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Original poster

Silestone Quartz worktops - good but cheap suppliers/fitters?

33 replies

Queasyrider · 27/04/2014 11:52

I'm pricing up the cost of a new kitchen and have my heart set on Silestone worktops. I've got my head spinning trying to find a good but not hideously expensive supplier and fitter. Anyone have any recommendations or tips?

OP posts:
zgaze · 28/04/2014 13:42

We have chosen this too for a new kitchen - spoken to lots of companies and got lots of samples, and I think we will go with a company called Henderstone. They've been helpful with our queries so far and price is reasonable compared to others. Obviously I can't say how it will turn out in the end since we're not at that stage yet!

I will say that make sure you explore all the alternative brands - there's no actual difference between Silestone / Caesarstone / Technicstone etc. Just branding and therefore price.

ixos · 28/04/2014 15:46

I've seen people recommend lunastone on here.

kmdesign · 28/04/2014 16:48

zgaze - I am sorry there is a difference. Its in the constitution of the stone. They are very similar but not the same. Silestone and Ceasarstone are the 2 best known brands and you will get better service from them as well as more colour consistency. The cheaper product comes mainly from China, Turkey etc and its cheap for a reason. If you can assure yourself on the consistency of colour and finish, then service for warranty type issues is the real difference.

I would always recommend using your kitchen supplier to source the worktops. There is a trade relationship there which you will never get from buying direct. As a trade supplier the demands on the finish are much higher and you will have recourse to action if something were to go wrong. This will normally not happen to retail custoomers.

middleagedspread · 28/04/2014 16:56

KM what's your opinion on Compaq?

audrey01 · 28/04/2014 17:05

We had Silestone Worktops installed in our new kitchen. We went for a deep brown colour Marron Jupiter.
Whereabouts are you based?
We are in SW London but used a supplier and fitter based in Northampton who was about 30% cheaper than the London-based ones. Highly recommend them! PM if you're close in the area and would like to know their details.

ThisOneAndThatOne · 28/04/2014 17:57

Kmdesign - do you have the same view about buying the Worktop from your kitchen supplier for Corian?

Interested in your view. Thank you!

LondonGirl83 · 28/04/2014 17:58

We just had Silestone fit. We used Affordable Granite who were great. We used them when doing up our flat a few years ago too and the after care was great.

Original poster
Queasyrider · 30/04/2014 21:33

Thanks everyone. I haven't looked into alternative quartz brands but will research Caesarstone and the others now. Audrey, I'm nowhere near Northampton unfortunately but thank you for the offer of details. DH is thinking we should go with oak work tops now but I still love the look of stone and am desperate to get it within budget.

OP posts:
kmdesign · 01/05/2014 09:10

middleagedspread - Compaq is good but not the cheapest supplier around. I always recommend Silestone. Widest choice of colours, good customer service. After Silestone Ceasarstone and Compaq have the best offering in terms of 'unusual' colours.

Thisoneandthatone - Yes same story with Corian. Let me give you an example. We had provided a price for a corian worktop for an L shaped island with sink on one run and hob on the other. Client got a quote that was £1400 cheaper so decided to source directly. When we went back, we found that the join across the corner had a 2 mm bow in it and this was brought to the clients attention. The sink was about 300mm away from this corner so we felt the joint was not properly done and there was a risk of water from the sink flowing towards this join during use. The fabricator wasnt interested, blamed the dip on poor kitchen fitting (not possible since there was a 90*90cm L-shaped corner carousel unit under the join) never mind that its not uncommon to have to put in packers below joins to level up worktops. To cut a long story short, water was regularly accumulating at the join and 4 months after the worktops went in the join started to crack, water got into the MDF substrate and blew. The fabricator blamed it on the client, it got into a legal mess and ultimately the client paid us to go in and redo the worktops. BTW - the worktops were about £5700, so it cost them over £10k. I heard later that they took the fabricator to court but since the fabricator was an 'approved corian' fabricator, corian provided no warranty and it was settled out of court.

We do over £100k worth of bbusiness with our fabricator so there is ever incentive for them to work with us and do it properly. They do get it wrong sometimes and we have a 5 day turnaround on any remedial work.

Next time you see something cheap, pause to think why that might be the case.

middleagedspread · 01/05/2014 12:08

Thanks KM I've been searching for one that looks like Carrera Marble and the Compaq Quartz Carrera seems the closet match.

eskinosekiss · 01/05/2014 12:14

we used roann.co.uk for our silestone on the recommendation of our builder. We have now moved 200 miles away and are doing another kitchen, but they say they fit all over the country so we will be using them.

allyg6700 · 11/06/2014 11:15

I had Silestone kitchen worktops fitted by a company in Birmingham called Elite Granite. They were cheapest quote we got, and they were brilliant. They have a small showroom attached to their factory. The staff were really nice and not at all pushy. The worktops were made and fitted within 10 days and they look gorgeous. I have absolutely no complaints. This company have been going for 10 years and their main business is fitting for large building contractors, so they can't produce any old rubbish. They are also have a Gold Silestone certificate, which means they get cheaper rates on the Silestone. I would definately recommend. Jif cream is the best for any stains on my white worktop. Rub it in and rinse off, I wouldn't use anything else. This is what Elite Granite recommended and they were right!

Secondsop · 11/06/2014 16:56

Hello, I've got lunastone worktops from setinstoneyork.co.uk who sell a big range of the major suppliers and would unreservedly recommend them - they were great and very helpful when i was choosing a colour and made huge efforts to come and fit the worktops on a particular day so they would be in place for my birthday party :) The worktops look fantastic and make my ikea kitchen look much more expensive.

rebeccamg · 11/06/2014 18:15

We had silestone in our previous house. We didn't install the incredible kitchen ourselves but really appreciated it's utter quality! Loved it. It was cream colour no idea of technical name but I loved it.
Doing up our next place we will be getting it again! Audrey can you pm me details please? We are cambridge so not too far from Northhants. X

InsertUsernameHere · 12/06/2014 07:09

We used worktop.org which seem to be the direct selling arm of Sheridan (Sheridan was the badging on the fitters and their paperwork). Sheridan are the company that many kitchen companies round us use and they did a good job. We had silestone fitted.

LondonGirl83 · 12/06/2014 07:21

Affordable granite (they do quartz). We have used them twice and they have been very good.

Tabithasgran · 12/06/2014 07:44

if it looks too good to be true it usually is.

WhatWillSantaBring · 12/06/2014 09:52

I used cargo granite and paid £3k compared with the nearly £6k quoted by a local company. As far as I can tell, no difference in product or quality, excepting the fact that I have a couple of joins which a better company may have been able to avoid. Service was fab as well. Normally I'd feel guilty at not using a local company, but the salesman was a dick.

kmini · 12/06/2014 14:17

The quotes we had from our Kitchen suppliers were 30% more than direct. Why would you go via a kitchen supplier...you are just paying for double the mark up!!

We went for an independent supplier. Silastone versus a generic brand. The differnece between generic vs silastone for us was about 350. The generic had the higher quartz compositions ironically (1% higher) and same guarantee period. If we had gone for silastone with the kithcen suppliers then we would have spent a further 1000!

Unless money is no object then i think it worth doing a lot of shopping around and asking a lot of questions.

cho · 15/03/2015 20:11

Hi audreyo1 , would you mind telling me your silestone supplier in Northampton please?

Akeilah1 · 01/08/2015 14:01

Hi Audreyo1, would you mind telling me who your silestone supplier please.

lighteningirl · 01/08/2015 17:20

I do up properties and would not use a kitchen super go straight to a worktop specialist fitter they will get you far better price and cut out the kitchen company's profit. We used Mirostone but Silestone was £1000 cheaper v I a the fitter recommended by the builders merchant type place we go to.

lighteningirl · 01/08/2015 19:31

Supplier not super

Anoush123456 · 13/01/2017 14:58

Hi There,

i am looking for a quartz worktop and came across your post.

are you able to share your details on where you purchased it from please.

thank you,

Habiba

abcbear · 14/02/2017 10:12

Hi Audreyo1,

We will be having a new kitchen in 2 months. Can you PM me the contact for the Silestone supplier in Northampton? Many thanks

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