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Kitchens Renovating

Overwhelmed! Relative prices of kitchen worktop materials?

3 years ago

Hello, I've tried googling but I'm a bit overwhelmed with trying to work out which material is which and relating them to trade names. Can anyone point me in the direction of a good resource (or can give a quick summary!) that identifies rough price points along with description of the material and examples of trade names please? Many thanks

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Comments (4)

Daisy England
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Cheapest will be laminate. Look for Formica Axiom, Bushboard Omega, Odyssey and Prima, Duropal and Egger to name but a few but those listed are some of the best. You will also have manufacturers own brands some of which are good, some dire and some excellent. All price related. Normally thickness is 40mm but some offer 30mm and the most modern and popular at the moment is 20mm which is restricted in laminate (but available in some brands).

You need to work out your lengths because depending on the brand the laminate is available in 3m, 3.6m and 4m. Therefore if you only want to cover 3m there’s no point in paying for a 4m length as you’ll end up with waste of one metre which you’ll be paying for. Then again it depends on whether you like the colour choice in each length. You can’t have an undermount or belfast type sink with a laminate worktop.

Wilson Art is what Howdens use. Cheap and nasty. Some of their worktops don’t even have a backing on causing wharping. Look for a local supplier and they can request samples for you. Where are you based?

If you want to pay slightly more look at solid timber but bear in mind these need maintaining which some people don’t like doing as it can be a faff.

Then you can have Solid Surface which is an alternative to quartz. Look at Pietra, Pietra Gold, Mazan and Mirostone. It’s available in 20mm thickness and as the name says is solid so needs to be fabricated just like quartz and granite by qualified traders (which in turn will bump the cost up). Solid surface, quartz and granite are the most expensive.

Hope this helps.
Sonia
3 years ago
Daisy knows her stuff! 😊
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K OB
Original Author
3 years ago
Amazing! Thank you so much @daisy england. We're in Jersey so unsure what we've got locally but on a mission to find out!
Daisy England
3 years ago
If you need any further clarification just post. I guess the suppliers on Jersey may not be as available as on the mainland but at least you have some idea now. All the ranges are available with colour samples online.

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