Quartz is very easy to maintain. It is impermeable… someone left a splat of tomato paste on my light quartz countertop overnight… I just wiped it off the next morning. Soap and water for cleanup - love it. Not even a trace left. We have darker granite in the bathroom, and I have to be very careful about leaving my Sonicare toothbrush on the counter… if I do, I have to buff that spot. Not my idea of a material for kitchens. I know some granites are better than others, but you have to abuse a sample to find out. It is true that you need to use trivets under hot pots on quartz, but it is not a big deal to me - I always do this.
Well, tile guy #1 returned and was as cheerful and careful as I remembered. He scraped each tile with a razor to get any residue off. He went out to get some “darkening” sealer that will really show off the marble grain.
We have a brand new quartz countertop. Unfortunately, the cooktop had lots of residual adhesive on the edges from where it had protective tape. I’ve been scrubbing it with everything, and the countertop doesn’t mind at all! You can’t get better than that for durability.
Lots of questions here. I’m no expert… but I will throw out some opinions
Love the blue macaubus. Have no idea where to find the subway tile, although I know that Ann Sacks will be just as expensive as $75/sq ft 
@notrichenough I am not familiar with your area, but there has to be a large city somewhere nearby. Find a ‘prefab’ granite shop, usually located in an industrial area. In looking at your kitchen design there is no reason that you cannot use 2 pieces of standard prefab countertop and maybe 1 piece of island countertop for your peninsula, depending on how wide it is going to be. You can find quartz prefab around here for about $300/piece. It costs WAY LESS in fabricator and labor if you go with prefab. You should be able to get all the quartz for under $1,000 and save on labor and installation. For a couple of hundred dollars… get the quartz. Source it yourself directly at the prefab industrial place, avoid the kitchen design showroom middleman. Quartz can withstand anything, except extremely hot pots set on top of it
@notrichenough I cannot even begin to understand why a city would restrict how much money someone can spend on an addition or remodel. What do they care if you are putting in a gold plated toilet and onyx floors (major $$$$)???
If Option 2 doesn’t work and you still have a piece of your house in the flood plain, you should just get creative on the ‘cost’ of your remodel. Usually I only report the portions that are truly related to square footage and infrastructure. It is irrelevant how much was spent on cabinetry, countertops, flooring, trim, painting, tile and fixtures. Those don’t add any value to a tax assessor, so it should not be included in permit fees. The contractor fee should not be included because it doesn’t have anything to do with technically adding square footage to your house.
Wait, what?? I need 60-65 sq feet of counter top and I can get that for $15/sq ft for the materials? Holy cow.
I don’t get the reason either. It’s not like the town is on the hook somehow if there’s a flood. I don’t know if it’s a federally mandated thing or what.
He showed me the form he has to fill out, it has 20+ categories of work that you have to enter numbers for, and it includes things like cabinets and fixtures. According to him they are look at whether the numbers make sense or not (so you can’t put down $500 for kitchen cabinets or electrical or whatever), and he doesn’t want to completely make up numbers. I’m not sure what if any the penalties are for fudging that stuff, but I’m sure he doesn’t want to be on the wrong side of the building department.
It’s not just for calculating the permit fee, it’s to follow this 50% rule as well.
Ok, apparently this is a FEMA requirement. If you make “substantial improvements” that are more than 50% of the “market value”, they treat it as new construction, and the entire building has to be elevated out of the flood zone. This is not really possible in my case, either physically or financially.
The town uses the assessed value of the building (which is probably low) unless you get an appraisal.
Included in the 50%:
https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/20130726-1537-20490-6166/fema499_9_1.pdf
The fun never ends. 
^^Holy JPMorgan!
“It is irrelevant how much was spent on cabinetry, countertops, flooring, trim, painting, tile and fixtures. Those don’t add any value to a tax assessor, so it should not be included in permit fees.”
In my corner of the planet, the county cares about materials…
“Buildings of greater quality (higher grade) cost more to build per unit of measure and commmand higher value.”
Grades run from 1 (shed or outhouse) to 13 (defined as “mansion level. Large amounts of highest quality cabinet work, wood trim, marble entryways, etc”)
.
@notrichenough : Getting an independent appraisal should cost less than $500. It might be worth it.
Maybe.
@VeryHappy, yeah, but I would need two of them. I’ll do it if I have to.
Just out of curiosity, looked up my house. Grade 10, condition “above average.” Note to self - no marble in the entryway so the assessor would not upgrade us. Paying enough property tax as it is!
NRE, I like your plan fighting the flood zone with a survey. That way, if it works, you will be done with this nonsense for good. Plus, it never hurts to have an official survey (other than paying $$$ for it - ).
We had to have an elevation certificate done. When we refinanced, we found that it had a “this is only good for one year” stipulation. But la-dee-dah, we submitted the same 2-year old certificate for our re-fi and nobody noticed. It only cost $500 or so too.
They measured the lowest “finished floor” and its relationship to the flood plane. If you have carpet in your basement, get rid of it! Concrete and painted concrete don’t count.
The basement is partially finished. It’s a walk-out basement, there are two doors down there as well.
I probably have my California hat on. County staff do not enter homes to do valuations. Valuations are based on sales in the immediate area. The forms for building permits (which are forwarded to Assessor for review and valuation) are not specific regarding quality of finishes except poor, fair, above average, etc.
We fill these out after final inspection. Not sure how anyone knows how much they are spending for finishes before they start the project… a lot of things are changed toward the end…especially if you start running out of budget
Retail stores sell granite, quartz and marble by the square foot because that is how large slabs are sold (even if they are going to bring prefab out to your install)
If you can find prefab stone in your area it is sold by countertop runs. A standard 24” countertop (26” with the bullnose) is sold in 9 ft lengths. I don’t know how many lengths you need but probably 3 or 4. They run anywhere between $260 to $350, depending on material selected. At $300 a 9 ft length, you are paying $16.66 a sq ft, but it is not sold in that pricing form. This does not include labor cost, just the material.
There are a lot of prefab stores in San Diego with a lot of competition so maybe we are lucky here.
How does this work exactly? You go to a stone place, buy a pre-fab countertop or 3, and then… purchase extra labor to cut it to fit and cut the sink and faucet holes? Do you give them your own template? Do they come to the property and measure?
Eye-roll of the day - someone sued Home Depot for “tricking customers” because the 4x4 lumber they sell isn’t actually 4 inches by 4 inches, Thankfully they lost.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/lawsuit-saying-home-depot-tricks-buyers-4x4-lumber-223834129–finance.html
That is hilarious about the 4x4. I’ve noticed in the last year that the labeling for the lumber has changed. They’ve changed all the plywood to some kind of decimal numbering. I go in to find 3/4” plywood and I am faced with .625, .698, .781…etc. ok…which one matches the engineer’s specs for 3/4 inch shear paneling?? I have no idea what the nominal size was for something we just called 3/4 shear ply last year.
OMG, what a loser. Times 2 loser, it turns out!
“U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang, who also sits in Chicago, in September dismissed a similar lawsuit filed by Abramov’s law firm against home improvement retailer Menards.”
For folks who like to read actual complaints:
https://www.truthinadvertising.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Abramov-v-Home-Depot-complaint.pdf
Lol. Oh the crap judges have to deal with!
You go to the prefab showroom. In our area they are named H&M or Rainbow Stone. You get a price list and you are on your own walking around. You bring a sample drawer or door from your cabinets with you to make a good decision.
You purchase the pieces, or purchase later as you get closer to install (quartz pieces are all the same if from the same lot so no need to go out in the yard to select pieces).
Then ask for recommendations for fabricators at the store. The fabricators don’t want to give quotes on the phone but you can try
Tell them how many pieces, total length (not sq ft) of counters
Tell them how many cutouts…sink, faucet, soap holder, stove
Tell them if you want diagonal cut in corner (costs more and uses more material) or whether straight cut is OK
And, if you have a special island piece
You let them know when you want to get on their schedule…give at least 4 wks notice
Contractor or cabinet installer needs to install plywood across top of cabinets
They will come measure and make templates after cabinets installed. You hand them the kitchen sink or the template in the box.
They pick up the material at the store and cut the pieces at their place and install about a week after measure
:You go to a stone place, buy a pre-fab countertop or 3, and then… purchase extra labor to cut it to fit and cut the sink and faucet holes? "
yes.
the people who do the cutting of the slab- either on site or at their shop are called fabricators.
If you dont already have the name of a recommended fabricator [ from friends who have had their kitchens/ baths remodeled recently ] then ask at the stone place for names of fabricators they work with. 99% will have a list of fabricators.
“Do you give them [ the fabricators] your own template?”
no.the measurements have done on site by the ones who are going to be cutting the stone
“Do they come to the property and measure?”
yes.
Usually the fabricator has only cut the sink out before they arrive to install. They do a lot of final small cuts onsite and then, after they install the countertops they drill out the holes for the faucet and anything else you are going to have around the sink. For example, you need to decide if you are going to have a traditional switch on the wall for the garbage disposal or whether you want a button in the countertop. You need to have all the pieces onsite such as faucet, garbage disposal button, soap dispenser, etc so that they can make sure that the holes are the right size, although most of those items have a standard hole dimension