Hello All,
I was wandering what y'all prefer for your baking and decorating needs. Marble or granite countertops? I am doing a kitchen remodel and not sure which way to go. My DH keeps telling me all the cooking shows use marble (for chocolate work) but granite is cheaper. Is there really a difference when it comes to it? Please guide me in my quest for the right countertops. TIA! Happy Holidays!

Thanks,
Beth

You may want to check into quartz as well. It's stain, scratch, & heat resistant. It doesn't need to be resealed, and it's cheaper. That's what we settled on last year. I love my new counter tops!
I don't do choc. work on mine, so you may need to check into that.

We went with granite recently....LOVE LOVE it!

Jen

Marble is a softer serface than granite and cannot be NSF appoved. because of something in granite ( if my recollection is correct it has something to do with ions) it is naturally antimicrobial and is thus automatically NSF approved.


Don't know if that's a concern, but it was for us when we chose our counters.

Ihave a granite top on my island and absolutely love it. I wish we could have afforded to do the whole kitchen in granite, but it just wasn't in the budget, so we went with corian on the main counters

Marble is porous and scratches and stains VERY easily. Go with granite.

definitely granite...i love it!

I am not a pro baker; however, my day job entails designing kitchen cabinetry & selling countertops. So here is my 2 cents:
Granite is porous & requires maintenance, it also is not scratch resistant, although it is the second hardest surface.
Marble is softer than granite & scratches easily.
Neither of these options is microbiobial either.
Quartz is the hardest surface & is scratch & stain resistant & is microbiobial.
Solid Surface (Corian, Staron, etc) is not heat resistant, scratch resistant or microbiobial. It is however, more affordable than the other choices.

No matter which you choose, if you have a tight budget, I suggest looking for off brands. For example: Solid Surface made by Meganite brand is less expensive than Corian brand b/c Corian is made by Dupont & you are paying for the name. Quartz made by Zodiaq is often less expensive that Silestone, same reasons. The counters are made out of the same materials the price difference reflects brand.

HTH

I prefer granite--ones with similar veins of marble.

dkltll~ Thank you for your input on this! I am looking for new countertops, not necessarily for baking purposes, but you answered a lot of my questions I was writing down.

SILESTONE! SILESTONE! SILESTONE!

Have you thought about using Silestone for your benchtop? That's what I have and it it brilliant!

www.silestone.com
It is stain, scratch, shock resistance and anti-bacterial. I've found it is no where near as porous as marble or granite.

I don't know much about Zodiaq, but it's worth a look in if it is like Silestone.

HTH!

dkltll-- Thank you so much for this information. This helps so much! I have alot to think about. Definitely going to check into the other options. BTW do you know anything about Soapstone? What are your thoughts on concrete? I have been watching alot of DIY and notice that they use concrete alot. TIA

Since purchasing countertops is so expensive, please, if anyone can further join in on this topic, even "I" would appreciate it. Never heard of soapstone.

Just checked into SoapStone, and it is heat resistant, and the only care is using mineral oil on it. But it does tend to turn a darker color or even a greenish tint to it. Guess if you like the darker colors, this might be something to look into.

Worked for a friend in her chocolate shop/bakery. Very upscale - she spent over $250K just to finish the interior and did the whole thing in granite. It was a joy to work on!

I am building a new house and chose granite for the countertops. I looked at the quartz offered in my area and didn't like the look of it. It was too perfect, I wanted something more natural.

My countertops should be installed this week and we are hoping to move in at the end of the week. We are very excited and I can't wait to get creative in my new kitchen!

SILESTONE!!! I love my countertops. They don't scratch, they are very very heat resistant, and there is no upkeep - absolutly no sealing involved. They clean easily too. While you're at it, you'll probably get a new sink too, right? We put in a granite composite sink (made by Blanco I think) - it is very scratch resistant, stain resistant, and it is antimicrobial. I have those big stupid Calpalon pans (can you tell that I hate them?) that used to scratch the heck out of our stainless sink when I was washing them. I have had the Blanco Siligranite sink for almost 4 years now with zero scratches or stains. Love it!

I have concrete countertops and LOVE them!! I didn't want anything that looked too perfect, which is why I didn't choose granite or Corian. Yes, they have changed colors, scratched, etc., but that is what I was after. They are sooooo durable and I don't have to worry about hot pans, etc. But, they are not good for rolling fondant on or anything like that because they are not completely smooth (I went for an imperfect finish, can you tell I don't like shiny things??!!). I do wish I had one area in my kitchen that had either marble or granite.

Ok, I guess I'm one of the few who had to look seriously at the price tag. I went with an off brand of solid surface. I really like it. The installer warned against dark colors because the scatches would show more easily and warned about placing hot pans on it. However, he did make a nice trivit with the left over materal from the sink to place beside the the stove in case I really needed a place for a hot pan. One advantage besides price is that I can call him when the scratches get noticable and he will come and polish them out and my counters will look brand new. It has been 5 years and while I can see the scratches if I look at it at the right angle. Other people just look at me when I talk about the scratches. Also no visible seams or sealing needed. I considered Quartz but it was just too expensive. While granite, marble amd soapstone are beautiful I really didn't consider natural material as being practical.

Narie~ So, what did you get?

Solid surface, like Corian, but a different brand with an built in sink of the same material. I had intended to get Formica with a high quality stainless sink and wood butcher block on the island. But when I was offered solid surface for $500 more than my original choices I jumped at the chance. An additional $500 I could squeeze out of my budget. The additional $2000 for quartz was more than I felt comfortable spending.

While some granites are incredibly beautiful, they really are appropriate for a much higher end homes and budgets than mine. Also kitchens are work places and need to be updated or completely overhauled every 25 to 30 years.

Granite!!!!! I love it!!!!

I agree about the 'higher end homes'. I don't do a lot of entertaining and have a 23 yr. old home. I just need new countertops. I'm not out to impress, just update. I do want a new stainless steel sink to match my appliances though. I love stainless. I'm afraid this 'granite phase' is going to end when something else 'new' comes along. I wish I could afford granite and the others, but can't. I will admit though, they are beautiful. Just can't justify the cost. Thanks though to all of you for giving me options to consider when I am ready to go for it even though this wasn't MY post.

Vickimacd- 23 year old home. Yeah, it's time for an up date. I'm with you on the granite. Cement is the newest entry as well as soap stone. Have you considered granite tiles. You do wind up with seam lines - which is something I dislike- but I have heard that granite tile is much less expensive. On the stainless sink go with lower numbers they are heavier gauge and are just much better than the the cheaper ones from the home improvement store.

About 15 years ago I did a partial remodel of a kitchen - kept the cabinets and appliances. But in addition to the countertop, sink and faucet, consider new pulls and lighting. If you shop carefully you can really get a fresh, new look for not a great deal of money. Good cabinets, but worn? strip and re-stain or paint. Problem cabinets? Particularly bottom ones like a blind corner cabinet you almost need to crawl onto to get to the back of. These can be retro fitted with pull out semi-drawers and cresent shaped lazy susan style pull outs.

This really helps, thanks everyone for your input.

Ha,ha, I've already forgotten who started this post, but I went to Lowe's today and checked out all of it. Surprisingly, granite is not that expensive!
Here it is $2 more (square foot?) than corian. I also checked out the quartz which was very expensive. What I did find though, was some REALLY nice fomica which looked like Corian but considerably cheaper. AND, even though they are not great ones, they all come with kitchen sinks now which can be upgraded which still works out to be a deal.

I have a LOT of checking to do, but the guy I talked to here gave me a place to check out that has the FULL sheets/slabs of whatever I want to go with since those little samples in the store could be discolored or from a different source.

And some of the expensive Corian and Quartz still had that ugle edge line like my formica does right now.

Very interesting talking to this man.