Anyone who uses their kitchen a lot and uses the worktop every day naturally wants to reduce their cleaning and maintenance efforts. Cleaning and maintenance are quite simple with ceramic or laminate materials. However, special care should be taken with solid wood – the surface should be regularly treated with oil or wax. This is also the case with granite, soapstone, and concrete requiring specific attention.
If your granite with granite selection for example is chipping or cracking, it needs to be repaired by a professional. Your fabricator can use color-matched epoxy to fill the crack, so it goes unnoticed.
Quartz
The countertop material known as “quartz” is a product that contains quartz and other minerals, shaped into slabs and bonded with resins. Quartz was created as a more adaptable and better-performing alternative to granite and marble.
Ceramic
Ceramic countertops are durable and easy to clean and considerably less expensive than natural stone countertops. Recent innovations in ceramic tiles offer more design options than ever, including tiles that look like wood, marble, or even leather or cork.
Laminates
Laminate countertops are plastic-coated synthetics with a smooth, easy-to-clean surface. Although previously considered rather low-end, they are now very popular due to their various colors, patterns, and styles.
Bois
Wooden worktops offer a nice warm look in various colors and finishes. Hardwoods such as maple and oak are very often used species.
Stainless steel
For a truly contemporary and industrial look for your kitchen, stainless steel is a good choice. Stainless steel worktops are both heat-resistant and durable.
Concrete
Concrete may be a good choice if you’ve planned an unusually shaped countertop or want a truly unique kitchen. Due to their heavy weight, concrete countertops are usually cast in place right in your kitchen. The tiles are highly polished and can even be textured or acid-stained to produce color.
Quartz counters
If you look at trends on Google, you’ll see that searches for “granite countertops” peaked in February 2010 and have leveled off since then. In contrast, quartz has been on the rise since December 2009. Over the past decade, Google searches for “quartz countertops” have grown exponentially and continue to grow.
Quartz or msi quartz is an artificial stone that can be customized to look like any natural or artificial material. It has a versatility that granite cannot match. It also doesn’t need to be sealed. You can learn more in my guide to the pros and cons of quartz countertops. Instead of using granite for the whole kitchen, people mix quartz and marble with granite. For example, they can buy a granite island countertop with unique veining but buy solid-colored quartz for the perimeter. Apart from aesthetic appeal, quartz is gaining ground over granite due to its superior ability to resist stains.
Consumer Reports tested several substances on both granite and quartz, including vegetable oil, coffee, chocolate syrup, and grape juice. The goal was to see which material resisted stains the best after twenty hours.
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