On 5/5/2011 9:56 AM, Luigi Zanasi wrote:
....
inefficient kitchen that is now falling apart. I am designing a new
one (thanks Swing for the sketch-up library) and am trying to figure
out what to use for counter tops.

Note the plural. Maybe there is one best overall material, but I am
not necessarily averse to using more than one.

So what would you use in an ideal kithcen:
....

Depends on how much budget is the controlling factor (as always)

If cost is a consideration, laminate is cheaper and for the general
purpose counterttop works fine.

For solid material, my personal recommendation is the solid manmades a
la Corian, etc. We used a less expensive one that hadn't heard of
before but available at local distributor at about half the cost of
Corian. After several years (going on 4 or 5 now???), it's just fine.

For specialty areas such as chopping surfaces, bread/dough areas, wood
is good; end block for chopping, not for rolling. As for the latter
other than maple, any of the common non-open grain are fine--cherry,
birch, etc., ...

Some like the granite for the purpose, no direct experience there; I'm
not that keen on the stone in general as require more maintenance and
are often susceptible to damage from things like lemon juice, etc., that
the manmades aren't so much. Plus, of course, they tend to be pricey so
we're back to that again...

All in all, it's a personal preference thing; I think the deal w/ stone
now is mostly just a current fad that "this, too, will pass" as for the
big popularity.

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