Solid wood worktops. Yes or no?

[Chocoholic1972]

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

I like them, and I was good about oiling them frequently at first so they are fairly well protected. But I had to introduce some worktop savers at high use areas.
Top tip, you can get stick on long metal things to create a 'built in' saucepan rest area that looks fab.

No way. Far too much work and you will struggle to keep them nice (I have oak tops in my utility room).

OP, I read loads of people on here saying similar to everything above when I did my previous kitchen. I went with what they said and got quartz. Very expensive. The bastard electrician damaged the kitchen before it was even finished. Plus despite looking lovely, I never loved it because in hindsight I had wanted wood
So in this house I put in what I wanted thinking I would regret it. Like I said earlier, because it was IKEA and cheap, I reasoned if it's wrecked after 18 months, I will have to replace.

I have a massive Belfast sink (sits above worktop) and I honestly have no marks at all. The odd little dink. I probably should oil it now whilst it still looks good (2.5 years it's been in).

Admittedly not spilt red wine on it. And it's ingrained in me not to out hot saucepans etc on it from when I was a kid so I never used to even with the quartz top.

Having said that. A friend had laminate wood effect tops and I honestly thought they were real wood.

Yes. Have had them in three different kitchens over 20 years.

We have it in the utility. Builder oiled it for us and every drop of water stained and I thought what have I done.

Did some research and read hard wax oil is what you need so sanded the oil off and started again with 2 coats of Fiddes Hard wax oil and it’s been really good, liquid sits on top and just wipe off. Have decided to have them in next house.

We have walnut which isn’t as prone to going black around sinks as other woods. I wanted quartz but DH was adamant he wanted wood. I actually really like the walnut and since we coated it in Osmo Polyx we barely need to do any maintenance. With Osmo you don’t even need to sand when it comes to reapplying.

No from me. Replaced an oak one in our London flat. Just stains and I’m not into constant renovation of a work top. It’s now quartz and I have granite at home. Can’t be beaten.

No. My mum got wood counters and I swear half the words out her mouth over the next decade were telling people not to put things on them, wipe them, compliant she had to oil them again...

I've had good wood-effect laminate which was practical but I love my granite countertops. 4 years on I still stroke them occasionally...

Yes - I've learnt the hard way though (have had wooden worktops in three houses now).

You need to coat them in Osmo hard wax oil which will make them impervious to water. You also need to have a sink in which the taps are set into the sink rather than into the worktop itself as otherwise it will go mouldy where the worktop and taps meet. If you do both of those things you will be fine and, if you have solid wood, you can just sand them back to get rid of any marks so they should have a long life. We've got solid oak from Ikea and they're great.