If you’re like most Americans then your home’s kitchen tends to become one of the busiest parts of your home with people gathering, working, dining, and of course cooking there everyday. This high level of traffic often leads to homeowners spending quite a bit on keeping their home’s kitchen as beautiful, convenient, and functional as possible through kitchen remodeling projects. In these projects everything from your family’s need for storage to your personal flair for style plays a key role in the options chosen to be a part of your home’s newest room. For your choice of kitchen countertop this becomes especially clear since the material, color, and size you ultimately decide on with your kitchen countertop specialist will be a daily part of your kitchen routine and also a significant part of your kitchen remodeling budget as a whole! For just that reason, it’s important to know the benefits and drawbacks of the many different countertop materials available to you before coming to a conclusion.
Laminate Countertops
Pros
Laminate is the most budget friendly countertop material available today and, due to recent manufacturing advancements, it can imitate everything from metal and marble to granite and wood while also being offered in a wide variety of colors and patterns all its own. What’s more it’s resistant to most stains and water damage and can be easily cleaned. These factors have helped to make it the most popular option in the country today!
Cons
As a result of laminate countertops plastic surface it’s easy to damage the surface with hot pans or sharp knives. And because most laminate kitchen countertops are a single piece of material it’s often impossible to repair these damages. By this same token, your options for fixtures like sinks are limited since there’s no separation in the surface.
Granite Countertops
Pros
There’s a reason why granite countertops have been a component of elegant, luxurious kitchen remodeling projects for so long. They’re among the most beautiful materials on the market today for homeowners to select from and now can be easily colored and textured to suit just about any design preferences you may have! Along with their visual appeal, granite countertops are one of the most durable and resilient materials possible, resisting damage from heat, water, stains, cuts, and heavy pressure.
Cons
With natural stone like granite you can always expect to pay more for countertop installations. Granite countertops are among the most expensive options homeowners can choose from and in addition to the upfront cost many varieties of granite require annual sealing to prevent stains or damage. What’s more, granite is an all-natural material and so finding slabs which match for multiple countertops can be very difficult.
Tile Countertops
Pros
Of all the countertop options you’ll be able to choose from, tile countertops offer the most customization in terms of color, size, material, pattern, and even cost! What all these different options have in common, however, is an incredibly high level of durability to things like heat, water damage, and cuts, as well as a usually very affordable installation and replacement cost. Tile kitchen countertops are consistently a very popular design option for homeowners for all these different reasons.
Cons
Unlike many other countertop installations, the quality and resiliency of tile countertops depend heavily on the skill and expertise of the countertop installation contractors performing the work. Poorly installed tiles can more easily crack and are often prone to mold and mildew growth. With this in mind, it’s important for homeowners to clean and maintain their tile countertops more regularly than other options.
Stainless Steel Countertops
Pros
Stainless steel countertops are becoming a favorite of homeowners who are pushing their kitchen into more modern styles but there’s a lot more to the sleek material than just a modern design appeal. Steel is incredibly durable to heavy usage, heat, and water, and is resistant to more stains and unhygienic conditions than any other material! In addition to all that, stainless steel countertops are often more affordable than stone options while lasting about as long in comparison!
Cons
While cleaning stainless steel countertops is easy, keeping them completely free of marks, cuts, and dents is much more of a chore. Often homeowners find that, in spite of their best efforts keeping a stainless steel countertop completely mark-free is undoable. On top of this, the cold visual aspect of stainless steel may be great for a functional kitchen but does very little to make the space comfortable for gathering or entertaining in.
