Care of wooden kitchen worktops

chappers

use whatever wood you like the look of, but use a drainer tray. I would never use drainer grooves cut straight into the worktop, they will stain whatever wood you use. If you want something to match your worktop there are wooden ones out there, alternatives come in metal, ceramic and of course plastic. Make sure you get one with a spout or lip to protect the worktop edge.
Do the work at the installation, get plenty of coats on then, use a good product such as osmo or my favourite is Junkers rustic oil, which gives a really durable finish. I would say a minimum of 5 coats or even more if the wood is "thirsty".
Every couple of years give it a good scrub down, a light sand with 400 grit paper and another coat and it should stay looking like new. But yes no hot pans, you can get removable "hot rods" cut in if you want permanent places for hot pans and try not to leave water on the surfaces for too long.

cddc

As you may have gathered from the above posts, they are certainly not maintenance free, but if you look after them in the way others above suggest, they can look good for years.

All the above advice is good, but do pay particular attention to the area around the sink as this is always the most vulnerable to water ingress, warping and black mould.

Saver-upper

Hey,thank you everyone for all the responses .Because we are not living in our house at the moment,(while building work is going on,)and where we are living has no internet,this is the first time in over a week I have been able to check for further responses.I do appreciate everyone taking the time.
So it sounds like ,if you take the time to look after them,worktops can keep their new look.Something to think about.I still haven't decided what to do :cool:.

CathA

Worktop express sells wooden worktops at very reasonable prices. Be warned tho, when our delivery turned up I thought they'd sent the wrong one as it was definitely a much paler/different colour to the pic on the website!!

Several coats of oil later and they are gorgeous.

Norman_Castle

TedTheTopCat wrote: »

Hi,
The guys at xxxxxxxxxxxxxx are pretty good for advice, etc, & stock the Osmo range.

I've heard they are all ladyboys who like spam.