Selecting the right type of worktop, especially if you love cooking and are very peculiar about your work platform, needs having the right kind of information. You may have seen many infomercials promoting the material but being a customer, you must know both the pros and cons of using a types of worktops. You will not want something that does not suit the theme and look of your kitchen and settling for less is never an option.
The central part of any home, the kitchen, tells how someone maintains his home and how much he is particular about things. Calling guests over for a thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner or for a lunch will only make you happy when you know you have a praiseworthy kitchen waiting for the guests. Cleaning the countertops of the kitchen should also be easy with that. So, when it comes to selecting the material for your kitchen, you not only look for the right aesthetic look but also how much ease it gives you while working.
There are some queries you might want to ponder upon before choosing or opting for the worktops for the kitchen. Following are some of those explained.
Do I Have The Right Budget?
Worktops are not that costly but when it comes to natural stones such as granite and marble, you must check the amount you have at hand for the purchase and how much amount you have planned to spend on the worktops. Having a budget planned before the purchase can help you in making cost comparisons and also checks you from over spending.
Professional or Self-Services?
Placing the slabs right in the spaces without missing the fittings needs professional skills and if you don’t have them or do not have a budget to risk upon. I recommend, you take on professional assistance because they know how to cut the slab right and have the right tools for that which may not be there in your house and hiring them may also cost more than whole professional service package.
Can I Spare Time For Fitting and Installing The Worktops?
If you are a working person, the only days you might have free are Saturdays and Sundays but you may also have plans for those days, right? So, postponing the working to later dates again and again will do nothing but become a burden, remaining in the pending tasks list. Calling professionals will help you enjoy your weekend along with having your kitchen re-decorated.
Do I Want The Worktop To Be Heat, Cold And Shock Resistant?
Having a busy schedule spares less time for cooking and sometimes you do not wait to take out the tripods to put the hot and burning pans on and place them directly on the counter. Having children in your home can make your kitchen counters prone to a lot of spills; juices, milk, soft drinks etc. Dropping something, similarly, can also affect the health of your kitchen counter. So, before buying a specific stone or material, you might want to check if it is hard core and can bear the spills, stains, heat and blows etc.
Colors and Textures?
A cosmic or galaxy look, a whirly wavy look, freckles or droplets, blue, red or white? There are a lot of questions you might want to answer yourself before buying and a detailed web surfing about the types and colors is also necessary to select the right look for your home.
Going through the answers of these inquiries, comes the next step of selection. Following are the elaborated drawbacks and advantages of each and every slab type for your kitchen.
Granite
When it comes to granite, there are many variants within this umbrella that can make you wonder which one to select. The naturally occurring durable stone has become not only the choice but the need of many households. Whether you have a contemporary themed kitchen or a traditional one.
- The granite worktops do not wear off easily and thus they don’t have to be replaced every 1 or 2 years. This shows how durable and cost effective they are.
- The blue, gray, burgundy, red, charcoal, cream and black shades give a lot of options to the buyers to choose from
- They look unique, luxurious and appealing and at the same time cleaning and maintaining them is quite less of a task. They can bear heat and do not crack when exposed to hot objects.
- However, the downside is that you have to replace them if broken because repairing them is not possible.
- The cabinets on which you place them should also be strong enough to bear their heavy weight or burden.
- And because of their porous nature, lamination is necessary on a yearly basis otherwise they no longer be resistant to stains and spills.
Quartz Kitchen Counters
It does not occur naturally but is made in factories and is quite similar to that of the naturally occurring ones. Scratching or chipping a quartz is not a problem because this manmade stone is highly resistant to these and it is also not difficult to maintain them. Quartz goes friendly with the environment because they contain recyclable material and some proportion of waste too.
- Because they are human made, you can have them customized according to the color scheme of your kitchen. The variety in the texture also depends upon how the customer wants these stones to be.
- However, because of having a bit of a cheap material as input, heat can be a trouble for quartz.
- They are a bit more expensive than one can expect them to be because of them being artificial.
Ceramic kitchen counters
various colors, variety of textures, hygienic and easy to clean, what can you expect more from a good ceramic kitchen countertop. On top of that the strength of these worktops is a lot more than that of marble and is refined in nature to make you kitchen look neat and clean.
- The beauty, gleaming texture, eye-catchy colors make them the focal point of décor when it comes to setting up your kitchen.
- They do not go heavy on your budget and are also cost effective as they don’t need to be changed or replaced regularly.
- However, they are non-fixable and once broken they can no longer be in use and at the same time because of the grouts and uneven surfaces ceramics get a lot of scratches which cannot be removed. The spills on the joints if not wiped immediately, can leave permanent stains on them.
Glass tops
To give a lavish, elite and modern look to your kitchen, you can choose glass-made tops. They look delicate and stylish at the same time and can be custom made because the pigmentation in glass is very easy of a task. Broken glass or cracks can also be made into a design and thus sometimes are repairable.
- Cutting a glass to fit in the spaces is quite an easy task as compared to the heavy stones and glass is non-corrosive, so it does not allow anything to react with it thus keeping the surface clean and safe. Stains can also be wiped off very easily and mold or fungi are never a danger when it comes to glass.
- However, glass cannot bear a heavy blow and heavy weight. It is also expensive and the low durability sometimes does not prove to be a good tradeoff for investing so much into them.
Corian countertops
The pigmented, plastic mixed material has been the talk of the town in the recent past as many of the homeowners have purchased it. The seamless nature comes from it not being natural and thus can be made into any shape or structure with any color or pattern and is very famous among the modern households.
- Because of the smoothness they do not support or increase the growth of microbes to be stuck in corners. They do not have a mixture of waste wood and that is why can be turned into any design or color. Scratches or stains cannot damage the Corian look.
- But you might want to have a high budget when it comes to buy these worktops. Because of the plastic in their core, heat can prove to be a poison for them.
It totally depends on you when it comes to selecting the look of your kitchen but following some additional tips such as going through a lot of magazines, online supplier websites, asking your close circle about which one to buy and from home to buy is necessary. The size and age bracket of your family also has a say in selecting the right material because having children and delicate glass tops or counters will not prove to be a good idea, right? Checking the status of the supplier and searching about his services and quality of the products he provides, is also necessary as you might not want to invest in a bad one.
