About to start on a pretty major kitchen refit and (via kitchen suppliers/fitters) have had about as many different opinions as there are surface options.

We prefer the look and feel of Corian but some suppliers say ‘no it’s rubbish, get silestone’. To which the pro-Corian people counter that it is seamless, warmer to the touch and much easier to repair *if* it gets seriously marked.

Does anyone have any less invested opinions than the kitchen people?

HELP!

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Strangely I was just about to ask the same question, so watching the responses with interest.

We too like the corian worktop, but I’m concerned it’ll go dull quickly and might get chipped easliy.

Depends how you use your kitchen…..for cooking and proper use or light use and for looking nice.

Fitted good quality 38mm chipboard to our kitchen from Bushboard, about 2500 meals later with 3 kids it is still fine and all for about £300

Sister in law has a massive Corian unit, can’t see that much of an advantage for 20 times the price.

Not all chipboard worktops are made the same, but they are much cheaper and not inferior to ££££ ones

We’ve just been through the same thing and decided on quartz.

The thing that swung it for us is that we put a couple of quartz samples down (gently) on a corian worktop in the shop to compare and the assistant came running over telling us not to do that as it could damage the corian 😯

We have a white counter made of this;

http://www.samsungradianzworktops.co.uk/

Pros: Looks lovely, scratch resistant.
Cons: Stains *really* easily (particularly tea), we’ve managed to take a couple of chunks out of the corners at the edges moving pans out of drawers or into the dishwasher.

Would probably still buy again but woudl think about colour.

Just been through this. Almost went for Corian, the kitchen designer (who we know) showed us quite a few of the Corian surfaces in the showroom and, admittedly in a farily harsh environment, looked dull and scratched.

So we ended up with Silestone. Don’t know if it’s the colour we chose but its a nightmare with water marks. Plus the little white bits in it it look like tiny crumbs which I’m forever trying to brush off the surface.

It’s nice, and works in our kitchen but if we had to repeat I’m really not sure what we’d go for.

We fit nearly 100% silestone/ceaserstine these days on our jobs, not had a request for Corian for as long as I remember. Occasionally fit laminate Worktops but mainly utilities to keep the costs down.

I’d not have Corian, seem less it maybe but it marks very easily. Does a worktop need to be warm to the touch?? A lot of pastry cooks would argue not.

I’d have Silestone myself if it was my money:

Hmm, the countertop we’re doing is going to be off white too, so staining is a concern (especially with Corian).

It will be used as a kitchen (I love cooking) but I am relatively careful. We’re also fitting a 1.1m range cooker (gas hob) so I will put any hot pans on there (which is what I generally do now, even with the knackered old kitchen we currently ‘enjoy’).

We’ve just gone granite (£££!) after much research. Corian while join-less (its only selling point?) seems to require the most care. I think hot pans will damage it. Granite and quartz can take stain after prolonged exposure if not cleaned off.

All these stone work tops need to be made to order and surveyed and fitted after the kitchen units are in meaning you’ll be worktop-less for several weeks. I think most fitters put a temporary work top down. Laminate is installed by the fitter so no additional delays.

You can have 5+ laminate work tops for the price off 1 off the others so if it gets destroyed its cheap to replace.

Does a worktop need to be warm to the touch?? A lot of pastry cooks would argue not.

Well I suppose I mean ‘warm’ and more tactile rather than warm being a positive trait.

Agreed re pastry cheffing, but that is one thing we rarely do (apart from stretching out pizza bases).

We have just fitted Minerva work tops. Very impressed, seamless joints, comes in a mat finish but can be polished if required.

All these stone work tops need to be made to order and surveyed and fitted after the kitchen units are in meaning you’ll be worktop-less for several weeks.

I think ours was about 2 days between coming to make a template (they cut it from a bit of 6mm ply or something) and coming back with the worktop with all the holes , drainage etc cut. They’d had rough dimensions in advance so I assume bought in appropriate lengths of stone they coudl just cut to size?

this was just after it was installed;

Why would warmer to the touch be a plus point? Personally, if i’ve sunk mega bucks into a poxy surface then I want to know every time I touch it that its as cold as my ex wife’s heart.

The seamless thing seems a nice plus point on face value, but if im not mistaken, I believe that under the fancy Corian surface (around 8-10mm down) lies a standard wooden board to which the Corian is bonded. I’ll take a solid material over this every time thank you very much. (or is that Minerva?)

I think Corian is a Dupont (or similar) trademark, and prices seem to be extortionate based on marketing hype alone. If you shop around you can find kitchen surface specialists whom will take a template and cut their own stone/granite etc – usually works out cheaper.

I can see the attraction to a Corian surface finish and was tempted myself at one point – but under certain lighting conditions I found it can occasionally look a bit flat – and resemble a plastic/laminate finish.
In the right colour, and the right kitchen, im sure it can look pretty spiffing. I guess it comes down to how much wedge you’re willing to splash.

EDIt – about 15 responses in the time it took me to type this, we have a lot of kitchenites on STW!

Well we are going for very flat and muted colours, my wife doesn’t want sparkle, just simple flat lines – which is why she likes Corian.

I honestly don’t care one way or the other myself – just so long as I get my cooker.

Is a wooden surface not an option?

Nope, no wood, 100%. (Apart from the ‘breakfast bar’ element that is).

We’ve got white corian and we had it fitted in 2009. Still looks good but it does stain very easily, but a bit off jiff and the stain goes in an instant. We’ve not had any issues with it and would definitely get the same again.

The only thing I probably would have a good think about is the white sinks that are molded into the worktops – the look great but are a lot harder to keep looking good. Stainless steel bowl sinks with a hole cut in the worktop would have been more practical.

The only thing I probably would have a good think about is the white sinks that are molded into the worktops – the look great but are a lot harder to keep looking good. Stainless steel bowl sinks with a hole cut in the worktop would have been more practical.

Another of our dilemmas – moulded Corian or stainless undermounted…

Can I ask why the worktops are easy to clean but not the sink (seeing as they are both the same material).

Christ this shit used to be easy.

The sink seems to have micro cracks all over the surface – on the bottom of it. Looks fine when it’s just been bleached but does stain very easily. We don’t use them that much either. The sinks in the utility room look good as new but the bigger sink in the main kitchen, which gets more use but still not a lot, can look stained if its not cleaned, as in bleached, for a week.

I presume you’re getting a dishwasher? If not then there’s no way I’d go for corian sinks.

The only thing that would worry me about undermounted sinks would be chipping the edge round the sink – I would think that would be quite easy to do.

Moulded definitely look much nicer though.

But yes it is expensive, think our worktops for the kitchen and utility room plus corian cooker hood were around £6k – gulp!

Ahh right – that is interesting, thanks for that.

Yes we are getting a dishwasher but we do still use the sink a fair bit.

we’ve got off-white Corian on our island. It’s sort of translucent. had it since 2009 and it still looks great, haven’t managed to destroy it or stain it yet. it’s had a few scratches though. The only real problem was during installation, the guy that made it cracked one of the joins when he was putting it in. He was never able to fix it because the colour made the joins particularly visible. you can’t really see the line unless you look for it and he knocked 25% off so I wasn’t too bothered in the end.

Oh, and under mounted steel sink!

FWIW, we’re going for Mistral which as I understand it is essentially the same as Corian but cheaper (Well under £1k for a 3m length). No MDF/etc in it either.

It will scratch if treated roughly but that can be polished out if really necessary.

We’re going for a standard stainless sink on top though – no under or mistral sink – prefer to keep it simple and practical (and cheap 🙂 )

Our cheap laminate chipboard surface lasted nigh on 25 years, and the replacement is 40mm oak. So far, so good. It weathers well, and any scratches can be rubbed out. It doesn’t seem to chip like stone or fake stone.
Sinks – keep them stainless, and have a full double if you have the space

If you get Corian (or any of the other similar type of products – Hanex etc) it will scratch – that’s a gimme. That’s why until recently none of the darker colours were approved for kitchen use as they showed all the white marks.

Recently, however, Corian have released what they call ‘Deep Colour Technology’ which basically means that while it will still scratch, it scratches darker so you can’t see them. With a bit of care, however, it will clean up like new and can last years.

If installed properly (and there are some not so good fitters out there) the joints will be difficult to spot giving a really good finish.

If the worktop does get damaged in any way, it can be repaired with whole sections being able to removed and replaced with new sections if necessary.

IMO, it’s no better/worse than granite/silestone, just different.

If you do go down the Corian route, take your time researching the fabricator as this can make the difference between a good job that’ll last years and a shabby one which you’ll never be happy with.

I work with Corian on a daily basis and have Granite worktops btw.

White Corian here – we’ve had it just over two years and it still looks great.
the moulded sink does stain easily, especially if you leave curry/pasta sauce in contact with it, but the stains always go with a splash of bleach.
We paid 4.5K installed directly from a Corian agent, rather than through the kitchen people.

Yeah, I’d do it again.

Just find some old snooker tables and cut them to size. Corian. Pfhtt 🙂

Why not go cheap(er) and use polished concrete?

My wife doesn’t like that – its either Corian or Silestone (either one in a very plain finish) and she is being quite specific about the colour too – the units are very light colours and she wants a lighter coloured work top.

Had Corian fitted in last place – done cheaply by a Scottish outfit who were excellent and came to the South Coast to do it. No scratching in heavy usage for about 10 years

We fitted a Franke Composite sink in Black. Stainless steel just looks cheap and feels tinny to me.

Just about to drop a rather large amount on our new kitchen and we’re going Corian. I trust our fitter implicitly having known him most of my life and all the materials have their pros and cons. It’s the ability to have it repaired that’s swung it for us. And we’re likely to go for the darker colours now they’re approved for kitchen use.

Be careful with the colours if silestone. We got a large sample rather than a little swatch and carried it around whilst choosing all the other kitchen bits. Worktops fitted, that night we thought it looked lighter than the swatch. It was the same code etc but massively lighter (was already light – blanco norte ).

MD of the company came round and agreed – replaced a fortnight later after a search for an older batch – apparently silestone lightened up their whole range without notice.

5 months in and we are really happy with the product. We had it on an an L shape (inc sink and hob) and a big island of Formica laminated birch ply. Which I’m even more pleased with, but wouldn’t want near heat/water!

I just had my kitchen templated for silestone, we have had silestone and corian samples in the kitchen for a few months and been using both as cutting boards. Silestone is immaculate, corian scratched to bits, I know the corian can be repaired but as I will pretty much neglect the worktops then I’d prefer to have something less likely to be damaged in the first place.

Nice kitchen free agent! Nice clean lines!

Off-white Silestone here (with undermounted steel sink).

Hasn’t cracked/scratched at all, five years in.

No stains either – the essential thing is to make sure it is NOT sealed. DO NOT apply sealant to it (our installer applied sealant, it stained like a b**t**d, changed the top for one without sealant, now never stains). Easy clean with cream cleaner. Even turmeric, red wine etc.

I had the same dilima last year…….I liked the idea of seamless……but I didn’t like the price….in the end we went for Quartz …..and I couldn’t be happier
30mm solid , under mount sink with drain grooves cut in…..and the price was great too.
We went back to the place where we saw the seamless worktop the other day…..we didn’t like it any more …thought it looked chunky and plastic compared to what we have now

Another Corian experience here: chose it as
-odd-shaped kitchen with variable depth
-seamless join to sink
-changes in upstand and edge runs.

Never cut directly on it – that’s what chopping boards are for – and the odd marks quickly went with bar-keeps friend and a soft scourer.

Even had an island built in in – 3 sides and top – bolt together in less time than it took to fit & level the fridge & freezers beneath.

Was pricey, but worth it. Been missing it for the past year, having moved to a house with woodblock surfaces and over mount sink.