Worktop recommendations - that don't cost too much!

[longingforsomesleep]

Am planning a completely new kitchen and don't know where to start, especially with worktops.

We have wood at the moment and I will never have wood again. Laminate is obviously the cheapest but can anyone suggest a good alternative? Needs to be hard wearing (big family). I'm looking at earthstone in B&Q - anyone had it installed?

I have been researching options too. I looked at quartz but its still pretty expensive. I would like to see Drupal, it's a high end laminate. I love corian but there's no way I could justify the price. We are extending so have to be really careful not to blow the budget on fittings.

I am thinking of quartz for our kitchen (not even built it yet though!), but I don't actually know anyone who has quartz to find out whether they like it.

I haven't heard of earthstone, what is it?

Onemore - B&Q sell earthstone. According to them it "bridges the gap between granite and laminate" and is "a 6mm solid acrylic surface layer bonded to a 28mm chipboard core" It apparently has a non-porous surface and inconspicuous joins.

A 3000mm worktop costs £520.

tangential but why not wood op? we are starting to think about worktops..

Because you have to sand and oil wood regularly to maintain it. We started off with good intentions but haven't done it as often as we should. Now it's worn, split, marked, stained and generally looks awful.

The worktop around the sink has gone black and horrid. Same thing happened to my sister's wooden worktops.

Oh and they swell and contract according to the temperature/humidity so sometimes the joins don't fit together smoothly.

I have bamboo
its nearly 6 years old
I've never sanded it
I wipe it with olive oil and kitchen towel about once a year
its not warped, twisted, distorted, anything
despite being abused verily
it gets wiped with a j cloth twice a day and thats it
love it and would never have anything else
pic on my profile

We've decided to go for laminate. Word from our kitchen fitter is that laminate is making a big comeback as people are disillusioned with quartz, wood and even composites for the staining, chipping and marking issues. We will be replacing 20 Year old laminate which is actually still in perfect nick, just we want a different look in the new kitchen. There have been some advances in laminate in recent years and the choice is astounding, and price wise it just can't be beat.

Am glad you said that Beehatch! I've seen some nice gloss laminate in B&Q. I'm definitely going to have 'upstands' or whatever they are called rather than tiling so it should be easier to replace when necessary.