Design Tips

Finish – The first thing to mention is fully understanding what it will be like to live with zinc countertops. If you are expecting the zinc to be an even color, always polished surface, please consider a different material. Zinc reacts with everything from water to fingerprints to lemon juice. Hopefully this is why you are considering zinc, and will appreciate the ever-changing patterns that occur naturally on the surface.

Zinc is also a soft metal that may develop dents and scratches. Again, this can be part of the appeal. With the softness and the color patterns, zinc countertops can look like they’ve been around for decades after only a few weeks.

That said, there are a few other things to consider:

Seams – there will likely be a seam or two in your countertop and you can expect at least one if your countertop is longer than 120?. Likewise, if you have an L-shaped countertop, there will be a seam. If you look, you can see that in the photo to the left, there is a seam in the material that is perpendicular to the long, outside edge. In some applications, the countertop will ship in sections that will bolt together on location and the seam will just butt together. On the countertop in the picture, we actually soldered the seam and sanded it down flush.

To plan for a seam, take a look at your configuration – shapes like an L or a T – will require a seam at the intersection. Long straight sections can be broken up evenly or sometimes we can position the seam to occur near a cutout so it doesn’t appear on the surface.

Sub top Construction – On most of our countertops, we supply a wood sub top on which the zinc is adhered. We will need to know how the countertop is going to meet up with whatever it may be sitting on. For instance, if the countertop is to have a 3? face, we can build up the entire surface to have a 3? height, or the face may overhang cabinets.

Pour rails – If you have a commercial application, you may consider having us build in a pour rail – a recessed section on which to pour drinks. Just let us know and we will include it in our drawings and estimates.

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