Nottingham Jon wrote:
Having had a reasonable trawl through the archives I can't find any
real concensus on kitchen worktops. I have been thinking about getting
solid wood worktops (prob. from Ikea, and prob. oak/poss. beech) but
have heard that:

a. Wood worktops stain very easily and soon look rough
b. They mark if you put a hot pan on them
c. They're hard work to fit (esp. corners due to different expansion
rates along and across the grain)
d. They have terrible water resistance (often causing problems around
sinks)
e. They require lots of regular maintenance (oiling is required at
intervals between 1 week and 6 months depending on whom you believe.)

We've had our rubberwood worktops for a couple of years now and we
don't take very good care of them. They still look good.

To reply to the specific points:-

a. The only things that seem to stain the work top are rusty iron and
'red' things such as wine and blackcurrant juice. The 'red'
stains usually gradually disappear/disperse if you keep at them,
of course if you remove them when they happen there's no problem.
The rust marks can supposedly be removed with oxalic acid, we've
had a few and while oxalic acid does work to an extent I had to
actually sand a couple of them off and then reseal the surface
with Danish Oil. Big advantage of wood, you can remove a lot of
material and it makes no difference to the looks.

b. True of plastic as well, not an issue we've suffered from, we have
heatproof stands but they're not always used. Most pans are only
at boiling water termperature anyway.

c I fitted ours without any problems, easier than laminate in many
ways because there's less issue with chipping. Again the fact
that the material is solid (wood all through) is an advantage if
you damage it, there's still more wood underneath.

d We've had no problems so far after 2.5 years, we're pretty
careless about water on the work surface, no marks or swelling
yet. The one place we do protect a bit is where the kettle is for
coffee making and tea making, the kettle stands on on of those
glass 'chopping boards'.

e Ours has been oiled at less than six month intervals (i.e. less
frequently) and still looks very good.


I.e. we're very happy with our wood worktops.

I can post some pictures if you like which will show up our general
untidiness!

--
Chris Green