Did you behave in high school lab? If you are sweating over what to use as a counter top material in your kitchen, here's something else to think about. You can consider marble, formica, butcher block or FIRESLATE:

Consisting solely of Portland cement, silica sand, water, and fillers, formed under 400 tons of pressure, steam- and air-cured, FIRESLATE is a man-made material.

Looking alot like the counter tops in your school lab, Fireslate is manufactured in Massachusetts and has a weight that is 40% less than natural stone. It has a dark, rich color, a solid depth of character and no veins. It is also purported to cost less than the plastic design materials on the market. It is true that Corian is not cheap. What ever happened to plastic being cheap?

If you like the look, Fireslate may be for you. They are a small company and they offer intelligent advice as to how to measure and order on their website, so we get a good feeling about this. We recommend checking them out. MGR

Know Fireslate? Leave a review below...

Fireslate

www.fireslate.com

3065 Cranberry Hwy, East Wareham, MA 02538, USA

800-523-5902

Visit the store page

Comments (6)

We have been successfully designing and building all types of buildings for over twenty five years. We like new and different products and companies. That is what first interested us in Fireslate; however, FIRESLATE WAS THE SINGLE WORST PRODUCT AND COMPANY we have ever dealt with. The countertops kept arriving to the project improperly made according to the shop drawings and chipped and cracked to such a degree that neither the architect nor the owners would accept them. During all this , Fireslate improperly used our credit card ( which they required for a deposit prior to fabrication ) to charge the full job cost without providing the product !!! They then proceeded to turn an inflated invoice over to NCO ( look them up . .they are the worst of the worst ) , and we still do not have the countertops ( other than damaged ones !!!)!!!
Fortunately , the client is an Architect married to an Architecture Professor at a major university . . .so at least many designers shall be warned of this company.

We had Fireslate counter tops installed in our kitchen when the house was built 6 years ago. We love the product and have had no problems with it whatsoever and no staining, but then again, we take care of our counter tops in much the same way most people do with any other counter top material. I suppose if you don't clean your counters, then you would experience marring. Just keep your counters clean and you'll have no problems.

We installed fireslate in our kitchen about 2 1/2 yrs ago. We were remodeling an old farmhouse so we wanted a period look without the high price of soapstone... which also needs regular oiling and is prone to chipping. We absolutely love our countertops and my millionaire sister-in-law wishes she had used it in her fancy new kitchen instead of her shiny blue pearl granite. Everyone who sees it wants to touch it and they all rave about it. We have 4 kids ranging in age 5 to 17 (3 boys) and they are very hard on everything they touch. I followed the surface care oiling instructions to a T upon installing but have only oiled the entire kitchen once or twice since then. The area around the sinks is a bit faded and we might have a slight stain here and there but nothing really noticeable, and certainly nothing that comes anywhere near the pictures on fire-slate.com. I don't think we could make our tops look that bad if we tried! What imperfections we can see I'm confident would disappear if I took the time to oil (pure, 100% tung!!) but they just aren't even significant to bother. We have the charcoal, and my youngest kids use the island like a chalkboard! Chalk wipes right off, and if they accidentally get crayon or marker on it... it's invisible! The folks at FS were a joy to work with. We are in the process of building a new home and plan to use Fireslate again. I love it!

We installed black fireslate 4 yrs ago to match our recycled redwood cabinets, and what I wouldn't give to have that decision to do over again. We have a lot of calcium in our water which may be part of the problem. If I don't oil with tung oil at least once a week (a laborious, 30 minute procedure) the countertop becomes rough and starts to "shed"; also it is becoming very dry and porous around the sink area and no amount of oiling with any product I have tried--hope's tung oil, pledge, mineral oil, butchers wax, you name it, will correct the problem. (I won't even mention the staining and scratching). I think the charcoal color would probably be somewhat less of a problem. I wish there was a support group I could join to share the pain.

We installed fireslate 9 years ago. I do not recommend this product! The maintenance is time-consuming and expensive, and the end result is that even a drop of water will leave a spot. The product does not develop a nice patina, but shows whitish water-rings and water spots. We have used tung oil, stone sealers, cleaners and enhancers -- all with poor results. We might have saved some $$ using fireslate instead of granite or a quartz stone, but in the end the product is more costly due to the high maintenance issues -- and looks terrible. Further, we have not found the service at fireslate to be helpful in recommending cleaning or sealing products to help protect against stains.

To provide recent some support on the problems with this product: our countertops are 10 years old and we have be miserable since year 1 with them. We had one replaced 3 years ago and, guess what, same problems again, even after following ALL instructions. Do not buy this product, EVER.