Getacore - any good?

[NastyMatt]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

pm has been sent

[suseiq]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[ddantk]

If you are simply changing your existing worktops to give your kitchen a facelift why not consider overlaying them with 8mm thin quartz? This material is as hard as granite, comes in a range of colours and can be fitted over your existing worktops giving a real quartz finish. Undermount sinks can be fitted and costs around 40% cheaper than granite making it similar in price if not slightly cheaper than Getacore.
In the west midlands: sutton stone worktops supply and fit 8mm quartz.

[ryder72]

Its been said before but to repeat - Getacore, Minerelle, Maia and similar pproducts are all made from thin acrylic or polyester sheets laid on chipboard. Both acrylic and polyester scratch, polyester more easily than acrylic. Dark colours show scratches easier than lighter ones so prefer lighter colours.

As a kitchen retailer we simply do not recommend any of these solid surface substitues. As someone remarked earlier, undermounted sinks are out. I beleive coved upstands are out as well. Corian (or similar substitutes) all offer seamlessly mounted sinks coved upstands and seamless joints with the added advantage of being repairable which the above arent.

Bearing in mind that installation is time consuming, and the end product is a far cry from the intended properties of a solid surface for a price thats often not a great deal more than the real thing we certainly do not recommend these worktops.

[Alan M]

As already suggested, solid surface is really a misnomer. It's a laminate of resin polymers on top of a substrate of chipboard, MDF etc.

If you like this type of material, quartz worktop is a better bet for you.

If you're in South London pop into Selco Builders Warehouse at either Sutton or Catford - they offer a range of these solid surfaces but they also offer Quartz worktops - you might be surprised at the costs of the relevant materials. It gives you a starting point and a single site where you can make a direct comparison.

Selco use PWS for their installations who are generally eye wateringly expensive so they tend to use local firms to make things more viable for the customer.

[macclan146]

Have just finished installing some Encore top in Chocolate sparkle. OMG what a peice of C**P. It wont polish properly and even wet cups are leaving a ring stain in the top that wont wipe out. The litriture says its easy to install. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, what moron wrote the instruction. Under no cicumstance should a DIY person try to install these products. Do your selves a favor and stay as far away from this and all similar products. THEY JUST ARNT FIT FOR PURPOSE. You have been warned.