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great advice re worktops.
i'm in a position where i'm looking to replace mine just with something cheap and cheerful as a year or two down the line i plan on ripping it all out when i do a proper extension. so at the moment i've painted the units so they don't look too shabby. i like the look of wood, but don't really want to pay a lot for a solid oak worktop that will ultimately get ripped out later.
is it worth going for a cheap laminate type? if so do you or anyone know of any decents websites/deals out there? i need aboout 3.5m of it...
AirTime
Airhead
It's not just the templating that costs the money, it's the material and what has to be done to it to shape it for your kitchen. Marble/Granite is great if you're not OCD, otherwise you'll be polishing it the whole time, especially if it's black.
These stones are also porous so you can bleach them with some oven cleaning products and stain them with oil. Personally I wouldn't have quartz, to me it lacks the personality of a natural stone. There's a huge warehouse in Battersea called MGLW that has massive amounts of stone, you can buy a sheet and then instruct a mason to make it up. The stone they have there is incredible, they have a website with pics but it doesn't beat a visit.
You can template it yourself if you want. Just remove your current worktops and cut 3mm hardboard to exactly the same size. If you want different shapes/overhangs then cut 3mm hardboard to the shapes. Mark your sink position and give it to the stone mason. If you screw up they will charge you or worse you'll have ruined the material, but generally if you're a couple of mm out on the template you can chase the wall a bit.