Given that the granite is at least 50 million years old, I don’t suppose another 17 years would change it much!
My thoughts (am joiner/kitchen fitter):
-Laminate is the best solution on a budget but gets knackered by water spillage around the sink.
-Wood looks great but doesn’t cope with any water droplets lying on it; you need to wipe it down after using the sink (or you have a tap that doen’t splash and be really carefull).
-Granite very durable but cold and hard.
-Corian is just a brand name for Acrylo-cyanide 12mm sheet which you glue round a plywood subframe:It’s actually quite cheap, but there’s a big investment in tooling/time etc and a big margin for sorting screw-ups/fussy customers and it sells as a niche product. It is horrible to machine.
Other acrylo-cyanide products are either pre bonded to chipboard core (Minerelle) or solid. 25mm solid is a total bastard to machine. You can’t put hot pots on it like you can with granite. Scratches can be buffed out.

You’ve never been in my kitchen 🙂

Re: corian etc I personally wouldn’t touch it. Yes its amazing how damage etc can be repaired but imho it marks too easily

With what – tea, coffee stains just clean off easily with cream cleaner. We have white tops and they’re spotless, much easier to clean than laminate.

Another benefit of Corian (other Acrylo-Cyanide products are available) is the ability to have a seamless join of sink & work surface, as well as work surface & upstand/splashback. As chickenman notes, the brand has a premium price-tag; even getting a kitchen at cost through family, it was £5k to fit a large kitchen & utility. Liked it so much, bought 4 slabs for another £1200 to make an island unit (3 sides + top) a few years later.

Look at glass worktops!!! Fellow tradesman friend of mine installing and spraying them, sounds crazy but iv sin some and “tested” them and they seem amazing!!!! Any size shape colour etc, oh and if you want granite try romania, the company i work for import it for peanuts and cut/prep here then sell on to kitchen installers.

We just ordered Black Quatrz tops – not been fitted yet, but got a fantastic price as the company had loads spare from a contract. So we got it 50% off materials and labour including full templating rather.

I was working for the right company at the right time….

My corian worktops, including fitting, cost £300!!! 😀

tbh What people spend on their kitchens makes X0 cassettes look like cheap consumable…

In our last house it came with a newish basic kitchen and wood-effect laminate worktop – my wife painted it all with eggshell paint. Looked like a new white kitchen, friends even thought we’d bought a new one.

10 years later when we sold the house, she painted it again. All viewings commented on how clean/fresh the kitchen was.

But, when I put in the kitchen in our new house we’ll be using Bamboo worktops. Love the look of the ‘end-grain’:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=bamboo+worktop&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&rls=ig&rlz=1R2ACAW_enGB373&biw=1287&bih=656&tbm=isch&tbnid=fnx-PBXKQ1RX3M:&imgrefurl=http://www.bambooflooringcompany.com/Bamboo-Worktops/Bamboo-Worktop-Carbonised-Horizontal-3mtr/prod_590.html&docid=rhgNjlsezXM0-M&imgurl=http://www.bambooflooringcompany.com/images/uploads/CHworktopangle.jpg&w=580&h=435&ei=-zN4UMngLoWa0QXo0oDoDw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=5&sig=101090050581490456565&page=1&tbnh=106&tbnw=141&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0,i:102&tx=66&ty=61

Bit of a random one, polished concrete? I’ve seen it done on grand designs with bog standard concrete but there are also companies selling stuff that looks (according to the pictures) pretty good.

No idea on cost. Think its normally mixed and layed on site.

Solid Beech.

Lovely to look at and easy maintenance – a good coating of linseed oil once a month (or so) does the trick. Doesn’t like standing water, though any marks are easily removed with a light sanding.

DSC04153 by stuartie_c, on Flickr

DSC04154 by stuartie_c, on Flickr

No idea on cost. Think its normally mixed and layed on site.

might as well get granite if yer going that extreme.

as for ‘solid’ beach, wooden draining boards not great idea.

What is left in a house to ‘exploit’- utility rooms ?

Beech here and my brother’s is Oak.

Kitchen by brf, on Flickr

we’ve got Corian, but if it were my choice, we would have had cumbrian slate.

but if it were my choice, we would have had cumbrian slate.

Gone are the days of lebanese red, moroccan green, afghani black 😥

Strangely we are still undecided… We want to have the kitchen complete by Christmas, so we need to pull our fingers out!

Just not sure about the cold/hardness of the granite and we cannot justify the extra costs of the Corian/other worktops.

We have some not super expensive laminate.

You can put wet things on it or drop liquids on it and it doesn’t stain.

You can take things out of the oven and pop them on it almost straight away and it doesn’t seem to mind (I think this kind of laminate is something like 180 degree heat resistant normally).

You can knead bread on it.

It cleans dead easily same as anything else.

Seems to have lasted for about 5 years now and still looks the same.

When we got a different cooker and needed slightly more width, it was an hour or so job for the guy to cut the worktop down, move the cupboards underneath it, and put the ends back on the surface.

And best of all, if the worst came to the worst and it got stained or whatever, or if you need a bigger worktop fitting, you could probably replace it for way less than it’d cost to get repairs done to a fancy surface.

Only thing you can’t do is chop directly on it, but I don’t think there are any surfaces where you can chop on them (assuming you don’t want to either blunt your knives or damage the surface).

On the other hand, it doesn’t look as fancy as some more expensive surfaces. And you can see the joins at the corners.

laminate and get a new bike/car/nice holiday with the change

We have, get this, pure white granite.

It looks great and everything but any stain on there and it’s panic stations until the appropriate cleaning fluid gets it out. We have plenty of glass and granite blocks to put wine and tea on. Our sink surround is Corian and I’m not quite so worried about that.

the granite guy told us not to put pans straight off the stove or oven onto the granite. He reckoned it can damage it and make it crack.

As the spammer resurrected this thread I’ll ask here;

what do you clean it with samuri? We have a white Samsung ‘fake stone’ worktop and tea etc leave marks pretty easily.

Stainless steel for me … I like industrial looks.

The granite guy left some specialist cleaning spray. Can’t remember what it’s called now but that works where nothing else will (tea, wine, and once my wife left a handwritten note on the worksurface which got wet and the ink stained). He told us to just use light soap and water first (for stains), then the spray he left. He said worse case we should call him out and he’d bring some extra-specialist cleaning stuff that only he could use.

Trick with stone tops i.e. real or ‘fake’ i.e. quartz (94% stone) composite, granite, marble is to wipe em down straight away.

Stick with Granite or mainstream big brand quality quartz (silestone, cimstone, samsung)

Any surface will have a stain/watermark if you leave it long enough but acids etc act quicker i.e. tea, coffee, wine, oil.

Use coasters religiously or accept that it will age if you’re lazy and messy or

Lighly soapy sponge all over (I always do it as I finish washing up .. skim off the same bubbles from the top of the water on a sponge), then ‘buff’ of with a clean tea towel
Takes 30-60seconds at the end of washing up.

Corian is ‘seamless’ but due to high resin content can start to look old after a few years. It’s guaranteed of course .. so it’ll will still be functional but it will look older. The resin seams wear and age faster. Go and look at airport desks/station ticket counters etc to see what I mean.

Granite here. Obviously not cheap, but I treat ours once a year, and other than not allowing acidic liquids like orange juice/wine to sit on it, it’s as good as day 1.

If you do get a ring, a bit of stone soap will bring it out.