Corian v. Granite v. Silestone counters (kitchen remod...)

[Anonymous]

the title says it all.... the maintenance on granite (resealing) and concern about staining/porosity have us leaning to Corian; haven't looked much into Silestone yet.

Chi-Chi chic doesn't win many points in our house per se, we want durability and good looks with low maintenance.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

We love our Silestone counters - the look and utility of granite without the maintenance. Corian appear to be a bit dated, and I've heard some people comment that it just doesn't look as nice.

[Anonymous]

Look into quartz countertops. Looks like granite without the worries, same price, more durable and less maintenance.

[Anonymous]

I purchased a house with very light corian. It's great. no staining. no scratching. no chipping. I would not have chosen it but we very much like it. easy to clean and because of it's light color, i probably wipe it down more than I would otherwise. (but you didn't ask about color did you?)

[Anonymous]

Ask a real estate agent. I wanted silestone, didn't want to pay an extra 30 percent and it didin't have the wow factor of granite. I got granite.

[Anonymous]

If I could go back and do it again, I'd get concrete. They can look amazing. My granite is so much work. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

I had off-white Corian. Stained with every little thing: wine, turmeric (use a lot in our Indian cooking), tomato sauces. Didn't like it at all.

I now have granite and it is very easy to take care of. Nothing stains, easy to clean. I've lived in this house 9 years and never had to reseal it so I don't know what theyr'e talking about with that! I use a granite cleaner once a weak that I get at Strosniders. It works beautifully.

[Anonymous]

I would not get corian. Its really out of style (i know you dont care) and is one step above laminate. Granite is nice and natural. I just got a unique stone and it makes my kitchen. But i tell you its driving me nuts because its surface is imperfect and my granite fabricator says thats the way it is and not addressing the issues at all (errrr). Silestone and other manufactured quartz are easiest to maintain but i didn't like any of them because well they looked manufactured to me. But if you find one you like and the price doesn't blow you away, go for it.

[Anonymous]

I love concrete. I have granite - I find it low maintenance (I think we've resealed the counters once in 5years).

[Anonymous]

We put Silestone in our kitchen and loved it. VERY low maintenance and the color we chose had a very stone-like look to it. It hid crumbs well and never stained.

[Anonymous]

We're renovating on a non-chichi budget, and are going with granite, in part because it is significantly cheaper than Silestone. I really like the look of some of the engineered stuff, especially Cambria which I think is not horrendously expensive, but it just doesn't make sense to me to pay a premium when granite is pretty low-maintenance and looks nice.

[Anonymous]

We got our granite from this company, http://www.ciacounters.com/ (highly recommend them) and they say their granite is sealed and has a 15 yr warranty and you do not need to reseal. we liked the natural look of granite and depending on what stone you pick, it can be considerably cheaper than silestone. I do like the look of silestone and I think you do have alot of options with colors, moreso than w/ granite.

[Anonymous]

Silestone is low-maintenance and will serve you much better at resale time than Corian.

[Anonymous]

Got Silestone 8 years ago, love it, was the same price as a medium grade granite without the cleaning hassles. Still looks new after some 409.

Just installed high-end granite in our master bathroom. Have to clean it almost daily or it looks awful. Wish we had gone with a quartz product.

New Corian looks great and hear great things about it.

Either way, I recommend Stone and Tile World in Rockville, ask for Goran.

[Anonymous]

We got granite in April and love it. It's easy to maintain, clean and they suggest sealing it yearly. You just spray on the sealer, let it sit and then wipe it off. Pretty easy. We looked at corian and the price was $100 difference. CIAcounters is pricy, much more than any regular granite company. They try to sell you on the 15 yr. warranty but I don't buy it.