Corian?

[DVC2004]

Does anyone here have Corian countertops? We are thinking about replacing our laminates. I know they are costly and I have an island in the middle of the kitchen adding to the amount I will have to spend. They look like they hold up nicely and ae easy to maintain.

[DisneyCrazed580]

We installed Corian countertops in the kitchen, bar and 2 bathrooms about 5 years ago. I like them because they are seamless. Be aware they don't recommend you set hot stuff directly on Corian like you can on Granite. Hope this helps.

[MsMin]

I would agree. I know my brother had corian in his condo on Orange Beach and somebody made a burn mark as large as the broiler pan, not just a little singe. Just use hot plates.
My parents purchased a condo in Orange beach and I've been doing the interior for them and I picked Corian for the counter tops b/c of the seamless properties. We will just deal with it if someone burns it. My brother had a cutting board put in. If it can last through the abuse of rental property it should be easy to maintain at home.

[minnie-mouse]

Yes, we have it, it is really nice. Comes in great colors, etc. The only thing I wished is that it had a shinier appearance like granite. There is also something called Silestone, which has the appearance of granite, but is more durable, man-made, I think.

But we love the corian, it looks really nice, seamless, and easy to clean.

[DizneyRox]

Right now I think Quartz is the top dog in countertop materials. It's priced nicely and has many advantages. A warranty is one of them, granite doens't normally come with any sort of warranty.

We are building and have discussed countertops at length. Solid surface doesn't really sound very appealing to us. It's got a few things going for it, but overall, when you walk into a kitchen with stone countertops, you say WOW!

I was surprised at the price of quartz too. I don't have the exact measurements, we're looking at about 105 sq/ft of countertop and the estimates were between $6000 and $9000 installed. Quartz would be towards the $6000 and granite could go as high as $9000 all depending on the style of course.

[magicofdisney]

We're moving into our new home in May and we went with quartz in the kitchen (marble in the bathrooms). The advantage to quartz is it doesn't need to be sealed like granite. I've heard it's not quite as shiny as granite, but more durable than Corian (such as the burn mark from the pp). The two brands I looked at were Silestone and Cambria. We went with Cambria because they had a larger selection. But Silestone has built in Microban.

Another consideration for us was costs. Believe it or not, quartz was the least expensive of the three. Our quote was $6500 for granite, $5500 for Corian and $4500 for quartz, approximately. At that point is it was a no brainer, but we did consider all the options.

GL with whatever you decide!

[bettie]

I agree with everyone on the quartz recommendation!

I'm a commercial interior designer, and I specify quartz surfaces for our healthcare and education projects all the time. We even use it in serveries or cafeterias. Of course we always WANT to use granite, but usually it's not in the budget. The durability, look, and cost of quartz combined make it a great product.

DuPont (the makers of Corian) also happen to have a quartz product called Zodiaq. If you do an internet search for it you can find out more info on the use of it in home applications. We use it all the time and have had great experience! Can't hurt to price out another quartz product and compare.

[DVC2004]

Thanks everyone! We actually did go back to the store tonight and priced out the quartz. It turned out to be just as much as the Corian we'd looked at earlier in the week. I think we will probably go that way then. The granite looked great, too, just too much maintenance for me. I brought a couple samples home and I was very impressed.

[murphy1]

We have a Corian island, I think quartz is so nice! I do like my Corian, anything beats laminate!

[Marilyn Michetti]

We've been looking all weekend, and are going with Viatera quartz. It comes with a 15 year warrenty, plus has all the properties of the marble products - big thing, (for us) burn resistent, and scratch resistent. It's expensive, but we're getting a good deal. 0% financing for a year, $300 off, plus they're throwing in a stainless steel sink. I hope we like it.