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.)

My wife had a kitchen installed 2 years ago with wooden worktops,
against my advice (I wanted granite),
and the kitchen looks great.
Visitors always express admiration.
My wife says the wood is "red alder".

The kitchen was put together by a professional carpenter;
I certainly would not try to do it myself.
For one thing, the wood is incredibly heavy,
as I know from the small pieces left over.

We certainly don't oil it more than once every 6 months,
though we did give it several coats of Danish oil at the start.

So I would thoroughly recommend wooden worktops,
though not from a d-i-y perspective.

--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail (80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland