Countertop Materials

Countertop material for a dark room?
We are going to build a home for some clients who want a dark room. The homeowner is into photography and developing photographs. What material of countertops would be durable and not be messed up with the chemicals used in a dark room? I dont think she wants granite.
Stainless steel would be the best for the wet side. Look for a commercial kitchen supply house near you. Formica will stain and chip over time with some of the different chemicals one could end up using... and the same goes for plastics.. Plus, the plastics crack in time and stain easily.. Plan for future use of almost anything, including color chemicals as well as slide developing chemicals. What is said and wanted today means nothing a year from now.... I clean house paints, brushes and rollers in mine. Re-load my bulk inks from my Epson printer in the sink. Use the counter for small repairs of different things. It's NOT just a dark room at times...
For the dry side, where the enlargers are I would go ahead and use white Formica. It cleans up easy and is smooth. Many think a dark room needs to be black or dark colors. This is NOT true. If the room is light tight, it will be - dark - regardless of the colors of the walls and counters.
My darkrooms have been white walled, ceilings and counters for years now with accent colors of royal blue (Beseler Enlarger colors) and splashes of Nikon yellow and red. The red lights used for paper developing fill the room with their soft glow and the white walls allow ALL the corners to be seen well and nothing - hides - in a dark area. I have the red lights on their own circuit and have them on a dimmer switch as well.
Classes I have given in the past have benefited from this "bright" concept and took many by surprise thinking they were going to be in a dark, dim, cramped and dank, humid environment. In stead they walked into something akin to a electronics - white room - (from NASA) and it was well ventilated and airy.. The ceiling white lights are 3 banks of 2 each florescence light fixtures which looked like they could have come out of, again, a lab. They were NOT bare bulbed but were in covered housings and the tubes are of the high kelvin series to resemble daylight. The room is bright and colorful.
When doing color and ALL lights have to be off there were strategically located LED clocks and timers for the enlargers to give one a sense of direction, Cardinal Points, and it was easy to navigate in the dark (unless full of other people, then it became a classic example of Diplomacy when bumping into the wrong body parts of the wrong person)..... ![]()
But for the wet side stainless steel is almost a must unless the owners don't care about discoloration and cracking down the road. My motto is : Built it once..!! Use it forever..!
Bob - Tucson
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