Kitchen worktop advice please

madget_2

adrian - What would put me off glass would be the smears and constant polishing I think it would take to keep it looking good. I haven't ever tried it myself, though.

pelirocco - Funnily enough, my kitchen planner has just suggested granite to me this morning. I've been dead against it because we have very, very hard water and I'd be worried about watermarks. However, a lighter colour than black might work for us. Mind you, I'm the clumsiest person in the world, so I'd probably break every piece of glass and crockery in thee house on it! ;-)

Can I ask how easy it is to maintain, please? Do you find that you have to seal it or give it any special treatment regularly, and is this hard work?

Lawrence_Crowther

Alan_M wrote: »

When you read the smallprint in the 10 year guarantee, it does not provide any guarantee agains the product fading, infact the manufacturers expect it to fade, not immediately of course, but gradually over a period of time.

Alan,
It still remains that a guarantee for manufacturing defects is applicable to most quartz surfaces yet none exists on granite which as you said can be of different quality and let's face it the seller won't let you know that the quality of his granite is less than others. You're right it's a minefield but a warranty against defects is better than having none at all.
Some laminate surfaces have a longer warranty than quartz or solid surfaces which is surprising when you consider the difference in price.
Granite has no guarantee which is one of the main reasons we chose quartz. I did read something about the danger of radon in granite also but dismissed it as a bit of scaremongering from solid surface manufacturers so people would buy their product. Do you know anything about this?

Alan_M_2

You can read about Radon HERE on the Health Protection Agency website, there's actually a specific question regarding granite. Far better to read that than for me to try and explain the techincal ins and outs.

Also be aware that claims for defects in manufacturing are not valid once the quartz has been installed unless it's demonstrated that the specific manufacturing defect caused failure after installation and not during. Very tough to prove especially if the job has been signed off and paid for.

Sure, some guarantee is better than no gaurantee, or is it if it's not worth the paper it's written on?

Any decent company, granite or quartz, will invite you (if not expect you) to view the material and accept it before fabrication starts.