serious dilemma re choice of sink/counter top

tsuzmir

my head is wrecked and looking for some advice. i have 2 options for the kitchen:
1. granite work top and ceramic sink, looks great but expensive, or
2. wooden work top and ceramic belfast sink, less expensive, looks fabulous.

i'd rather go for wood, not only the money is the reason but really like the look of it. the only problem is what to do with dishes when they are washed... i dont want water to sit on the wood beacuse as the time goes it will discolour. why dont you just wipe it dry then? - you'll ask... hmmm, laziness is the answer - i dont want to be a 'hostage' of a sink and HAVE TO wipe it dry each the time, even though i'd do it as a common practice... i think... and also those racks you use for drying dishes - there's always water around it... that would not be a problem on the granite, though. But i still prefer wood. anyway, if you could suggest some solution for my wet dishes, I would appreciate this greatly.
thanks!

paddy147

You are supposed to sand down and re-oil solid wood work tops every year-18 months or so.

LaChatteGitane

I have wooden worktops. They are oiled and water doesn't seep in. However, I wipe my surfaces after spills and I have a dishwasher.
Also, we have a double sink, if I do some dishes by hand I let them drip in the second sink before drying them with a towel.

Like Paddy says, a regular oiling is needed to feed the worktops.

ddooris

Hi Tsuzmir,

If you like wood but don't want to upkeep or worry of stains why don't you have a look at Formica....I was at a talk recently from this company and I found it to be an amazing product, the wood samples I got where so realistic with options of natural or matt finish........they are nothing like the laminates from the 60s, 70s & 80s

I highly recommend looking at the website and order some of samples its free
http://www.formica.eu/uk/products/woods/12/

and no I don't work for them :-)

Tranceypoo

ddooris wrote: »

Hi Tsuzmir,

If you like wood but don't want to upkeep or worry of stains why don't you have a look at Formica....I was at a talk recently from this company and I found it to be an amazing product, the wood samples I got where so realistic with options of natural or matt finish........they are nothing like the laminates from the 60s, 70s & 80s

I highly recommend looking at the website and order some of samples its free
http://www.formica.eu/uk/products/woods/12/

and no I don't work for them :-)

Please don't go for laminate, we did and regret it and now are saving to get proper wooden worktops, also you can't have a Belfast sink with laminate because the surface round the sink will start to 'bubble' after time (our plumber informed us, after we'd bought the Belfast sink!!), after less than a year they've started to fade at the edges and on one edge a few bits have chipped off. Avoid Avoid Avoid!!!

Can you get grooves etched into the worktop beside the sink, sort of a built in draining system, I've seen that lots of times and looks great.

gaz wac

speaking as a very lazy person, i can see where your coming from! we thought about wood tops but there is no way we were always going to clean up after ourself re spills / get it sanded etc.....expensive, but we went with the granite and never looked backed !!! it might seem expensive now but down the line.......

good luck with it