Granite Benchtop

Looking at getting Granite when Kitchen is updated. Anyone got this material and can comment on its use please.?

Would granite be similar to terrazzo? Years ago in my youth my parents' kitchen had a terrazzo benchtop - it was the bane of my mother's life! We had an awful lot of crockery breakages on it, and found that lemon juice spilt on it would eat into it.

check out what happens if you put something really hot on it.

Had it here for about 4 years now. Really good - but not sure I'd do it again.

This is because our granite bench tops are dead flat surfaces - so any liquid on the bench has just as much chance of running off onto the floor as it does of running into the sink. This can be juice from defrosting meat or water from cleaning up, dishes or whatever. And it has been a bit of a pain a few times, having to stop what you're doing and wipe down cabinet doors in front of the bench and wipe or mop the puddle on the floor.

From a practical point of view something with contoured surfaces that direct liquid to drain in the sink (like stainless steel, laminates and some engineered stone) is better.

We would choose stainless steel every time for practical reasons, but our current kitchen is a bit open plan with dining & lounge area so functional steel wasn't going to be such a good look.

The granite is practical though - in every respect except for the draining of bench liquids. Doesn't mark or stain easy and easy to keep it looking good (though it takes a damp wipe with a dish cloth and then a dry wipe with a tea towel to clean it and remove wet streak marks). Knives don't damage it.

I've found it takes heat from hot pots ok for short durations (not recommended as a standard practise but I've dumped a few hot pots on the bench in a burning my hands emergency) and there's been no issues. We keep a couple of the granite sample blocks on one of the benches as a surface to put hot pots on.

and yip, we've broken the odd glass and a bit of crockery on it.

I got the man made granite and absolutely love it. Undermount sink is awesome too. I don't have any problem with drainage

Thanks very much for all that information it is most helpful and appreciated.

How about pouring a concrete slab and getting the experts to polish in in-situ? If you biff some fancy gravel into the mix, it can look pretty darned nice and is a fraction of the cost of granite.

re, concrete slab, do some research before you do this, you need a mix with more cement and sand, than normal concrete, and less water etc. you can add some tumbled glass , coloured pebbles etc. they look really nice, but there is no sealer yet that is perfect yet, except the shiney plastic look, which is polyspartic. which if applied properly will last a long time .

Thanks for the tip on Undermount sink, hadn't heard of that before and we have gone with that choice.

Hadn't considered a concrete slab but think we prefer Granite. All good suggestions.

I love the look of these concrete benches that have coloured glass embedded in them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH4pJGL5sUQ

Just a thought - I was told that Granite is not easy to repair if it is damaged. Went with engineered stone (it can be repaired and repolished) and very pleased with it. If it is a "walk thru" kitchen have the bench corners
"champered" where you are likely to knock into them. Capricorngirl