Countertops & stonework in Bay Head, NJ
Countertops in Bay Head, NJ
Granite, quartz, marble and quartzite countertops for Bay Head's Shingle style cottages and the houses around Twilight Lake, from our Pleasantville showroom.
Or visit our Pleasantville showroom, open Monday to Saturday.
Bay Head, NJ
Stone for a Bay Head house with a hundred summers behind it
Bay Head countertops almost always go into a house that is older than the people cooking in it. The Bayhead Land Company laid the town out in 1879 on farms and cranberry bogs, and the historic district that covers most of it holds more than 550 contributing buildings, Shingle style, Stick style and Queen Anne cottages from the 1880s through the 1920s on East Avenue, Main Avenue, Lake Avenue and the streets around Twilight Lake. These were summer houses, built with a kitchen for the help at the back, and the project today is a kitchen that suits the house and still feeds four generations over a weekend. The population peaked in 1980 and has drifted down since, which tells you the houses are being kept rather than turned over. Sandy in 2012 flooded the low streets near the bay and the lake, and the rebuilds since have been raised houses that keep the shingle face.
We work with Bay Head homeowners and with the architects, builders and designers restoring and rebuilding here. A restoration means a honed stone and a simple edge that suit rooms from the 1890s, templated to walls that are a century out of square; a raised rebuild means the kitchen, bar and bath stone planned together. Our countertop fabrication and installation page walks through what happens between choosing a slab and the finished counter.
Granite, quartz, marble and quartzite
Which stone for a Bay Head kitchen
Granite countertops in Bay Head
Granite in Bay Head goes on the kitchen that cooks for the whole family every weekend of the summer. It is quarried stone, very hard, and it takes a hot pot and a cutting board that slipped without a mark. A honed black or a soft grey granite sits well with the painted beadboard and shaker cabinets of a Shingle style kitchen, and a warm brown pairs with the stained wood an older house still has. A coat of sealer about once a season, when water stops beading, is all this porous stone needs. On an old kitchen's L run the single seam goes at the corner.
Quartz countertops in Bay Head
Quartz suits a Bay Head house that rents for part of the summer or that has a kitchen that must stay white. Engineered stone is non-porous and never sealed, so wine, jam and sunscreen wipe up clean, and the color is uniform across every piece. The long slabs mean a straight run comes in one piece, and a soft white or grey keeps a small 1890s kitchen feeling open.
Marble countertops in Bay Head
Marble is the natural stone for a Bay Head cottage, because the houses were built with it: the washstands, the fireplace surrounds and the vestibule floors of the 1880s were marble, and a honed Carrara counter or vanity picks that thread up. Softer than granite, it etches under lemon or wine, so it is a stone for a careful cook or someone who likes a patina. In a bath it is the easy choice. In a house used all summer, many owners put marble in the baths and quartzite in the kitchen for the same look with less upkeep.
Quartzite countertops in Bay Head
Quartzite gives a Bay Head kitchen the veined white look of marble on a natural stone harder than granite, which makes it the answer for an owner who wants the period look on an island that feeds a crowd. It stands up to knives and lemon juice far better than marble, comes in big slabs, and gets sealed as granite does. White and grey quartzites suit a painted Shingle style kitchen, and a honed finish keeps it quiet. For a raised rebuild the stairs decide the piece sizes.
What we do
Our services in Bay Head
Along with countertops, Bay Head homes come to us for fireplace facades and hearths that suit a Shingle style living room, full height backsplashes, bar tops for a porch or a deck, and marble vanity tops, shower seats and thresholds, chosen to suit the age of the house and fitted cleanly into an older frame.
Bay Head
Fitting new stone into an old frame
A Bay Head cottage is rarely square after a century of summers, and that is the first thing a countertop has to deal with. We template the room itself after the cabinets are set, so the top follows the real walls and the back edge is scribed to the plaster where it needs to be, and the counter sits tight with no wide caulk line. A honed finish and a simple eased or ogee edge suit rooms from the 1890s, and a slab backsplash in the same stone covers whatever is behind the old range. The bath stone gets chosen at the same visit so the house reads as one design.
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The showroom trip
From Bay Head to our Pleasantville showroom
From Bay Head, take Bridge Avenue west over the creek into Point Pleasant and follow the signs to the Garden State Parkway south at Brick. The Black Horse Pike exit at Pleasantville drops you a minute from the showroom, on the left in the building Cabinets Direct shares with us.
7034 Black Horse Pike, Pleasantville, NJ 08232Mon to Fri 10am to 5pm, Sat 10am to 2pm, Sun closed. Call (215) 626-1165.
Why Rye Marble & Granite
Why Bay Head homeowners choose our showroom
Bay Head owners, architects and builders use our showroom because we understand what a Shingle style kitchen and a century old frame each need, from a scribed back edge to a stone that suits the age of the rooms, and because granite, quartz, marble and quartzite are all here to compare side by side under one light. Edge samples are here to try against your cabinet door, and the estimate is free.
Good to know
Bay Head questions
Can you template a Bay Head kitchen with century old walls?
Yes. We template the room itself, so the tops follow the real walls and the back edge is scribed to the plaster where it needs to be. Old houses are rarely square, and the template is what keeps the counter tight to the wall without a wide caulk line.
Does marble need sealing in a Bay Head kitchen?
Yes. Marble is porous and reacts to lemon, wine and tomato, so it takes a seal that gets refreshed and a gentle cleaner. In a house used all summer, many owners put marble in the baths and quartzite or granite in the kitchen for the same look with less upkeep.
What stone suits a Shingle style kitchen in Bay Head?
A honed marble or a soft veined quartzite with a simple eased or ogee edge looks right in rooms from the 1880s and 1890s. In the baths, honed Carrara is the stone the houses were built with. The showroom is where samples meet your cabinet door.
Can you work around the summer in Bay Head?
Yes. Most owners want the work done in the off season, so we plan the template and the day the stone goes in around your calendar and work with a key holder when you are not in town.
Can you get stone up to a raised house near Twilight Lake?
Yes. For a post-Sandy rebuild with the kitchen a flight up we check the stair turns at the template visit and size the pieces to make the trip, with any seam placed where it hides. That is settled before fabrication.
Will you work with our architect or designer?
Yes. We coordinate directly on selections, measurements and scheduling so the stonework fits the restoration or the rebuild, and most Bay Head projects come to us through the architect or designer with the owner joining at the showroom.
Nearby
Stonework in nearby South Jersey towns
From East Avenue to Twilight Lake, Bay Head kitchens start with a trip down the Parkway to our showroom. Point Pleasant Beach, Mantoloking and Lavallette are on the same road.
All towns: South Jersey service areas