I'm finally going to get started on my basement bar this summer.

I had originally planned on using black granite tile as the countertop but have recently learned that it will be difficult to do with all the (small) level imperfections inherant in the build process.

So now, I'm considering the possibility of going with a lacquered wood (probably plywood) as the top.

I used leftover wood flooring planks for my home theatre back bar table top. I liked that okay, but 1) I don't have enough flooring leftover to use and 2) I'd rather go with something a little nicer for the bar itself.

This is a DIY project with a small budget, so solid granite and other expensive types of countertops are not an option for several reasons (weight, cost, etc).

Any suggestions/advice are appreciated!

We got a nice laminate counter top that looks just like granite. Has rounded front edges and a built in backsplash (our bar is a corner bar).

Irmo,

I'm not sure how large of a bar you are thinking about. If it's not too large, you could probably use a single sheet of very good plywood and put that awesome coating that Neuner used on his. I think his looks outstanding. Plywood can come in some very nice wood types.

Heynow - Ya know, that's probably where I got the idea, from neuner's post. My bar will be L-shaped and not too large, so I know I could get lengths of plywood in the size of each of the links and then just join them at the corner.

JoeM - I probably will go with laminate for the back of the bar, but in this post, I'm referring to the actual bar top itself. Sorry, I should've specified that.

I don't think granite tiles would be too hard. Just use some self-leveling preset and you should be able to get it done and look very nice. Here's a good link to read through: http://www.rd.com/content/openContent.do?contentId=17870&pageIndex=1

We ended up going for full-on granite, though, as I already have so much tile work to do and we have granite upstairs already.

I did maple veneer 3/4 inch plywood. Stained with Miniwax Sedona Red 222 oil-based stain; four good coats of Varthane oil-based floor poly. A single 4x8 sheet cut right did my entire top. I used inexpensive slate tiles for my undercounter and cheap black subway tiles for my backsplash.

tile shouldn't be to hard, you level the tiles in the mortar anyways...just be sure you have a solid backing.

Personally wished I had not used granite tiles on my bar top. Looks great when clean. Once kids get near it with gressy pop-corn hands does not look good. Given choice again would use wood..

Mark

Good info, guys...this is what I was needing to hear.

I'm going to start leaning towards the stained wood for a number of reasons. I think it would probably be less $-wise than the granite tile for one thing...plus I have more experience staining than I do tiling so that's another plus in the direction.

Any tips I should consider for the wood option?

If it were me, I would get the tightest wood grain ply that I could find. If you look at the oak ply I used on the sides of my bar, you can see how wide the grain pattern is. I would prefer the bar top to have very even tight grain. Maybe maple?

Same here Heynow, the ply that I used for the "skin" of my Back-Bar-Table-thing is pretty wide too.

Hey Guys - For a stained plywood countertop, I'm assuming it would be better to miter any corners rather than butt them together? I'm also assuming the wood grain would have to run perpendicular in those cases as well.

Yep, I'd miter the corners.

I dunno....I would cut one piece out of the 4X8 (or 4X10 if you can find one) and put it on in one piece. It would look like an "L". My bar top would accomodate one piece cut that way. Then you wouldn't have a seam and the ply is pretty stable.

I'm thinking I would lay the sub ply wood by butting the corners together, and then miter the actual countertop corners. That way the mitered corners are supported from underneath.

My bar is L-shaped, but one end of the countertop will wrap around a bit. If you're looking at it from above, it will look like the bottom half of the block letter "C."

I'm thinking I would lay the sub ply wood by butting the corners together, and then miter the actual countertop corners. That way the mitered corners are supported from underneath.
That's similar to what I did. I have small miters in my bar well, and a butt joint in the top itself (it's 12 feet long). No joints are lined up (or even within a foot of each other) in the plywood sandwich. Very, very solid, as two inches of glued and screwed plywood should be.

The choice between wood or tile is probably more a design preference decision than anything else. I think either one has its good and bad points and either can be made fairly simply or can be turned into complex and expensive projects.

In my case, I chose oak. I love the grain pattern in oak and I think wood gives a nice warm feeling to the bar. I used oak veneered plywood for the main part of the bar top and used solid oak for the edges. Where the corners of my "L" meet, I mitered the joint and then rounded the corner. The rounded corner added quite a bit of complexity to the project, but I think it makes it look pretty professional. See the pics below if you're interested...

Scott, I love that look! Nice work.

Scott - Beautiful work!

Mine won't be that fancy, the corners won't be rounded, but will be chopped/cropped...like I described above, it will look like the bottom half of a block letter "c."

And Randy - I liked the idea of doing one solid sheet of plywood for the counter top, but my dimensions are going to be too large unfortunately. I remeasured last night just to make sure.

Understand Irmo. I think if I decide to go with a ply replacement top, I can use one sheet. Mine is shaped like a letter "J". Or I'll just make a pour over what I have like Neuner did. Decisions, decisions.......

BTW, don't forget to take some Pics!

Definitely will take some pics.

Where are Neuner's pics? I need to get re-acquainted with what he did again.

Nevermind, I found it...I was looking in your thread and couldn't find it there...finally searched for Neuner's posts and found his thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=818487

My bar build starts this weekend!

I'll probably only get to framing it up, we have a <2 year old at home...

Anybody got any good construction-sketch (free) software they recommend? I've sketched out my plans on paper, but of course I'd like to have something I could share with the group.

So, how is the build coming? Any pics?

I've been slack about posting pics. :(

I have the bar all framed up, and the cabinets and back countertop (laminate) installed. Plus, I connected to the plumbing stub outs, and ran electricity to a gang box in the bar frame.

Still left to do:
Finish running electricity to 2 outlets in the bar
Install the sink/faucet, and connect it to the plumbing
"Skin" the outer bar area
Bar countertop (stained plywood)
Trim
Stain
Sealant (I've pretty much settled on the envirotex for the bar top)

Lots left to do of course, but I plan to have it all done by around the 2nd week in August. Finding time is tough with a 2 year old at home, plus we were just out of town for a week over the 4th. But staining/sealing I can do in the late evenings during the week.

Today at lunch I'm meeting with a guy at a mill yard about getting some Bar countertop rail milled. He has 2 different kinds that he wants to show me to choose from. It's expensive stuff, but still cheaper than the sites I've seen linked to here at AVS which I've seen at $12+ per foot. Plus, I won't have to pay shipping.

I'll post some pics of the current progress over the weekend!

Contact these guys, McDaniel Hardwood (http://www.mcdanielhrdwds.com/mi.html). HeyNow^ recommended them and it's where I purchased mine. They were the cheapest I found. I got Maple for $9.38/LF including shipping from West Virginia to St. Louis. Here's the thread concerning my search: Bar Rail (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=701635)

Be careful if they have to mill it for you as you may run into the same problem that I'm experiencing. I installed the rail with perfect cuts that didn't have any gaps at the joints. The wood had not received proper drying time. It shrank after I installed it, and now I have 1/32-1/16" gaps at almost every joint. Before you purchase, ask them how the wood was dried and/or how much longer till it is fully dry. McDaniel ran out of the rail and had to mill it for me. I wish I had gotten the stuff that had been sitting around for a while.

That's a good tip, making sure that the wood has been properly seasoned. I'll check on that, and if anything let it acclimate to my basement before I make any cuts. I can wait a week for it at least.

As for prices, I can get oak milled at $6/ft and $9/ft depending on which style I choose. Considerably cheaper than I've seen elsewhere, plus I can keep my $$ local, and avoid shipping charges too. I didn't check on other types of wood (such as maple) since I'm doing an oak countertop, I figured I'd have the trim match that.

No worries on the moisture content. They had plenty of supply on hand, and said that new stuff was kiln-dried to draw out the moisture. What I picked is $9/ft, I just need to go back and get a 10' and an 8' section when I'm not in my sports car.

I built my oak bar and used oak veneer plywood for the top. It is "J" shaped but with a 45, not rounded. I was able to take one sheet of ply and cut off the outside corner at 45 degrees. The inside cut was tricky though. I used a heavy oak bar rail on the outside and simple oak 1/4 round on the inside edge to hide the ply. Stained it and urethaned the top with about 8 coats until it was like glass. No visible grain showing. This is very nice to look at and quite durable. I'll post some pics....

You did pretty much what I have planned, Slew. Looking forward to seeing your pics.

Okay, I'm back to thinking about doing the hardwood flooring planks for mine, like Neuner and HeyNow both did (I did it for a back bar in my home theater too).

Why?

Well, I "found" an unopened box of the stuff that I had forgotten I had. 20 Square Feet total. Plenty of SF just in that unopened box alone. Not to mention all the loose planks that I still have.

Wasn't there some one (SDallnct?) that regretted using the planks for his bar because of buckling due to changes in moisture in winter/summer? I haven't had that problem with my back bar design, but I wasn't able to get all the planks quite as tight as I would've liked. I could do better this go around.

I'm having a large 10x12 cherry bar built. The bar top will be furniture grade plywood with a cherry veneer and solid cherry chicago style bar rail ($30/ft for that rail..gah!) . All the above is coated in a special epoxy.

I'll post pictures when it's installed (about 4 weeks) You can see some pics of the bar here: http://manforts.blogspot.com

He's putting in the base cabinets today, raised panels in 2 weeks, then the top 2 weeks after that.

The choice between wood or tile is probably more a design preference decision than anything else. I think either one has its good and bad points and either can be made fairly simply or can be turned into complex and expensive projects.

In my case, I chose oak. I love the grain pattern in oak and I think wood gives a nice warm feeling to the bar. I used oak veneered plywood for the main part of the bar top and used solid oak for the edges. Where the corners of my "L" meet, I mitered the joint and then rounded the corner. The rounded corner added quite a bit of complexity to the project, but I think it makes it look pretty professional. See the pics below if you're interested...


Scott,

That looks great. What's the size of the bar. Total size and inside size???

Thanks,
Matt

Wasn't there some one (SDallnct?) that regretted using the planks for his bar because of buckling due to changes in moisture in winter/summer? I haven't had that problem with my back bar design, but I wasn't able to get all the planks quite as tight as I would've liked. I could do better this go around.

Mine has been in place for a winter and summer and I have no issues. I glued each plank to the sub-base and every joint. It is solid & I don't expect it to go anywhere. Glad to hear your going with the wood floor look!

Okay, thanks. In retrospect, since you did the envirotex, do you think the glue (I'm assuming you used construction adhesive) was overkill?

Have you considered concrete? I am in the end stages of finishing up my countertops. It's not very expensive and with the colorants out there, you can come up with just about anything you want. The downsides are the slabs are pretty heavy (inline with granite) and the pouring can be messy.. I poured mine in the gargage into forms I built out of melamine board. The forms ended up being more expensive than the concrete. I used non-shrink precision grout that I picked up at the local big box home improvement store. Mixed the concrete and the colorant up, poured it into the forms, let it cure for several days. Pulled the slabs out of the forms, sanded and then applied a penatrating sealer. The tops didn't come out exactly how I had invisioned, but they are definately unique!

Quick pic of the concrete countertop. There is still some work to be done, more coats of sealer, and to fit the slabs together a bit better..

http://www1.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/2a7b429a07bf62ddbcde46d3166bad4d5g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=2bengq99lfc&thumb=4)

Razrbak,

Nice work.

Wasn't there some one (SDallnct?) that regretted using the planks for his bar because of buckling due to changes in moisture in winter/summer? I haven't had that problem with my back bar design, but I wasn't able to get all the planks quite as tight as I would've liked. I could do better this go around.

Irmo,

That was me. The wood has settled down a bit. I'm still thinking of doing what Nuener did.

Irmo,

That was me. The wood has settled down a bit. I'm still thinking of doing what Nuener did.

Okay, thanks. I'm definitely using Envirotex like Neuner. Problem is, my local AC-Moore didn't carry it. I'll have to check Michael's before going the internet route.

Irmo- I just finished my bartop a week ago and stained yesterday, Envirotex'ing this weekend. I had the same reservations as you about the potential for buckling so I solicited opinions from flooring guys. I ended up using clamps and glue, plus screwing each piece in from below. Probably a bit of an overkill, but that wood won't be moving anytime soon. I can tell you this, though: the bartop looks outstanding, even with the black stain that I've used. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I would think that an application of Envirotex would pretty much prevent any movement. That stuff is a sheet of solid surface....I stapled each piece of flooring on to the top. If it doesn't work out, I can always pull it up and put something else down.