| Customer Survey |
| Please can you take 2 minutes to answer our marketing survey. |
 |
 |
Talk Sign In
Read/Post Messages
My Talk Details
What I'm Watching
Talk FAQs
Terms & Conditions
|
|
Topic:
Captain Leaky
|
Replies:
9
Pages:
1
Last Post:
Jan 19, 2008 11:35 PM
by:
macaulay
|
|
|
Captain Leaky
Posted:
Jan 19, 2008 12:38 PM
|
|
I saw you commented on another thread about work tops; "Be wary of composite"
I am planning on having quartz work tops. I'd be grateful for your comments before I place my order.
Cheers.
|
|
|
|
|
Re: Captain Leaky
Posted:
Jan 19, 2008 12:47 PM
|
|
Most are not solid but built up, this can give problems with strength and joining - if not done by experts.
Some composites are heat proof, others will not stand a hot saucepan. Most light colours are prone to discoloration.
Corian is probably the best known and most effective but not cheap.
ALL worktops have pros and cons and personal preference will affect what you choose. Just be wary of cheap composites - horrible plastic basically. Make sure you can see the finished product in a showroom, ask about joining, staining, heat resistance and repairs.
Most importantly - get it installed by an experienced fitter who knows your brand of composite.
Others will be along shortly with their opinions too 
|
|
|
_
Posts:
110
Registered:
Jan 22, 2006
|
|
Re: Captain Leaky
Posted:
Jan 19, 2008 2:10 PM
|
|
I'm not a kitchen fitter but have had the Getacore product fitted on 2 occasions and was very impressed. As Captain says if you go down this route get an experienced fitter who knows the product. Oh and shop around, the first place I went to wanted to charge me £1200 for a 4m length - I ended up sourcing it from their supplier for a third of that price!
|
|
|
|
|
Re: Captain Leaky
Posted:
Jan 19, 2008 2:50 PM
|
|
Different products being talked about here. The OP is considering 'quartz' which is basically crushed granite in an epoxy matrix. Very strong stuff, nowhere near as hard as genuine granite but still a world away from acrylic and polyester tops which is what the other two are referring too.
Acrylic and polyester are usually built up onto a chipboard or similar substrate, and are basically the same resins as perspex and glass fibre.
Quartz is usually solid, 30mm thick and looks and feels like granite, can be cut all the way through (as in an undermount sink) and the cut edges can then be polished, just like granite
Hope this helps
|
|
|
|
|
Re: Captain Leaky
Posted:
Jan 19, 2008 4:24 PM
|
|
Ah well spotted kitcheneer, and your comments are spot on too. 
|
|
|
HOTDOG ™
Posts:
8,060
Registered:
Apr 29, 2007
|
|
Re: Captain Leaky
Posted:
Jan 19, 2008 4:34 PM
|
|
Avoid "plastic or resin" composites. Stone composite or granite is fine - and timber is OK if you want to be constantly looking after it.
|
|
|
handcraft
Posts:
848
Registered:
Jan 10, 2008
|
|
Re: Captain Leaky
Posted:
Jan 19, 2008 6:51 PM
|
|
as said previously if not done by experts it will be a **** up but if done properly they are the dogs quartz looks stunning i would recomend it
lee
|
|
|
|
|
Re: Captain Leaky
Posted:
Jan 19, 2008 9:49 PM
|
|
Thanks very much for all your replies.
This is the co I'm ordering from:
http://www.domostone.com/worktops.html
They are not too far from us so we popped over to their showroom yesterday. They template and fit.
Our first quote was £6,000. With this co it works out to £2,100 so yes, it does pay to shop around.
I'll check about the heat resistance. Thanks again.
|
|
|
|
|
Re: Captain Leaky
Posted:
Jan 19, 2008 9:51 PM
|
|
Nice!
|
|
|
macaulay
Posts:
87
Registered:
Oct 30, 2007
|
|
Re: Captain Leaky
Posted:
Jan 19, 2008 11:35 PM
|
|
I got CaesarStone worktops fitted and they look very nice. It's one of the many quartz / epoxy jobs.
It's apparently very hard, but in the first week I took a decent sized chip off the sink edge, with the base of a pint glass of all things. The glass was OK though. Anyway I hope it was just bad luck and I'm going to epoxy the chip back.
Still I suppose there's a difference between hardness and strength. The old granite was very easy to break up - just a few whacks with a hammer.
They say they're effectively stain resistant, unlike granite which is porous to some degree and can be stained. More so the lighter granites. Our old kitchen had very light granite worktops which had been ruined over 20 odds years. A number of large stains and someone had managed to etch the polished surface off a large area, presumably with something acidic.
The quartz jobs are uniform, so very clean joins can be made. This must be the case with darker granites, but obviously the lighter/more patterned jobs don't lend themselves to clean joins. We got the front edge build up to 60 mm and one worktop returns to the floors. The joins are very faint and the mitred return looks very nice.
The outfit I bought the kitchen from gave me a quote for the worktops which was comparable with the more expensive granites. When I asked for the additional to return to the floor they came back with £1400 (incl VAT)! At that point I looked elsewhere. Ended up using an outfit in North London called Carrara Marble. Their additional cost for the return was just over twice the price of a matching end panel.
Anyway they did a very nice job and were very professional.
cheers
Malcolm
|
|
|
|
|
