Lumber Liqudators offers a fairly inexpensive alternative. They are stock sizes 25" x 8' or 12' (1.5" thick), unfinished, and they only offer cherry or maple. Nothing fancy, but if you are looking for something simple and less pricey, I think they are around $200 - $300. No fancy edge or anything. I'm looking into them for my peninsula.

~Pam

I was surprised by how expensive our wood island top turned out to be. I had assumed it would be cheaper than granite, but it wasn't. We ordered a maple one from glumber.com - it was 98" x 50" and it was about $2k, with no cutouts (our GC is doing the prep sink cutout for us).

I had a GREAT experience with glumber - the guy on the phone took all the time I needed to answer questions and discuss options. The finished product is gorgeous, and they shipped it really fast.

Do you know if they cut to size? Not sure where I would get it sized to fit my island?

Sandy

IKEA sells them too.

This is our Cherry BB from LL. I finished it with waterlox. I think it was only $329 for a 25"X12' (1.5"thick). There are some imperfections, but for the money I think it's a great deal!!!

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Kelly

I got mine at Blockhead Tops too. It's dark walnut and my island is 1/2 granite and 1/2 wood. They did a nice job, were very reasonable and it arrived in good shape.

It's very pretty, but if i had to do it over again I would have just had the entire island in granite. It was a hassle splitting the island and the upkeep on the wood is way more than I had in mind.

But it looks good :)

We got our island top from AWP Butcher Block in Kentucky. Well-priced, excellent service, nice people. We are very happy with our butcher block top.

Here is a link that might be useful: AWP Butcher Block

Thanks Kelly for the pictures. Your counters look beautiful!

I e-mailed Blockhead Tops for a quote.

Thanks,
Sandy

You can always give The Butcher Block Top a try. We are more than willing to work with anyone to find a great price for your butcher block counter top. We do custom butcher block counter tops as well as end grain butcher blocks Table's and cutting boards. Check out are website below. Fill out a request and get a free quote.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Butcher Block Top

I, too, loved the look of wood counters and thought I might save some money by going that route for my 8'x41' island. Several folks here have them in their kitchens, and they're absolutely beautiful (hand-crafted in Denmark, shipped here). I had a local company give me an estimate for Spekva counters in cherry and teak with a bullnosed edge. The quote came back at $4740 and $4670, respectively. Um, as they say in New York, "Faggedabowdit!" I used Carrara marble throughout.

can I bump this - Ellene613 do you have a picture of your top?????

And November - do you have a picture of the one you got from Glumber?

Here is mine from glumber. It's Brazilian Cherry and the quality is outstanding. It will far outlast me. Glumber were wonderful to work with (although not cheap) and I highly recommend them. If they are not out of budget for you, I think you will not be disappointed.

MaryT

{{!gwi}}

Here's the island top from Grothouse (glumber.com) - it's face-grain maple. It's been great so far (3 weeks...)

thank you all for your Glumber stories.

November...what kind of support do you have for your overhang?

you know what - there's no support. It's about 13 inches, and glumber and my GC said we didn't need support. I wonder, though.

I am surprised that no one has mentioned Boos Blocks. They are pretty much the king of butcher blocks and butcher block tops. They provide a list of online distributors, most of whom ship for free and their prices are way less than the ones on Boos' web site. If you try to order direct from Boos, a message appears telling you that you can buy their products much cheaper by using one of their authorized dealers.

I know this post is old but i thought i should add something for other readers who might stumble on this page...

I would NOT ever purchase a countertop from Blockhead block tops again!

I ordered a counter top and he told me he would ship it last Saturday or on the coming Monday.

Well its been over a week and no counter top.

Even if they sent it on Monday it should have been here 3 days ago at the longest.

I have called and left messages and written them many times and they do not ever call or write back.

Not only that but the guy who makes the tops was very condescending and treated me like I couldn't know anything because I am a woman. that was the feeling I got from him.

I would not do business with this company again.