Worktops in Kitchen Dekton Quartz or Marble

[catinanotherlife]

Hi, I need to choose a kitchen worktop. Used to have wood in previous places, and glass which was a nightmare! Does anyone have Dekton? Or Silestone? What do you think about marble?
Would love to hear your experiences and thoughts! Thanks!

Marble is really easy to damage. Not a good plan for a kitchen. Granite is more hard-wearing if you want real stone.

Following!

I reckon marble would be a nightmare unless the kitchen is literally never used. I have marble coasters that I can't get tea stains out. What's the bloody point of a coaster made of porous white stone that's permanently stained by tea. At least the cost of my mistake was only 20£.
I ll get quartz next time we are doing the kitchen. We have wood now and it's lovely but I would prefer something lighter colored.

Generally quartz ticks the most boxes for most people.

Some people like granite because it will tolerate hot pans from the cooker, but most suppliers won't endorse / recommend doing that. Granite also has a certain look, which isn't so on trend at the moment, but it will probably come back around.

I looked at dekton because it will take hot pans and is sold as being very hard wearing. However, it's quite brittle - if it gets hit at a weak spot (say around the sink) it can shatter. Also it sounds very clattery, which I don't like, and the pattern is printed on - it doesn't run through, unless they've changed the production in the last year or so. But some people love it.

We have caesarstone quartz and looks as good as the day it was installed nearly 7 years ago. Doesn't stain, use bar keepers friend on it every month or so to bring back the shine but always looks nice, even round the sink.

I would never get a marble worktop (as lovely as the idea is). Even the thought of getting lemon juice or vinegar on your currently fictional marble worktop brings me out in a cold sweat. We have quartz with a pale grey marble effect and 4 years in it looks as good as new (and I wouldn’t say we are especially careful with it)

Thanks all! Main concern is putting hot pans directly onto the worktop - with quartz I guess that's an issue? Granite certainly an alternative but most granite colours I don't really like.... Interesting about Dekton being brittle! That's concerning

We have silestone, white with grey veins like carrera marble. They look brand new and don’t mark or stain - try not to put hot pans on direct if we can avoid but the odd time hasnt caused any issues. They’re really beautiful worktops.

BUT three days after they were put in, DH dropped a hefty ceramic mug onto the lip of the recessed sink and took at big chip out of the edge (L👏🏻T👏🏻B👏🏻) and they wanted to charge £75 to repair, plus they said any repair wouldn’t actually match exactly. So they can be fragile if you hit them wrong. We have since dropped other things on there and not had any further chips so it was bad luck.

it’s worth calling various suppliers and seeing if they have clearance material.
we got ours 70% off as it was the last of the batch. Absolute BARGAIN

I have a marble island and one marble countertop. I am perpetually baffled as to why it has the reputation of being easily damaged as this has not been our experience over 20 years at all. Have spilt everything from curry, red wine, lemon juice etc, some of which have sat all night and none of which have ever left a mark. Obviously it was sealed on installation. Also have a marble bath surround and again no problems at all.

Have a watch of this video. He covers most options on worktops, giving pros and cons for each

I have a marble worktop. Was going to go for quartz due to being more hardwearing but secretly lusted after marble and swapped last minute. No regrets. Love it in a way I never loved quartz.

Does it stain? No not in my experience.
Does it etch? Yes with lemon juice and other acids. So what. It’s honed (matt) marble not polished. So the etches are just slightly more matt patches in an already matt surface.

Go and look at and touch some marble and some quartz. If you like them equally, get quartz. If you love the marble, get marble.

We've got Dekton. So far, so good, two years in. 🤞

Love to hear this of course as a marble enthusiast

Thanks everyone for your messages, food for thought!!

We have dekton, it's fantastic, looks great, so easy to clean. It's not cheap but we saved a fortune on our kitchen units with diy kitchens and fitted it ourselves so splashed out on the countertop (didn't install that ourselves).

I have Dekton in the kitchen, it looks great, we got lots of compliments on it. I love the matte finish. I use a lot of Creuset-type super heavy cast iron pans, so far we’ve never had any problems with it chipping. And it is really easy to clean.

I’ve got quartz worktops in the walk-in pantry, and while it looks fine, it doesn’t have the wow factor of Dekton - which is totally fine for a pantry of course. It also reflects every spec of dust.

We’ve got Caesarstone in bathrooms, it does look good and is easy to clean.

They’re all good choice with their pros and cons.

The most stunning looking middle island I've ever seen was made of concrete.

Check out quartzite for something natural and very hard wearing, but usually more interesting looking than granite

We have quartz which is lovely. I just keep a mat by the cooker for hot pans. Wouldn't risk putting anything on it. Friend had silestone at the same as we had our kitchen done and it has scratched quite a bit

Now they all sound like good options...! Thanks all, really good insights, will mull it over

We’ve had Dekton, put in 2 years ago and no issues at all with chips. It is super hard, so I think you’d have to be really unlucky to damage it. As above, cleans very easily and you can put hot pans straight on it with no problems.

I don't know what the most durable surface is.

I have quartz and have not managed to stain it yet. The salesguy said it would take red hot pans, but who the hell would try that out on a surface that costs 5-10k to install ? I haven't scratched it either. What I have manged to do is take a couple of barely visible chips out of the counter edge, probably by hitting it with pans. These are easily covered up and invisible unless you look very carefully but my guess is they will mount up over time. I am not sure how resistant to cracking it is. My guess is anything heavy dropped from a reasonable height would probably smash it.

For granite I have granite blocks for the pans. These definitely do stain, in fact I stained one within a few months of having it. I haven't really tried to clean it out though. My guess it is because granite is porous, and this stone was not sealed. I think if I had granite worktops and managed to stain them within a few months I would be pretty pissed. I have a mate who has a granite worktop that he has managed to stain with red wine.

This is an ad or Ai generated?

I have caeserstone quartz I think it's great and seems to be a middle of the range price point.