Remodeling lessons: choosing granite

Like countless others involved in home improvement, I was enchanted with the vision of granite countertops in the new kitchen and bathrooms. The granite I selected for the kitchen was Juparana Fantastico and fantastic it was. Caramel-colored streaks coursed through brown and beige stone, interspersed with veins of gray. The granite I used in the bathrooms on the main level was more pedestrian but still beautiful. I had made my selections after visiting a local distributor, where the range of granite options was really amazing.

However, as should be the litmus test with any product choice, the question is whether granite is truly a sustainable choice. Does it make sense to carve granite from a quarry in Brazil, ship it to China for cutting, and then to the U.S. for sale and installation? Just think about the investment in time, labor, energy, and emissions to do that.

I visited the Green Building Center in Salt Lake City during the remodeling process. There I saw a variety of alternative countertop materials that I liked to varying degrees, including Vetrazzo which is fabricated from recycled glass and a masonry medium. Vetrazzo is available in a variety of colors, reflecting the use of a single color of glass or combinations of colors. I had seen the product used in the green remodeling project accomplished last season in Austin, Texas by This Old House. I also liked PaperStone, made from recycled paper and priced at $40 per square foot. Elsewhere I inspected and reacted favorably to composition quartz and bamboo countertops.

I discovered that the product I saw in Salt Lake, Vetrazzo, was manufactured in California. Cost for the product at the time was $125 per square foot, or three times what I had paid for granite from Brazil by way of China! It is now listed on the Green Building Center site at $75 per square foot. Notwithstanding the fact that the price is coming down, the question is begged: why aren’t we manufacturing such countertops locally, made from glass that is recycled locally, rather than paying to ship a heavy and bulky product over a long distance? I posed this question to a dealer at a local home show in Wisconsin recently. He smiled, said that he had asked the same question and was collaborating with a local concrete company to create a similar product.

While it appears that the folks at Vetrazzo are out ahead on this, there must be an opportunity for entrepreneurs throughout the country. At the same time, it frustrates me that some recylcing facilities refuse to accept anything other than brown glass because there isn't a ready market for it.

I enjoyed spending time during the winter helping a niece and her husband finish remodeling their 1908 vintage home, located just a block from Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Mel and Jason opted for locally made concrete countertops to complement their colorful, contemporary update. It was a great choice not only because of the look but because of reduced embedded energy in the materials, and the benefits to local businesses.

For the same reasons, concrete was also the material of choice for the countertops at the new Aldo Leopold Legacy Center in Baraboo, Wisconsin. The Center is currently the highest rated LEED project in the country. More about countertop choices, my visit to the Center and the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system in upcoming posts.