Corian vs quartz worktops?

[hannah1122]

Renovation decision overload today! We are going for a white ish worktop and trying to decide between Corian and Quartz (or possibly marble).

Particularly worried about staining as not everything gets wiped up immediately.

If you have a light coloured Quartz or Corian it would be great to know how you have found it - we want something as easy to look after as possible!

We had white Corian put into our new kitchen 2 years ago & there’s been no staining. If ever there’s a mark which I can’t wipe off with normal kitchen spray I use a bit of Barkeepers Friend powder & that shifts it. Looks as good as new, even the sink which is white corian too.

I have a white corian sink basin - it has stained quite a bit on the bottom. The speckled corain worktops however, don't have any visible staining.

We have light coloured (not white) quartz, and I love it - no marks at all after 2 years. Sometimes when curry gets on it, there's a yellow patch, but it's gone the following day. We do have one small chip in the edge, which I have no idea how it happened, and you wouldn't notice it if you didn't know it was there. I'd choose quartz again without question.

@kittykarate thanks, do you have white speckled Corian worktops?

No, mine are a sparkly mid-tan colour. We've had them for at least 13 years, so I suppose the staining in the sink isn't beyond what I'd have expected. I also think a single colour worktop shows stains more.

@kittykarate ah ok, I think that sort of colour would be safer against any stains - not sure if white is too risky! But I think it’s the only colour that would go with the grey units .... plus it’s a narrow kitchen so want to keep it as light as possible

We’ve had a white speckled corian kitchen surface for 15 years, it looks as good as new. We have 2 white corian sinks and I bleach them weekly to keep them white. Only thing that causes a slight stain is if someone has emptied the teapot and not rinsed . But a weekly bleach gets rid of any brown marks.

We’ve got dove grey Corian and it doesn’t stain but can get scratched. We’ve got quartz in the utility and that’s indestructible but the quartz size was limited so we would have had a join in the island - hence we went for corian

We have Tristone which is a composite like Corian, but cheaper. You can use Barkeeper's Friend on any marks that sunlight doesn't remove.

I have white coriander with some faint speckles too and it’s still great 4 years in. I, too, bleach the sink when it gets stained and either use a bit of jif style cream cleaner or a dab of neat bleach to lift any tea stains on the main counter.

Corian not coriander!!

We’ve got white speckled composite stone. Can’t remember the brand but a cheaper version of silestone. We are quite careful with spills- mop them up quickly etc. And if they don’t come out with water or normal cleaning spray a tiny bit of Cif does it. They’re fine, but not the trouble-free experience of having the same material in black.

White quartz with a bit (only a bit) of sparkle. If it gets marks on it, they come off with proprietary cleaner. You can get specialist cleaning stuff too. I think we got it from the company who fitted the worktop.

Wouldn’t have anything else now and certainly wouldn’t have dark, because it shows water marks.

We have grey cabinets with our white corian tops, so same as your plans. Staining has never been an issue, but if something catastrophic did happen you can have it repaired seamlessly.

White sparkly quartz

got a couple of stains (primarily rust from drying baking trays beside the sink) shifted with jif.

We have white Corian work tops and island. No issues at all. Looks beautiful 11 years later. I am not sure I would recommend it for a sink though. We used rubber mats in the bases to
Protect ours.

I’ve got white silestone. It’s ok and marks come off easily, but the fact it marks in the 1st place is annoying - things like for instance I had a bag of ice cubes in the freezer. They’d gone all solid so I bashed the bag on the worktop. Which left blue marks from the ice cube bag all over the surface. It won’t wipe with normal cloth/spray but I find pink stuff in the tub gets rid of all this type mark. So yeah, the surface is cleanable but I find anything I put on it marks from the off and that’s a bit of a faff.

We’ve got light coloured speckled corian and I love it- would definitely have it again. We had it fitted almost 15 years ago and it still looks great. No marks or scratches anywhere.The base of our sink is stainless steel though - our kitchen fitter strongly advised us to do this.(though I appreciate corian might have moved on since then!)

I've got white, sparkly quartz and am not always 100% in instant cleanup. Barkeepers Friend is great at getting everything back like new. Apparently old-school Cif is just as good.

Thanks for all the comments - I think if we go for Corian we’d get the stainless steel sink. Was a bit worried a white Corian would mark so its good to know it is fairly forgiving!!

We have white quartz with some speckles/sparkles. Had it only 6 months but love it and no stains so far. We were provided with a spray to use which we do occasionally. The company said it was similar to anti-bac so that would be fine to use too. We're not precious about wiping up though do have some clear glass worktop savers for hot pans which probably catches the worst.

I was set up to go with quartz worktop. We are planning dove grey glossy cabinets from Howdens and marble effect quartz worktop. Yesterday visited friends house and fell in love with seamless/jointless worktop. They had it for over 10 years and still looks like new. Ordered a few samples of Corian yesterday evening hoping some may look good with chosen cabinets.

@Lily7050 thanks for your reply. I still really can't decide between the Corian and the Quartz. We're also having dove grey units (diy kitchens) and so was planning an almost white worktop. I like the idea of the seamless Corian but haven't found a colour I like yet. We liked Silestone Yukon or similar in the Quartz.

What colour Corian did your friend have? I'm worried that if we are going for something that is virtually white it might not be as forgiving.

Would be interested to know of any Corian colours you find that look good with the dove grey. My search continues ....!

My friends' Corian was quite dark colour with sparkles. Something like this one I think www.corian.uk/-colours-of-corian-r-.
Our kitchen is small, north facing with a bush in front of the window. I prefer to have a light worktop but not just plain boring white.

I meant to link to "Rosemary" colour of Corian but link did not work.