The Pros and Cons of a Granite Vanity Top

The time has come to remodel the tired old bathroom and finally get the bath that you have always dreamed of having. When you get started with this process you will a have lot of decisions to make in order to get the bathroom of your dreams. You will need to choose the style and look of your bathtub, your shower, your toilet and your accessories. Somewhere between choosing the wall paper, the lighting and the window treatments you will need to make one more vital decision. You will need to choose the style of vanity you will have and what material you wish to have for your vanity top. There are a lot of choices that you can take advantage of but the most common without a doubt is granite.

Granite is beautiful, its durable and it can be styled and colored to match just about any design that you can imagine for your bathroom vanity. There are a lot of advantages to the use of granite, not the least of which is the strength that it offers. Granite is almost indestructible; it resists chipping, fading, scratching and marking. Granite can stand up to some of the harshest conditions that you could possible throw at it. It wears well and will develop a character over time.

Of course you do need to be aware that there are some very significant disadvantages to using granite for your vanity top. The first is that it can be very expensive to get good high quality granite for your vanity top. This best is what is refers to as straight granite. Straight granite is cut from the flat face of a solid slab of granite that has not been gored or grooved. This is the purest and strongest form of granite that you can get. This is also the most expensive form of granite.

A lesser form of granite known as back granite is slightly less expensive but is still of decent quality. Back granite is what is left after straight granite is cut from the slab horizontally. One of the issues with back granite is that the countertops that are purchased may be made up of several layers of back granite while the same countertop made of straight granite will be one solid slab layer. The fact that the back granite countertop is made of layers instead of a solid piece it is possible that those layers may separate over time if moisture gets in and breaks down the adhesive holding them together.

Another consideration is if you purchase unfinished granite for your countertop you may find that unfinished also means unsealed. Unsealed is bad for countertop usage as it means that moisture will darken the stone over time, chemicals and things such as makeup, moisturizers and soaps may discolor the stone and deep temperature changes may lead to cracks in the granite.

These are just a couple of the disadvantages of granite for use as the top of your vanity. These disadvantages are minor however as compare to all the pros that can be had using granite for your vanity countertop.