Granite, fake granite or Wood?

[HinnyPet]

A real granite worktop is going to cost about £900 in our kitchen, a "laminate granite effect" one about a quarter at £300 and a solid oak one from IKEA was £470.

Which would you have? Kitchen units will be white, not glossy, the oven will be black and huge fridge will be white.

I really wanted coloured glass splashback but now it's sadly out of budget, so need something really nice instead on the worktops in the kitchen!!

Looked at all of these, and have gone for compressed quartz....very hard wearing, looks great, no problem with heat

Just oiled my wood yesterdY. Took all of 15 minutes and it looks great today.

Cece - imagine all the other more useful things you could've done with that 15 minutes though. Watch half an episode of Corrie perhaps, or maybe paint your toenails...

What about fake wood? im a laself confessed lazy arse but would love granite but its mega bucks - i have been looking at the woode block look alike - thing is with granite what happens in a few years when your bored of your kitchen and want to live in up with a new worktop ? dh would kill me if i wanted to do that after spending mega bucks on a granite - cheapos i can change at will

Local B&Q told me that they (B&Q) are expensive for granite worktops, they pointed me in the direction of a local supplier who they say are cheapest in the North East. Wasn't that nice of them? So am off there next week.

Most of the 15 mins was moving the clutter off of the worktop

Oh and I don't watch corrie! But yes I suppose I could have been MNetting....

Yes, that will be my problem too Cece.

We just got a dishwasher, and one of the many reasons was "life's too short to spend the evening washing up". What do I now spend the evening doing? You've guessed it!

Hinny, £900 sounds pretty reasonable for granite. Is it a smallish worktop?

I used a v good and reasonable company who cover south east if you want to get another quote but not sure which area you're in?

I'm reet up North Neatnick, but I thought £900 was quite a lot for just a kitchen worktop, I thought about spending £500 at most! The worktop is about 8 metres with a cut-out in one corner.
Rock solid are near me and are supposed to be cheap, if they are and they are nice I'll post a link if anybody wants.

£900 is a bargain! My quote was about £3500 for about 4 metres of 620mm wide and 2.5 metres of 900 mm wide for the breakfast bar.

Oops. I am a cheapskate!

I love my wood worktop precisely because things don't get left/dumped on it (or I go nuts about the scratch/stain/watermark risk!!) - the DDs wash up/dry up instantly after a meal, I have no permanent draining board (only a plastic one that gets put away after every session). I use trivets/chopping boards without even having to think about it, which also get put away once used. And it's really not that difficult to mop up spills as soon as they occur.

But I know people who have a wooden worktop that they never oil, that they use as a chopping board, clean with a scritcher and don't mop up spilt water. Surprise, surprise, it looks shabby as hell.

It's horses for courses.

Good god, £900 for 8 metres??! Snap their hands off seriously. We had about 5 metres and it came to £1800

There is no way I'm paying almost a grand for a bloody worktop, I think I must be hallucinating! thinking I could get it for half that!

We paid about £400 for 6 metres of solid oak - and I thought that was quite expensive enough. Granite is the "look at me, I can afford this" option. Wood is far more subtle (and tasteful) - give up on the granite girl!

TBH it's not the kind of house that screams "granite worktop" it's more likely to whimper "formica"

I have granite. Its fantastic.
Wood is a good alternative but needs more effort to keep it looking beautiful.
If you can afford the real thing do it, my MIL had her kitchen done shortly before I did mine and went for laminate because she had heard horror stories about granite showing marks and stains etc.
Then she saw mine and was

Don't let anyone put you off wood, Hinnypet. You'd love it. Go on, you know you want to. Beech is the cheapest option and would look fab with white units, as would any wood really.

Granite is showy and nouveau go for wood .

I've got wood and it's a PITA. Looked great for about three months, because people put hot pans on it, it gets water marks etc.

None of that matters with granite/fake granite - we used to have fake granite in our old house, and I much prefer it. It doesn't have to be black, there are loads of colours.

I got mine from here. Can recommend them. I went for walnut and love it but beech seems to be the cheapest.

I agree everyone has granite... dare to be different!

Granite information.

Thank you cece, that is a really good article!