Kitchen worktops, granite/quartz?

Looks nice mate :)

Been given a quote of £2400 for silestone, so the £1100+VAT for technistone looking far more attractive at the moment.

Popped off another email to a company that does a large range of different manufacturers quartz rather than one that only offers a set brand.

As for light theres a huge 1800 wide windows to one side of the kitchen and the walls are being pulled down anyway to an open plan dining area (french doors installed soon) so shoudl be plenty of light :) I like the slab of quartz on the window sill, will ask if I can get an offcut to fit :p
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
Looks nice mate :)

Been given a quote of £2400 for silestone, so the £1100+VAT for technistone looking far more attractive at the moment.

Popped off another email to a company that does a large range of different manufacturers quartz rather than one that only offers a set brand.

As for light theres a huge 1800 wide windows to one side of the kitchen and the walls are being pulled down anyway to an open plan dining area (french doors installed soon) so shoudl be plenty of light :) I like the slab of quartz on the window sill, will ask if I can get an offcut to fit :p
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You need to go and see it. Some places have boxes of samples you can play with (my wife got a little piece a few inches square and carried around to hold up to all the other stuff she bought.).

There are also some sellers that just carry everyone's range. There was a place we went to a few miles from us, and they had hundreds of different samples, from natural stone to dayglow pink quartz composite.

I can't recommend the upstands enough. Not only do they finish the edge nicely and means that you don't need tiles, they stop the walls getting crappy (especially behind the tap) and they allow you to hide any wall that aren't straight.
 
aye the bloke we went to gave us a sample in white and black for us to carry around, they were both about 40cm square lol, not the lightest :p

I'll ask the chap about the upstands but from what I read theyre a considerable cost as can mean lots of cuts, which would also mean joins :( I've rejigged the kitchen design so there are no joins, one length was 3.2m to start with
 
We've got two joints between the three worktop slabs, and they were matched with coloured resin so they are almost invisible.

For upstands and splashbacks, they are pretty much glued to the wall with adhesive, and any joints are done with clear silicone sealant that's good for at least a decade. Across the top of the upstands, they used white sealant to match the walls.
 
It's made by Arenastone and is AR419 Cielo Stelline.

You can Google and see pictures of it, but it looks like sort of blue/grey/white duck egg colour. The pictures tend not to show that there is a subtle sprinkling of little mirror bits on the top, but there's not too many of them, unlike a lot of worktops where they've put loads on the top.

db_AR419_Cielo_Stelline.gif
 
Yeah the missus has decided she doesnt like the ones that have a huge amount of sparkly bits now lol.

Got some pics to upload later of the mixed samples we have at the mometn but after seeing your kitchen I'm wanting lighter worktops now.

Gonna be going with solid oak flooring which is quite pale.
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
Yeah the missus has decided she doesnt like the ones that have a huge amount of sparkly bits now lol.
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Yeah, there's a lot of worktops that have big chunks of mirror bits all over, and it just looks too spangly. The AR419 only has little bits now and again, quite spread out.

~Divine~Wind~ said:
Got some pics to upload later of the mixed samples we have at the mometn but after seeing your kitchen I'm wanting lighter worktops now.

Gonna be going with solid oak flooring which is quite pale.
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We had a lot of thoughts on flooring, but after seeing what happens to wooden flooring in the in-laws kitchen after a couple of years, we went with Turkish porcelain tiles, with subtle embossing on it.

The problem with wooden floors in kitchens it almost the same as with wooden worktops. You spill water, grease, drop food, etc. You just can't help it when you cook. Wood is a bugger to seal, clean, and keep in good condition in that kind of environment. Wood warps, moves, swells with moisture, gets stained, etc. With tiles, you just run a hoover over it to pick up bits and mop it over with a bit of tile cleaner. Instead of having a skirting board, we ran five/six inches of tiles around the edge with trim.

Tiles are cold unless you have space to put an insulating layer in, but I pretty much expect kitchen floors to be cold, which is no big deal if you're cooking in a hot kitchen. It would be an issue if you had a combined kitchen/diner.
 
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If it's not too late, I've got another tip on worktops. Something I learned from my sister who did a small kitchen in a rush (they were moving into a house with no kitchen at all). They thought about where to put all the appliances, but they didn't think about the space between the appliances.

So the hob, sink, fridge, and oven are all spaced neatly around the room, but this means there's lots of small sections of worktop between them all. Small sections of worktop are a pain in the arse, and are never big enough. A metre of worktop is useful. Cut it into two half metres and spread it apart and it's mostly useless.

So, you've got to think about the spaces between the appliances, as well as where you put the appliances. We did ours to have the most continuous worktops we could. Being a rectangular room, we pushed everything down to one side each length of worktop, giving us long, useful lengths of worktop.

We also didn't bother with drainage grooves next to the sink. We got a big sink, and decided that drainage boards would just eat up space, and become a dumping ground for all that stuff you don't put away. If we need it, we've got one of those draining baskets with a spout on the bottom that you just stand on the worktop next to the sink for a bit. We rarely use it though, as everything pretty much goes straight into the dishwasher, or if hand-washed it gets dried and put away instead of being left on the draining board.
 
Hi Divine Wind,
Quartz surfaces aren't cheap, but they are one of the most durable and require the least maintenance among all worktop materials if you want an economical option.
Quartz slab sizes start at 3 x 1.4 metres, and since manufacturers sell them by the entire slab, you could find alternative quartz brands or offcuts to complete your project. For low costs, check the availability of materials in your area and consider local preferences, as the installation costs will be lower when using local worktop installers.
I hope this helps!

Maria at The Worktop Library
 
WorkTop Library said:
Hi Divine Wind,
Quartz surfaces aren't cheap, but they are one of the most durable and require the least maintenance among all worktop materials if you want an economical option.
Quartz slab sizes start at 3 x 1.4 metres, and since manufacturers sell them by the entire slab, you could find alternative quartz brands or offcuts to complete your project. For low costs, check the availability of materials in your area and consider local preferences, as the installation costs will be lower when using local worktop installers.
I hope this helps!

Maria at The Worktop Library
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Welcome back to 11 years ago :D
 
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