Tell me about your kitchen worktops

[MarmiteCoriander]

What do you have and would you get it again? Anyone have Lapitec or Neolith or know anything about them? Renovating a derelict kitchen and looking for ideas.

I have granite. Absolutely love it. Wouldn’t want anything else.

We have solid laminate, really love it. I didn't want normal laminate as I like an inset sink, but I wanted something white marble that I could clean easily and would look fresh (would have loved quartz but out of our price range at the time!). Really pleased with the solid laminate and would consider using again even over quartz as it's so reasonably priced

Granite here, love it

Unpopular I know, but we have solid oak. We treated it 4 years ago with polyx oil as recommended on MN. Never had to touch it since and it looks exactly the same as when we had it fitted.

Silestone quartz, polished. Love it, we're moving house soon hopefully and I want the same again. Looks good and very easy to maintain.

Worst ever was solid wood. Fucking nightmare, needed constant oiling and you could never put glasses etc on it, also around the sink was problematic. Never again.

Walnut. We treat it every now and then with oil. It's beautiful and I love it, it's only two years old but glorious!

Corian. Looks great, so easy to maintain.

Quartz. It wasn't the plan, but the solid surface we originally bought was a nightmare to find a fitter for - no decent joiner locally would touch it. Change of plan and the quartz is fabulous.

Same as this. Avoid wood at all costs.

Quartz here too. Replaced nightmare wood.

This is what we are going for. Can't avoid quartz or granite and this seems like an affordable solution over a laminate.

We have solid oak too and it needs redone. Will look at this oil

White speckly quartz, love it for food prep and it looks beautiful, also very easy to keep clean but doesn’t show crumbs/water marks etc. We have oak on the breakfast bar as it’s cosier for sitting at than the quartz.

Had all wood previously for 20 years, it did get a bit black round the sink from water splashes but was bombproof everywhere else, never marked at all and we rarely bothered oiling it.

Dont have solid wood- we have just had a nightmare in Denmark with it in our rental house due to water staining - absolutely impossible near a sink area to keep it just so. We have been charged a fortune off our deposit. House we are in back in uk has some nice wood looking laminate easy clean stuff- looks great and keeps nice

Ours is solid laminate as well. Quartz was just too expensive. I'm very pleased with it.

The house had a solid wood worktop whe we moved in, and it marked and stained easily. It was completely black around the sink by the time we got rid of it. I would never have solid wood again for a worktop.

It depends on how you treat it at the outset. If you use the right product to seal it, there's no staining. As I said, ours is still as perfect as it was on the first day, years on, we've done nothing to it since. And that includes around the sink.

In a previous house we had wood and used the treatment that came with it. Ended up sanding and resealing it every 6 months.

More than 4 years after fitting, haven't sanded, sealed, oiled or done anything else to it since. You all needed to use polyx (any darkness on the pic is just shadow btw)

I begged husband not to get a wood worktop. I told him there was no way he'd remember to oil it often enough, I didn't want to oil it, and we are an untidy household that cooks from scratch a lot and would not be able to take care of it. He insisted.

He admitted I was right after about 2 years and that he wouldn't get wood again.

We've always had wood worktops. If it's treated at the outset with Osmo Hard Wax Oil and you choose a sink where the tap is set into the sink itself rather than the worktop it will be bomb proof.

We have a Dekton worktop. Love it wouldn’t have anything else. It’s indestructible!

Had solid oak for 15 years. Resanded and oiled once. Still looks perfect. You do have to be vigilant about water though

Marble. Yes it marks. I love it anyway. Beautiful and tactile.

Wouldn’t get wood - we look after it fine, but we have had problems with a cleaner deciding to ignore me and use an abrasive cleaner on it, a friend/housesitter deciding to ignore me and use an abrasive cleaner on it, and somebody else spilling oven cleaner on it. Just too delicate. It does look amazing.

I appreciate granite costs more, but I would probably choose that next time.

We had solid oak for last 7 years treated with osmo wax oil, didn’t redo it. It’s a lovely look but definitely showed some water marking on highest use area on breakfast bar where I regularly wiped down. We’re a low maintenance household so oiling every year wasn’t going to happen.
We are extending currently and just had templater out yesterday to measure up our quartz before fitting next week. Cannot wait, went with a white base with subtle blue grey veining.

Ive had solid oak, it was beautiful but we had to be extra careful with it, not sure I'd get it again. I'm looking at solid laminate next time, I want something bomb proof and easy to clean.