Solid wood worktops. Yes or no?

[Chocoholic1972]

Contemplating solid wood worktops in our new kitchen. What are the pros and cons? Any regrets?

They can be high maintenance. We had to oil ours regularly. I didn't have a lot of work surface so it didn't take too long. But it was a pain having to clear off all the surfaces, oil it, wait for it to dry before you could put everything back.

Have to be careful not to put hot things on the surface.

Be careful what kind of sink you go for as that area can get very damaged.

I wouldn't have them again.

If you want something cheap then I'd choose that over laminate but if you can afford quartz, I'd choose that for reasons above

Noooooooooooooo!

Bloody awful. Everything marks them.

They look lovely. However I second pp. Ours is now 12 years old and needs sanding down and re-oiling. Maybe this makes them longer lasting in long run though? There are black bits near the sink where water has damaged it. But, wouldn't most worktops look a little jaded after 12 years?

They look good but do require maintenance. Ours get sanded back and oiled every few years.

The only other option would have been composite which can look good but very modern so it depends on the look you’re going for.

I like the Idea/look of light wood and if I knew I was staying here, I'd probably get it but I might end up renting this place out, so I think a laminate might be a better choice. The modern ones look so different from the 1970's laminate!!

I can't justify the quartz/silestone/glass etc for this kitchen.

I hate mine!

Love mine!

But, and it's a massive but, we have quartz around the sink area
A previous kitchen had wood work tops but a sit-on sink unit.
If neither of these is an option, I wouldn't have wood as I've seen it go grotty with water.

IKEA do one with a real wood top layer. Obviously cheaper. I've had mine in for about 2.5 years and no water damage and I'm not over the top with mopping up spills round the sink. There are however a couple of dinks from stuff falling out of the overfull top cupboards. I'm telling myself it adds to the character.

Like I said, they were pretty cheap. I've got more oil but haven't needed to re-oil yet but may do that soon just in case.

As a pp said, wood doesn't stand up very well around a sink area.

We had an island with a wooden worktop and then worktops around the rest of the kitchen, including around the sink. We were very careful with it, mops up spills / didn't put hot things on it etc. It stood the test of time and looked beautiful - all except around the sink where it became stained (black marks which we couldn't remove with sanding or anything).

I wouldn’t, except maybe if there is a separate bit of the kitchen that will get less heavy use. Definitely not around a sink.

According to my kitchen fitter they need to be properly waxed, not just oiled, to withstand water stains. I haven't had them fitted yet though so will find out if this is right!

We had them fitted in our previous house. They were a thing of beauty, but so high maintenance. You have to obsessively mop up every drop of water around the sink so that the edges don't go black. The oiling that you have to do fairly regularly can take hours to dry out, and you can't use the worktops whilst its drying. We used to co-ordinate it with going away for the weekend because it took so long to dry! Despite all this we still managed to mark them quite badly with things such as red wine and laundry detergent, which had just dribbled down onto the worktop from the neck of the bottles they were in. We sanded them and re-oiled but could never get rid of the stains completely. As I say they were gorgeous, but actually quite impractical.

I know its not liked on MN but we have laminate because it was cheap, it can get wet and things like wine dont stain it. It might be worth looking at a wood effect one and holding up real wood against it and then considering all the time you wont spend oiling it.

We had wooden worktops in past house, and as pp has suggested, we sanded/waxed/sanded/waxed about 5 times when they were first fitted, ending with a wax layer. These were in the days before oiling became popular. No problems since then, even round the sink. Current owner still has them in over 25 years later!

We’ve had ours for 4 years now and it’s fab. Includes large island with sink and no problem with discolouration. We use osmo oil every 6 months and it’s very effective. Easy to apply as well.
I’d definitely have another oak worktop as it’s so beautiful

Hated ours. They seemed to mark with the tiniest of things, e.g. I rested an empty teapot on the counters and they marked!

We replaced with quartz which looks exactly the same 5 years afterwards

I love mine and won’t have anything else in the future. You have to maintain them and look after them (don’t put hot plates directly on them) but they look fantastic if looked after

Also second osmo oil as mentioned above. Brilliant stuff.

Thank you for all the advice! I'm still dithering but at least I know what I'll be letting myself in for !

We have wood and it looks good. Just a case of oiling it every so often.

Oiled mine the night before EA took photos - it looks fab now (shame it took 3 years and the house putting in the market though!). Wish I'd done it earlier

No never again!

Have to sand/ oil usually twice a year to keep it looking good, the wood is on quite a large area, but around the sink is such a pain to stop it going black and we use a wood bleach to stop it looking really yucky!

Does not help the belfast sink is fitted under the wood so the water gets trapped underneath and goes black. But must say hot pans, red wine etc. do not stain, but really quartz would be so much easier to look after

Do it!!! We had them in our old ancient cottage next to a lovely blue kitchen door and they looked stunning.

Yes yes they were high maintenance, but isn't almost everything that's beautiful?

Oh and we had a metal Belfast style sink that actually came.above then wood, avoiding any rot you'd get with a traditional one.