposure. The performance of every solid surface with respect to UV can be increased with the proper UV-Light stabilizing additive package , which most SS use to some extent (I developed a tertiary system along time ago, but to my knowledge no one is using it in SS). Also the pigment loading tends to sheild the material from UV to some extent, It has been my experience that higher pigment loading, more opaque materials will degrade less than than translucent low pigment loadings.

It also depends on where your at. Northern lattitudes wont see the sunshine extremes of Florida or Southern CA for example. ALso is the outdoor application partially shaded (a cabana bar with a thatched roof over the bar shielding it from direct noontime sun, and only allowing morning and evening exposure at an acute angle?

A while ago Arishtech offerred an acrylic SS which unlike anyone else guaranteed a minimum delta E (color shift) for the material in outdooor expsoure (5.0 -I think which is huge, but the only material guaranteed by anyone as to color shift in outdoor applications). They may still offer that.

E stone is only 6-7% resin by weight, even tho its a skunky ortho resin, I wouldnt expect E stone to yellow as much as a corresponding SS if it has a good stabilizer package and a fair amount of pigment. That is gut feel as I have no data for that at my fingertips.

I hope this helps,

Lenny

[SFEditor]

Thanks for all of your input. You guys are great. I will pass this info along to the consumer that contacted me.

Kevin