Minerva worktops anyone?

[MsLumley]

Anyone got any experience of these, good or bad? I'm in the planning stages of a new kitchen and Magnet are really trying to push this stuff. In the past I've had quartz (currently have granite which is hard wearing but I don't like the look of it), which I like because it's hard wearing and needs minimal effort to keep clean. I'm going to go for white in my new kitchen, possibly with grey sparkly bits. Any thoughts?

Hi!
I’ve just started looking at worktops for a kitchen. I saw the Minerva in magnet and it’s currently my favourite.
Did you go for it in the end?

I have fitted worktops for years, mainly granite and quartz but I have worked with Minerva quite a few times lately.

On the plus side, it is solid and not a veneer, it looks superb especially the white marble, it's looks and feels like real marble. It a can be fine jointed with resin and sanded back to create a near invisible joint.

The only downside is that it is basically a thermoplastic with a mineral binder. In lay man's terms this means it is much softer than granite or quartz and can scratch much easier. To slightly mitigate this downside, the scratches are not so easily noticed and it is much easier to sand out the scratches than in the harder materials and could be done by any tradesman with good hand skills.

Being honest I like the stuff but it depends on your attitude towards scratching .

Hope this helps.

Thank you! That really does help. The marble effect minerva was my favourite. But I’m going to look at some granite options tomorrow to get a better cost comparison.

Thanks again for info

Thank you KitchenGuy, that's really helpful. Going to have a look at worktops on Monday so I'll definitely keep it on the list.

We have Minerva in our kitchen and I find it fantastic. I haven't noticed the scratches as I use a chopping board but it does stain easily. To be fair, the flash magic erasers are brilliant to take out stains so it's not an issue.

We were told by Magnet that Minerva is just rebranded Silestone. Different name but same supplier.

sorry that might have been their own quartz rather than the Minerva worktops

We have the white "Carrera marble " Minerva on our mat sage coloured handle less kitchen. It is beautiful, feel very cold to the touch and looks very realistic. it polishes up beautifully with CounterTop Magic cleaner and stains are temporary as they clean out very easily. Ours hasn't scratched, though we are quite careful with it. We had the upstands and the window sill done in Minerva too and we would certainly have it again. You get a set of polishing discs to polish out any major cuts or scratches.

We love ours and find any stains or scratches really easy to deal with, although we've not had many of the latter.

I have Maia (same product as Minerva by a different manufacturer) in the Vulcano colour. I love the look and feel compared to laminate. It does scratch relatively easily but you can get a kit to fix this yourself. It also needs to be gone over with a microfiber cloth after wiping with a dishcloth otherwise beads of water seem to stay on it.

Hi guys, could you please tell me whether Minerva is slightly shinier than Corian/Maia? Those two looked really like matt plastic in a showroom and we are after something that looks like marble/marble effect quartz at a more affordable price. Wondering whether Minerva could be it?

I wouldn't exactly call Minerva stone very shiny but it has a good sheen to it. Minerva is also a 25mm solid material and not clad like Corian usually is. It has a much deeper and stone like look about it. If you are looking for something that looks like marble I would say that some of the Minerva range looks more like marble than any other man made material and I would include quartz composite in that. I have been using marble for decades and when I first see Minerva Carrara White I have to look twice to notice to see it's not Carrara marble. I haven't used Maia being honest so I can't really offer any advice on it.

Thank you so much, sounds like it is definitely worth looking into it then.

Hi all, I have had these worktops for over a year now. They are just awful. I am so gutted to have spent £3000 on them. We have a kitchen island comprising two pieces of white Minerva joined. The join is visible and totally ruins our kitchen. We may as well have gone for laminate or wood but were sold this on the basis that the join would be invisible. The fitter was our first port of call but he followed the instructions and he spoke with other professional fitters who have had endless problems with Minerva. We got in touch with Magnet and the manufacturer both of whom refused to accept responsibility. To add insult to injury the other day I had a slow cooker on and the join cracked open with the heat, forcing another crack running from the join right across the worktop. Annoyingly ever day I have to rub fingerprints off the worktops. The worktops are also covered in scratches which will not sand out. I can prove all of this. I DO NOT work for a rival. When I complained to Magnet and the manufacturer directly and was ignored I decided I needed to warn others NOT to spend their hard earned cash on this product. In my view this worktop is not fit for purpose and not worth the money. Please avoid.

That’s really useful Deb, thanks.

Hi Deb, can I ask which branch of Magnet it was? I have had problems with the fitting too, from someone recommended by the Willesden Green, Park Royal branch. I am probably going to have to take them to the small claims court, which is not ideal but I have done it before.
For everyone else - I like a white-looking countertop and have used Corian before and been very happy with it. I was told that Minerva was similar but cheaper. Corian doesn't stain but Minerva seems to. And Corian 'seems' to have professional fitters. The ones I used left a grey wiggly join on a white top. The other join was neater but is still visable - I was told afterwards that this is normal whereas this wasn't made clear before I bought it. I am waiting to buy the cleaning product but at the moment I think I would have paid more and got something with less hassle and less stressful to use. We are running around wiping sides the whole time in case another stain appears. Who needs that?!

Mine are exactly the same, picks up stains and marks from nowhere and the joins are very visible and starting to discolour. Certainly more hassle than they're worth in my opinion I want a kitchen to cook in and use without running about worrying about every little thing that goes on the surface. I too was not warned about this. I will be raising the issue with magnet but in the likely event I don't get anywhere with it I do wonder what type of legal case someone would have re this either as an individual or as a collective if there are many people with the same issues.

we were warned off these by the kitchen designer - they are for showrooms not houses.

just get normal laminate which stands up to keys being put on it and a reasonable degree of heat.

I've had my Minerva top for about a year now, I was quite happy with it although you have to be careful not to scratch it. My trouble started a week ago when a joint between the sink area and a breakfast bar (tee shape) started to come apart. First of all it was just the joint parting for about 150mm, then two days later a crack appeared running at about 45 degrees to the joint. Like Deb above we had a slow cooker on the top, could it be this low heat caused enough distortion to cause this disaster.

'have to be careful not to scratch it' and can't stand up to a slow cooker - this stuff is clearly not fit for purpose!!

My Maia is still going strong almost three years on. It's scratched on one end from where OH dragged a beer keg across it but I don't really notice it so haven't bothered to sand it yet.

Hi I hope you don’t mind me messaging you. Are you able to give me some advice with regards to a cracked Minerva worktop?

Hi Saraizzy, I still feel the same about the top and time has proved it was the slow cooker that caused the problem, although it shouldn't have in my opinion. I have not taken anyone to task over this and just learned to live with it. All the talk of stains and bad joints have not been an issue with mine but you have to be careful about scratches and NO external heat near to joints!!

Hi, you can't repair a join unfortunately. See photos. The join is still an issue, they are badly scratched but they are also now chipped at the edges too. They are just not fit for purpose. I can't wait to replace them. I complained but got nowhere.
Ps I don't know why I can't use the same user name but it's the same person!