Wooden worksurfaces - I know it's been done but I'm confused....

[TheLibrarianIsNotAMonkey]

How come some people have so much trouble with water marking etc etc and others say they can put hot cups of tea down and they are fine?!

I want wooden worksurfaces on an island unit. There will be a gas hob there (glass surface protector either side) but the work surface for the rest of the kitchen will be granite or corian. I am going to regret the wood?!

Thats a beautiful kitchen. I'd have something exactly similar if I could.

t'was not expensive

but i nearly murdered got a little irritated with DH during the 3 montsh of building work

Yes well this is all very lovely but I would like to draw to everyone's attention

KRISTINAM seems to have STOLEN my kitchen
What flooring do you have in my your kitchen Kristina? I was planning on oak but presume it would be best to have same work surface as floor?

Oh that kitchen is lush

Right am book marking this thread, bracing myself to ignore builder's advice/opinion about wood work surfaces.

Thanks all

Ooh that kitchen is beautiful!

We use Danish oil on ours, is that the same as Tung oil? I have had oak tops for about a year now and never had any problems though I do follow visitors around my kitchen wiping the surfaces after them so there is no standing water.

i did NOT steal it, i bought it on ebay as a job lot. off the back of a lorry

when did yours go missing?

our flooring is reclaimed mahogany, from a local school gym hall. complete with line tape

we had planned to use oak too, as that what's in most of the rest of the ground floor, but we feel in love with the colour. sadly we were not able to rescue the original pine flooring in part of the room

unlike most other posters, our wooden worktop is varnished so doesn't need oiled as I am a lazy git

Oh I am also very lazy busy Does the varnish make it shiny?!

KRISTINA M - lovely kitchen .

Can I ask what colour you have on the walls, as I think it would look lovely in our bedroom.

not if its matt varnish

but it does alter the texture a bit( not sure texture is the right word??)...the feel of it

it was a compromise as i coudln do the maintenance with the oiled wood. as preggers says, following the kids around all day with a cloth in case they put down a cup......

and you need to oil very carefully and regularly around an inset sink , which we have, or it goes mouldy

ours has 5 coats of varnish, its the kind they use on a worktop in a bar, so has stood up ok to my kids

basically for me it was sealed wood worktop or granite

i posted a MN thread on high maintenance kitchens while i was planning mine and the consensus was that wood is lovely but high maitenance and i am lazy busy

wall colour is Johnstons copy of F&B Skylight, i think it was called Blue Mink

i needed washable acrylic paint, not chalky emulsion

more compromise

Thanks!

We've had our worktops for a couple of years and haven't had any problems at all and maintenance is low.

You need to make sure that they are oiled at least three times on each side before they are installed and all cut non-visible edges sealed with varnish. This is where people go wrong. Builders put them in without oiling them.

If you do them before they are installed you simply have to oil them once a month for the first six months and and then every six months after that - perhaps a bit more frequently around the sink area.

Oiling is no more work than wiping down. I don't know why people find it so hard to do this.

As long as they are oiled properly before they are installed then you won't have any problems and there will be no need to revarnish either.

Varnish doesn't give the same effect though as we did that once and it looked rough and shiny even though it was supposed to be matt but they were cheaper worktops than these so it could have been that.Oiling is v easy and not time consuming really