Laminate or quartz worktop for utility?

[millefeuille2]

We've been waiting to do our utility for a year now. The time has finally come. It's a small room, roughly 2.4m x 1.7m.

Having read good reviews for DIY Kitchens, I'm going to get the cabinets and worktop from there. My question is whether to get a quartz worktop or laminate. The price difference is stark, as you can imagine. £1300 vs. £90. We have quartz in the kitchen and it's lovely. I'm not planning to redo the utility again anytime soon, and we're not planning to move again. We can afford the quartz, though obviously the opportunity cost is massive - it's like 40 takeaways!

What should I do? What other considerations are there?

@Apl thanks so much for your post - I'm so glad you mentioned Minerva as I've actually seen that before (I think it was in Magnet?) and really liked it. It felt more like solid acrylic so I hadn't realised that was solid laminate? I'd be more than happy to get that instead of quartz, if installation is more straightforward (i.e. no templating and specialist installation required?).

How does it work if you order cabinets from DIYK and the worktop elsewhere? Who's responsible for ensuring they fit together?

We have quartz in the kitchen and love it, but will definitely be laminate in the utility when that gets done.

I have laminate in the utility and my husband does not understand 'please put stuff down gently'. It has been there for over five years and not a mark on it. So easy to clean.

I've done some further research and think Minerva is the way to go, thanks so much PP for that reminder. In my head, Minerva was more like quartz and would need specialist installation, but I'm told it's actually easier to work with than laminate. Minerva is around £650 for the 3m slab I'm after, with no additional installation, so I'm happy with that. A worktop website said Corinth Stone does similar 2cm equivalents of some Minerva colours, so will check that out too.

OP - coming at this late to the day, you may have ordered, but we have just ordered a piece of quartz for £200 for the utility - its only 160cm wide (& standard depth about 60cm) - no cut outs / installation costs (we're providing our own template). I did a ring round of various suppliers locally and asked what cut offs they had, wasn't fussy about colour etc only that we wanted something light. Could you do similar?

I love my quartz kitchen counters but for the utility I just have wood which was relatively cheap. I'm the only person who goes there - no one else sees it so I wouldn't waste my money!

I have decided on Corinth stone, which is like Minerva, a sort of acrylic composite. The samples I've received look very similar to quartz but is easier for builders to manage. The cost is not dissimilar to quartz from DIYK.