Bored: Help me pick a material for a countertop

I'm re-doing the paint room at the theater. My budget is $500 including shelving (which will be about $200 of it). I have a couple slop sinks and some plumbing parts I can cobble together.

I need to make a drainboard countertop for beside the sink. It would slant down a half inch on the end that attaches to the sink. Think of this like a drainboard beside a kitchen sink for dishes, but bigger. It would be for things like 5 gallon buckets and big paint rollers.

Formica would work but the particle board substrate would last about a week. I've been scouring the paper and CL for a cheap granite or quartz countertop but haven't found any.

What would you use to cheaply fab a waterproof drainboard?

Concrete is cheap and easy, but heavy and you have to make the forms. But with your set building im sure you could do it. Use MDO or melamine for the forms.

Sheet metal is another option. Wrapped around plywood.

What about used or discarded stainless steel commercial counter with drain? I see them here and there, and on craigslist.

Sounds like a job for concrete. Since you've just got one slab to make, and you want an integrated drain board, you can do a traditional wet cast with Quickcrete for well under your budget. Tons of info out there on the topic - I'll be doing the same shortly, albeit with a little more complex process.

Used commercial stainless counter/ drainboard.

They show up on CL frequently. Look for a 2 bowl commercial free-standing sink with a washboard (3 bowls are now required for restaurants, etc.)

+1 one on the stainless, others beat me to it.

I found a few stainless commercial ones, but they are for food service. Hard to fit a 5 gallon bucket in an 18" x 6" sink. I need a big sink. The laundry slop sink I have is just adequate, but bigger would be better.

The big ones like for industrial prep are PRICEY.

If I search CL for "commercial sink" I get two results, both of them bathroom porcelain sinks. If I search "commercial stainless" I get one result for a door handle.

I like the concrete idea. I might also find a stainless foodservice cart and butt it up to the sink with some silicone and self-tappers.

Plywood and flexseal.

Okay stainless is the answer but I wanted to be different.

$20 Baltimore craigslist Sink

You want used restaurant equipment:

Craigslist Harrisburg $550 Dishtable

Craigslist Harrisburg Misc Restaurant equipCraigslist Harrisburg 3 well w/ 2 washboards $550

I've got a 3 well I'd sell for $400, but it is in South GA.

You can also make a simple stainless drainboard draining into a standard washtub.

In reply to foxtrapper:

You mean zink for the waltor

In reply to captdownshift:

It's more like "whudder" up there.

Paul is onto it. Used restaurant equipment will be the fast, easy, and relatively inexpensive solution. Otherwise, do it in 3/4" marine ply covered with brake metal stainless.

Good finds...

The budget for the entire room is $500, so I'm thinking more like using the free slop sink I have and spending $30 on the drainboard, or spending $50 on a sink with drainboard. Spending $500 on a used sink isn't really in the cards.

I'll have about $200 in steel shelving, another $100 for wooden shelving, and then there still needs to be plumbing and electrical work. Right now (since it is an old boiler room) there is one light fixture and the whole thing is run on an ancient fuse box. I need to do a breaker box, conduit, two large LED drop-in panels, run hot and cold water to the sink, add a drain... all for $500. Plus, somewhere in there should be a flammables cabinet for the gas cans and spray paint, but they cost about $600.

Needless to say I've been hitting up the ReStore and yard sales a lot these days. As with everything in our little non-profit theater, I'm trying to do $4000 of work with $500.

Emailed this one. Still doesn't solve the drainboard issue, but at least I could weld on a stainless countertop on the side.

foxtrapper wrote: $20 Baltimore craigslist Sink

Terrific.

Cruise govdeals.com for commercial grade kitchen stuff. I've found lots of deals on stainless prep sinks/counters there.

You might also check a lumber yard or contractor site for counter tops that people reneged on or have a bit of a blemish.

Stainless counter & sink - $44.

Free is good.