Belfast sink and solid wood - what to do?

[IamwhoIsayIam]

Just bought and moved into new home. Beautiful bespoke handmade kitchen with wooden work surface but the wood around the sink and taps is very badly damaged. I've looked at some options but there may be more - and I know other people have discussed this.

A) Sand and re wax/oil existing work surface and take better care in future.

B) replace sink with one with integrated tap holes and drainer so the taps go through the ceramic instead of separately through the wood. (This is £££ minimum £250 for new sink up to £600 + plumbing and joiner)

C) Get a new work surface cut to fit existing sink - but what material?

WWYD?

I'd change the worksurface, although your options are limited with an undermount sink, eg hard laminate (the thin type) or stone/quartz. That damage will be hard to get rid of. We've just done a new kitchen, our old wooden worktop was damaged round the sink even though it was overmounted with taps on the sink unit, you still get splashes when turning taps on and off, washing up big items, filling containers. We've done the sink side of our kitchen with quartz and undermounted sink, the other side with oak worktop.

That looks like it should sand out, although will be a bit awkward to get to. Is the underside nearest the taps spongey at all, or just marked?

I just replaced a section of oak with quartz (I also needed a new belfast sink so chose one with an integrated taphole so that the water flows properly into the sink) for this very reason, but my oak was unfortunately beyond saving. If it’s just a bit black, you can sand it with perseverance, but you’ll need a good, regular oiling to stop it from happening again