Staron kitchen worktops - quality & durability?

all_greek_to_me

I had a chap from a solid surface worktop company round yesterday to quote for Corian for our kitchen. He advised me to go for Staron instead, saying that it was cheaper than Corian but just as durable. (He supplies Corian, but isn't an approved installer. He is an approved Staron installer and can offer a 10 year warranty.)

Is Staron as good as Corian? I know that we'll need to be careful about hot pans, sharp items etc with either, but there's no point paying over the odds for Corian if the slightly cheaper alternative is equally effective.

A couple of other questions: I want sharp (square) edged worktops. Are they prone to chipping? Our kitchen designer has put in a 90 degree corner at a mid point in the kitchen. (Hard to explain, but there's a run of worktop where the hob will be, then it turns 90 degrees towards a bay window with the sink.) The worktop chap asked whether we have children - we do: a 6-year-old - and then advised us to have the corner rounded off. I can see that it's a bit of a bump hazard, but it's tucked over to the side of quite a large kitchen and our son's tall enough for it not to be at head or face height, so I'm not sure that's too much of an issue. I'm wondering whether worktop man also meant that a 90 degree Staron/Corian might be vulnerable to chipping. Might it? The units below aren't curved, so I'm worried that a curved worktop will look odd. And I prefer clean, straight lines.

Thanks,
all_greek

all_greek_to_me

Staron - any thoughts? We've now had the quote and it's at least £1k less than Corian.

Thanks,
all_greek

madget_2

I have no experience of Staron, but our neighbours rue the day they had solid surface worktops installed (not sure of the name - it isn't Corian, though very similar). Despite them regularly buffing it, scratches keep showing terribly. It drives them mad. Their worktop is dark, so a lighter one might show less wear.

I tested a few solid surfaces before making my choice of worktops and was unimpressed by any of them. Mind you, my testing was pretty rigorous, to say the least!

My advice is to get some samples (try the Staron website or your local retailer) and pop them in your kitchen for a little while. Put (cold) pans down on them, scratch them on purpose to see how badly it shows up, give them a good try out. That way, you'll get some idea of whether you can live with them or not.

chrisem12345

I have had Corian in for a while now and absolutely love it. I did look into the maia worktops before but was put off with the limitations of it against Corian. I dealt with worktop4u and they gave me samples to use and abuse and I found that they do scratch and chip. When i spoke to the staff at worktop4u they asked me to bring in the samples and they spent 2 mins repolishing them up. They looked as before when i took them home and this convinced me to order the corian. I have to say that the black samples did look quite bad after they were cratched (even these polished up) but scratches didn t seem anywhere near as obvious on the glacier white corian and it may be that corian is better in light colours. I would expect anything to scratch but at least corian can be polished back up as good as new.:j

I think Staron is similar to the Corian but not everyone who uses Corian has been quality approved to give a long warranty which is why certain companies only use staron as they are not able to give a legit warranty with using corian.

all_greek_to_me

Thanks, madget and chrisem12345.

all_greek