If you are considering refurbishing your kitchen in Stevenage, the fact is that you can spend an awful lot of money. It does rather depend on your budget, because it is very easy to spend £25,000 or even more if you strip everything out and start from scratch again. Indeed, you might even go one better and build an extension to make the kitchen larger.

However, if you are on a smaller budget there are still things that you can do to update your kitchen and make it look great, and these consist of changing the doors and facings of the cabinetry, tiling the floor if it is not already tiled, and changing the worktops. Just doing that will make your kitchen look like brand new, even though you keep all the appliances.

At Marble & Granite, we are not into cabinetry, but we can help you with stone worktops in Stevenage and also with a new floor. Quite obviously, we supply and install marble and granite worktops, but we can also create them from quartz, quartzite, limestone, and sintered stone as well.

Quartz worktops are made from an engineered stone. They consist of around 93% of powdered quartz which is one of the hardest materials known to man and also one of the most common rocks on the planet. The rest of the material is resins and pigment to give it the colour.

Quartz worktops are totally non-porous which is ideal for something on which you are preparing food. You can spill anything on it and it won’t soak in and stain it as can happen with other stones. You simply wipe it off with a damp cloth. Since it is non-porous, it also means that it cannot possibly harbour any bacteria, which is important in a kitchen as well. In addition, because it is non-porous it will never need sealing as do other stones such as granite and marble.

Despite the fact that quartz is so tough and will withstand temperatures of up to 204°C, you should still not place pots and pans directly from the hob or oven on to it. This is because of the resin content, so you should always use a trivet or pot holder. Neither should you chop or cut foods directly on it because it could scratch the surface, but this goes for all stone worktops.

Another choice for worktops is granite. This is an extremely hard stone yet is also porous, so it does need sealing every so often. However, with the best sealants available now, they will last for several years before another treatment is needed, and it is a very simple process anyway.

Granite worktops come in a huge choice of different colours with all sorts of veining and swirls in them. As a natural stone, every piece of granite is different from the next one, so by choosing granite for your countertops they will be unique.

Another possibility for your worktops in Stevenage is sintered stone such as Dekton. This is another engineered stone and is also extremely tough. It is totally non-porous, and scratch resistant, although as with all kitchen work surfaces it is advisable to use a trivet for hot pans. But with that said, Dekton say that their sintered stone will withstand such heat. You should also use a chopping board on which to cut or chop foods so that you don’t damage your knife.

Since it is non-porous, you can spill liquids and foods on to sintered stone without any issues. It is also chemical resistant so if you drop bleach or oven cleaners on it that won’t cause it any harm either.

Yet another choice for stone worktops is that of marble. This is a stunningly beautiful stone that is available in a range of different colours, even though many people think of it as white. As a natural stone, every slab of marble is unique, and many have swirls and veins in them which are the result of impurities and other minerals incorporated at the time the marble formed.

Marble worktops are actually a soft stone and as a result they are porous and do need sealing. One of the big advantages of marble is that it is a cool stone and is perfect for making pastry on.

For more information on the range of stones that we can supply, call us on 1992 535 038 or email info@marbleandgranite.co.uk.