white quartz vs white compact laminate

[palia9]

Hi there!

My first post on mumsnet but I've been lurking here for a long time!

We are refurbishing are house and we have a bit of a dilemma for our kitchen surfaces. We want a pure white finish but we're unsure about whether to go for compact white laminate or white quartz. We found a good deal on the quartz so the price difference isn't all that great. BUT - we want to be able to rent the place out in the future, and we're not sure which of these two materials is the most durable / renter friendly.

Does anyone have experience of both / either?

Thanking you muchly!

I'd be wary if you plan to rent it because you may not like how it looks when you get it back.
Can you visit a showroom and ask them to do a comparison of each & let you pour red wine or pasta sauce or something on it? I’d want to see for myself, rather than taking a salesman’s word for it, then being disappointed later.

A white countertop can be spectacular. But even a white quartz countertop is vulnerable to staining from products such as red wine, tea, coffee, tomato sauce, and more if it's not cleaned up right away.

Laminate countertops are made from plastic resins that make the countertops very easy to clean and resistant to stains. Simple cleaning with soap and water is all that's normally required. They can, however, be scratched if abrasive cleansers are used on them.

We have quartz that is mostly white. I have found that it marks far more easily than I was expecting, and was told by the company.

Makes me paranoid and the new kitchen is my pride and joy - I can't imagine most renters feeling the same way!

I’m thinking maybe the compact laminate is the way to go! It’s also about £700 cheaper than the quartz (although still surprisingly expensive for laminate).

loveacupoftea - do your stains come out with the right product and a bit of elbow grease?

@palia9 they do, yes. I've found flash magic erasers to be the best thing. However I think there are still two faint places of tea from a cup ring and I am very conscious about wiping up fast! Just leaves me a bit paranoid but I do love it!

Can you get a small sample of the quartz, and see how readily it stains? Put a wet teabag on it, red wine, damp tumeric, tomato pasta sauce etc. Quartz is so much nicer, and it doesnt sound like the price difference is that ridiculous, so if ut were me Id find it hard not to go with quartz...

Ultimately any worktop can be damaged by misuse, but imo if it doesnt stand up to wear-and-tear from a messy household itll be a nightmare with renters.

You could also consider corain. I wanted quartz in my kitchen, but due to the size of the units, I would have needed joins, whcih I didn't want. So have ended up having a white corian worktop installed. So far so good.