Kitchen Renovation Tips – Choosing The Right Natural Stone Worktops
Kitchen Worktops In A Renovation
Your worktop sets the tone of your kitchen and is an essential element in changing your kitchen. The worktops you choose can affect the dynamic of your kitchen, its colours and its use. You need to select worktop materials that reflect your style, personality, and use of the kitchen.
Choosing worktops based on their popularity or affordability can affect the result and disappoint you. That is not to say you should not set a budget.
Your Budget
In today’s economy, it is a given that you need to have a budget.
So, you need to remember to factor into your figures, not just the cost of the worktop materials but the templating, fabrication and installation.
Also, the cost of removing old worktops, changing any fitted kitchen cupboards or appliances and the cost of maintaining your worktop if the material requires regular upkeep.
Choose The Right Material For Your Worktops
With the increasingly wide choice of worktop materials, it can feel slightly overwhelming finding the one for your kitchen. Your first consideration should be to take the time and work what use the worktops will get, heavy, medium or light. As this is important in which materials you select. You need to understand the characteristics of the materials you can choose from to make an informed choice that suits what you want and meets your budget
Granite Worktops
A natural material that comes with a vibrant, unique finish—that can be matte or gloss—in an assortment of colours and patterns. Granite is hard-wearing and durable but does require some maintenance in the form of sealant application every 10-15 years. Costs are moderate to high.
Quartz Worktops
A kitchen with quartz worktops conveys a high-class appearance. One of the most durable worktop materials, it is suitable for a high-traffic kitchen, maybe one with a few children passing through it regularly. Commercial and business kitchens benefit from quartz worktops. It is low maintenance due to its non-porous characteristic, but the lighter colours may need more attention.
Check that any quartz you buy has an NSF – National Sanitation Foundation rating. Its composition is 93% natural quartz and 7% pigments and binders for a better resistant surface to marks and stains. For hard-wearing, scratch and stain resistance, you may want to consider Silestone, Caesarstone or take a look at Stone Connection’s City Quartz Collection, a cost-effective solution for those wanting the benefits of quartz without the rather large price tag.
Quartz is always glossy, colour is good from slab to slab, but you can find some variations in pattern. Black and white quartz are very elegant and dramatic, but quartz is not cheap, and some colours are even more so.
Marble Worktops
Another natural material, marble worktops, give your kitchen a classy, elegant, and timeless look. Marble is a more fragile surface and needs regular care and maintenance as it can stain and scratch. Marble is also at the higher end of the price bracket, but its appearance has several options, from glossy to honed or leathered.