Just wondered if any of you had a preferred kitchen work surface material and would like to share your thoughts and opinions.

Thanks Bot de paille. I like the idea as a floor, or wall, but not keen as a worksurface. . . . . cutting, wiping, food prep, spills like red wine, what about fragments of the grout getting into food stuff. Is lime poisonous?

Wood! Always wood for me, great big chunks of lovely tree. My current kitchen is elm, 60mm thick, 500mm wide in single boards. Oil finish (tung oil) where it might get scratched or cut on, gloss varnish where it might get wet - maybe even epoxy undercoat and two-pot polyurethane varnish by the sink.

Air is best.

The components of your meal never actually touch anything.

Air is pumped through tiny holes in the non work surface and the food hovers just above.

richy. SO! the guys from friends have a football table, you're suggesting one of the air hockey ones!!!!! will I have to put 50p in to activate the tiny jetstream?

Well I'll be doing my kitchen soon and I'm interested in the smile plastics range especially the recycled yoghurt pot worktops but haven't seen / touched a sample yet.

http://www.smile-plastics.co.uk/hips.htm

If you want bling - how about this with used banknotes ....

http://www.smile-plastics.co.uk/ben.htm - ka ching!

i'm putting in a bamboo worktop

looks good


having had an old Belfast sink for a long time, the point about stone finishes breaking glasses and plates is very valid. Things almost bounce off a stainless steel sink, but the old Belfast munches them up without a flicker.

Dan,

nothing like an authentic old butchers block for your chopping.

You can see how hollowed out they become after decades of abuse.

It will take a mere mortal in a domestic kitchen many many many years to make a significant dent in a wooden worktop - and anyway - it's character!

Buy an old butchers block on Ebay - not an Ikea replica - but a battered and warped old maple block.

Posted By: ludite Sorry katymac, granite and marble. . . . . . they are . . . . . .so . . . . . .COLD. . . .BRRRRRR.

Easy to fix that just stick an electric UFH mat to the underside. Nice and warm. :-)

joe.e - I'm with you when it comes to wood, though the thought of your now extremely rare and valuable elm boards serving time as a kitchen work surface almost makes me weep - windsor chairs (an interest of mine) traditionally had seats made from single planks of Elm, which is probably why your retiring carpenter had them. Unfortunately, with the ravages of Dutch Elm disease, trees large enough to provide planks wide enough for the job are almost non-existent in this country, and as you have said, properly treated, Elm can look fantastic - what a loss!

Agu. The site looks great, and I would certainly pick that type of surface over a granite type one, but stone surfaces are just too cold and hard for me.

I LOVE the smile plastic range, and I have seen it in situ at the Dalby Forest visitors centre. I'm certainly considering using their mobile phone sheets as a side to our bath, and I'm wondering how i could use their rubber wellies sheets too. I'm just not sure they will work as a worksurface. they are made from plastic milk bottles - try putting a hot pan on a plastic milk bottle and see what happens!

I have a special plastic cutting board for my craft work. Its green memory plastic which reheals itself. I haven't actually seen one as a work surface and I wonder how it would react to heat, but it's nice to do detailed cutting on.

Richy. You weren't joking then? There really is an air worktop! can you post a link?

In the 36 year old kitchen I am sitting in now, there are 3 different surfaces. Stainless steel abutts white formica and there is an area of. . . some sort of composite stone made from marble chips (looks a bit like a recycled glass worktop but from the 70's) That was put in as it's cold and it's used for pastry making.

The formica as a surface has worn very well. There is one faded burn ring from a very hot pan (potatoes boiled dry 20 years ago). The problem is, that at the edges it has lifted up and won't stick down again.

The stainless steel has the patina of a million scratches but apart from that, its the joins again.. . . . sealed with silicon it just won't stick down properly and the kids keep poking it out.

the 'marble' top has gradually stained in places with endless cups of tea, but usually scrubs up ok with a bit of cream cleaner.

I have to say that a Corian type worksurface would be my ultimate choice. I think there are a few types on the market - silestone - for instance. I don't know it's green credentials. I'd love to find something like it that is made from a percentage of recycled material. Its the fact there are no joins, it's warmer/softer than stone, doesn't seem to need the maintaince of wood, can stand high temperatures, can cut on it without blunting your knife, sand out any blemishes - if you feel the need.

The technology is quite new though. i wondered if anyone on the forum actually has a corian worktop and what their experiences are.

Joe.e. Your worksurfaces really do sound great. Wood (or stainless steel) would probably be my preference if it wasn't for the development of Corian. . . . . . come to think of it, as a Ludite shouldn't I be spurning all things new?

I know it's not 'green', and would doubtless be cold, break everyone's crockery, not have the benefit of an air cushion, and in any event completely contradicts my stated love of wood, but I've seen a work top cast on site from concrete which was then polished to give a glassy finish. You can (in theory) add all sorts of substances and dyes to make it interesting, but even just with any old agregate exposed and polished I think it looks nicer than concrete has any right to look.

To counter (no pun intended) the 'greenness' issue though, all the other options for work tops have to be manufactured in some way - even wood has to be machined - so perhaps concrete, which can be made on site and cast to any shape has its place...(maybe)...

Perhaps there's a business (import) opportunity for you there mrswhitecat - lots of belfast sinks gone/going into kitchens recently!

Sorry, people, I mucked up the hyperlink. Oh well.