Anyone got a decent laminate worktop? Worth getting over wood?

[mutedtoo]

We’re doing our kitchen up. Keeping cabinets and knobs, just changing the worktop, sink, tiles and adding a ticking patterned curtain to hide our washing machine.
We were considering a wooden worktop but thinking of going laminate to save money and maintenance.
Has anyone else done this or rather not done this?

Done this twice and absolutely no regrets, you can put anything down on it and so easy to keep clean. In our first kitchen I got quite an expensive one that really liked like wood.

My wooden one is trashed I wouldn’t recommend. It needs more maintenance than I can keep up with 🥴

Wood is fine in a room that does not contain water, hot pans, sharp knives or kettles.

absolutely no regrets, you can put anything down on it and so easy to keep clean

Got a decent laminate, same here. Bloody brilliant.

I like laminate worktops that aren't trying to look like wood or stone.

We have something called compact laminate and it is excellent. Our wooden worktop went black around the sink.

We've had teak/iroko worktops in three kitchens going back 25 years and never had issues with them going black around the sink or taps etc. Otoh, a family member has oak worktops which haven't aged well at all and are in need of replacing after less than five years. So, imo, it depends on the type of wood chosen.

I do like the look of marble style laminates, but prefer a more natural product, plus we have large marble tiles (£30 from a car boot sale!) that we're using as a splash back so couldn't have faux - or otherwise - marble work surfaces too.

We're just choosing worktops for our cottage kitchen and will be getting iroko again as we love the way it ages naturally which can't be reproduced with laminate.

We've got wood and I hate them. They need sanding and oiling which takes the kitchen out of use for a couple of days every six months and every bit of water around the taps and any cast iron put down (cold) marks it. We're just in the process of changing to quartz.

I love how wood feels and looks, but it never stays like that, it's black round the sink, scratched and has marks. It's not worth it, next time I'm going for laminate

I suspect a lot of the people who have experienced their wooden worktops going black have got oak tops. Iroko is much better. It's the bombproof stuff that school science benches were made of.

I have had both, and would never go back to fake wood. Iroko is amazingly resilient, and vitally it's possible to sand and refinish it if it does get a major mark on it. You can't do that with laminate.

Our laminate oak worktop is so realistic that our builder friend thought it was wood. Bought from worktops direct, it's square edged and has a slight wood texture so it feels real. The company cut it to size and made the corner joint so we could fit it. I wouldn't want actual oak as it deteriorates so quickly

I’ve just had good quality laminate in my kitchen refit. It replaced 20 year old laminate worktop that looked as good as new but didn’t fit with the new cabinets. It’s absolutely bomb proof and looks great.

Whereas I'd go for wood - I've just had mine sanded and reoiled and it looks like new for about £100. I'll stick to wood if I can't afford stone!

We have Dekton work tops. Heat proof so I can dump stuff straight out of the oven on there with no worries. Last kitchen I had granite with a satin finish. Loved that too but less resistant to heat.

I’ve got an etched laminate which looks just like marble. I’ve had it 15 years and it still fools people into thinking it’s marble. I love it.

Thank you all. We are doing it and going for laminate wood effect, iridescent pink square tiles and a chrome sink. (The sink was another question of mine but I remember my parents going for ceramic in an old house and the thing cracked within weeks), so chrome it is. Along with our existing white cabinets and black cupboard handles.