Kitchen is the heart of the home. It is important that everything in your kitchen is well planned. One of the most used item in our house is the kitchen top. From washing our utensils, to grabbing a cup of water. Hence, it is important that you select the best material suited to your needs & lifestyle.

We are going to look into the different tops in the market and elaborate more on each of them to our best knowledge.

Quartz

One of the most common material used today is the quartz. Why are they so popular? One of the best quality in quartz, in our opinion, is their non-porous characteristic. This means that the water condensed on your coke can will not sip into the quartz. Why is this important? This will prevent de-colouration from happening.

Another excellent quality is their scratch resistance. This is because quartz is 1 of the hardest material available. Albeit not 100% full quartz, Caesarstone boasts a 90% quartz content in their surfaces.

Quartz come in many designs. The more critically acclaimed ones are the marble look-alike design. They are supposed to produce a visual effect same as natural marble, with better durability.

Marble lookalike quarts! Credits: Silestone

Solid colours quarts! Credits: Silestone

Major brands includes Caesarstone, Silestone, iQuartz.

Marble

Marble looks AMAZING. There are different types of marble you can select from and they vary in price. Personal favourite: Gold Calacatta.

Sadly, in today's society, we are afraid to say that is their only advantage. Thou they are also natural material, they are not as durable & dense as quartz. And they are also porous.

This means that marble is prone to stains & scratches. Which makes it not ideal to use as a kitchen work top where daily house hold item like knifes & water are present almost all the time. Oh, did we mention that they are also more prone to cracks?

Granite

Granite has many application due to their sturdy & non-porous nature. Kitchen counter top is one of them.

Thou durable, they are more porous than quartz, less porous than marble. The granite selection available nowadays are crazy nice, thanks to our friends at Consentino.

Not just that, they introduced a protective treatment placed 5mm under the surface. This prevent staining & reduce the porosity of the granite. This range of granite is known as Sensa. We highly recommend Sensa because: 1. it is crazy beautiful, and 2, it is low maintenance with their porosity reduced!

Beautiful, BEAUTIFUL Sensa granite! Credits: Consentino

Compact Top

Long before the discovery / invention of quartz, Formica was the leading kitchen counter top market with their durable laminate finish. Now imagine many layers of laminate (kueh lapis style) being compressed under controlled environment. You get compact top.

They possess the same quality as quartz, they are durable, scratch resistant, water resistant. HOWEVER! The main difference lies in their design available. Most of the design available for compact top comes in wood-grain design.

EDL Compact top! over 10 design to choose from! Credits:EDL

They are one of the more cost efficient counter-top available nowadays.

Major compact top brands are: EDL, Kompacplus.

Solid Surface

Solid surface was very popular back in the days before the rise of quarts. Solid surface are basically made from acrylic. The advantage of solid surface: no visible joint line & polish-able.

They have a wide range of design. From terrazzo like design to solid colours, like red (yes red). Their popularity is really dropping these days, due to the fact that they are less sturdy than materials like quarts, more prone to scratches & stains.

Credits: Corian

Corian is the leading brand in solid surface.

Dekton

Dekton should be one of the latest product in the market. And it has taken the market by storm. Dekton is a composite of materials, includes natural stone & glass.

Dekton is highly scratch & stain resistant, "withstands high temperatures without burning, scorching or cracking. Hot Pots and Appliances like Crock Pots can be placed directly on the surface with no worry of damage."

Credits: Dekton

Others

Of course there are others work top materials, such as tiles, stainless steel & butcher wood blocks. These are seldom seen and not commonly used. Hence we shall not touch on them!

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