Getacore - any good?

NastyMatt · 8 January 2007 at 5:39PM

Very close to choosing a worktop. I have seen a nice Getacore Star worktop, it's highly polished and looks very nice. But it is not cheap for a laminate type worktop.

In short, is this stuff any good?

I like the way it can be repoished to sort scratches.

andythejesse · 8 January 2007 at 6:00PM

When we'd our kitchen put in we put in a very similar product called Minerelle ... yes its slightly better than laminate, but to honest we wish we'd just went the whole hog and bought the granite. The polish is like a t-cut and fills any small scratches. The product looks great on installation, but after a few months the polish wears off and it doesn't look half as good.

One thing to bear in mind was the guy who installed it told us after that black was the worst colour and shows up all the scratches, so a lighter colour may be a better option.

ozskin · 8 January 2007 at 9:55PM

we sell kitchens, the joints you get are still visible and you cant put undermount sinks in unless something has really changed recently which defeats the point of solid surface. i would recommend a top quality laminate or go the whole hog and do corian or granite, or for sparkly manmade there are a few alternatives. do it all or nothing as andythejesse says dont do it

NastyMatt · 9 January 2007 at 4:03PM

Anyone else got any experience of this stuff?? Got me sweating about it now.. it's the first non granite work surface I have seen that I reallty liked!!

ozskin · 9 January 2007 at 9:55PM

try luxore silestone or zodiac. all v similar but luxore from whitehall tends to be cheapest pm me if you need any more help, can see it in mfi but can get it cheaper, it is termed as the man made granite, can undermount it and it is very disco sparkly and looks fabby, did it for a friend in birmingham recently and they love it. Or a top quality laminate dont do half measures

NastyMatt · 11 January 2007 at 4:23PM

pm has been sent

suseiq · 7 April 2008 at 1:14PM

I purchased this product and it was very expensive, yes you cannot see the joins which is very true. However, the product itself marks at the tiniest thing, can't put a cup on it without it scratching, it is not what I call workable for a kitchen.

I wrote to the manufactures who tell me that the product should have been sold by the distributior with a warning of Handle with Care, I now know of 3 people who have the same complaints as me about this product, I am seriously considering taking this to Trading Standards.

Sue

jester70 · 5 May 2008 at 10:46AM

if i were you i wouldn't touch this stuff. Breath on it and it scratches. Even rubber pads on the base of kettles leave a snial trail that cannot be removed. Our retailer advised us not to put hot pans on it, but that is the understatement of the year. In the process of getting the retailer to pull the whole lot out and make them pay for putting something else in.

macclan146 · 11 October 2008 at 12:59PM

Firstly i must point out that I am a retailer of this product and have been for some years now and the information given is as a guide only as if i were talking to you as a customer. The product is in fact made from man made resin materials that are attached to a chipboard substrate for stabillity. The surface layer is 3mm thick with a 12mm front edge. Because it is made from resin it is subject to fine surface scratching. This product is allso sometimes called solid surface, the reason is because at stage of instalation all joints are clued together using the same type of resin the surface is made of then sanded down to give a very flat and allmost invisble joints. All the surface area is then sanded to give a unform finish. We would sujest the surface be finnished with no finer than a 320 grit paper. This will leave you with a semi matt finish that tends not to show the surface scratches as badley (dependent on colour of top chosen , dark colours show scratches the most).
If you damage or scrach the surface it can be repaired or resanded to remove the marks bringing the surface back to its origional finish.
Ok that the technical bit delt with now the next section is my own personal opinion as i have Getacore in my own kitchen. We use worktop savers but even this is not protecting the surface and yes it is scratching. Most of the time we do not notice them but if we look across the top at an angle in sun or artificial light they can be seen (ours is a light colour top). Because I know I can sand them back it tends not to bother me but as a retail customer if I was called out to resand your worktops you would be charged. At point of sale dont be afraid to as the sales person the prows and cons of this product or for a brochure. Instalation can be very time consuming and technical so i would recomend you do not try a DIY job Nor do you puchase from online dealers use your local dealer. The other thing i would sugest is that you ask your retailer to price for granite or other similar products at the same time this will give you the option of choice. Another point to rember is that all man made resin worktops WILL SCRACH to some degree NO MATTER WHOS MAKE THEY ARE. As for the high gloss tops unless they are to be used in an area that will not have anything placed on them at any time THEN RUN LIKE HELL.
I hope the above info helps you as a desision maker only because at the end of the day it is your desison and your money. Finally and pesonaly I will not be replacing my tops at home with the same or any similar product. Ps if joints show after instalation thers are only 2 reasons for this. 1. It has been installed incorectly. This occures when the installer leaves insuficent time for the resin to dry before sanding down the joint, ( time required to dry fully approx 45mins or higher)This will leave a thin dark line on the joint. 2. Somtimes there is a small shade variation in the worktops. It is possible to undermount sinks with this product we have done mant with great sucsses

bermudaby · 10 January 2009 at 11:40AM

We had Corian in our last kitchen and although it looks great and is very tactile it scratched within days. We used Midnight which is the darkest they recommend for kitchens. I would go with a lighter colour next time.

Now looking for a cheaper alternative and I'm not keen on granite so looking at Encore from Omega worktops. Has anyone used this?

macclan146 · 29 January 2009 at 3:40PM

The Encore product is possible the hardest of all these types of worktops and sertainly has the highest scratch resistance of the all, however it is, at the end of the day still liable to scratch. Think of this as the tough nut version of the solid worktop family. PS there will be some new colours coming out soon.

Getacore - any good?

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