Unless you're extremely lucky, you're probably going to need to work to a budget during a kitchen renovation, so it can be easy to be tempted into buying a cheaper material for your benchtops, such as laminate. After all, using laminate benchtops instead of another material can ensure significant savings.
Be that as it may, there are plenty of reasons to choose quartz instead. Quartz benchtops might demand a slightly higher initial payment, but you should think of that as an investment. The fact is that laminate benchtops can be damaged far more easily than quartz benchtops. You might save in the short-term by going for laminate, but you'll almost certainly have to replace your benchtops earlier thanks to damage from the following four factors.
1. Heat
If there's one thing that your kitchen benchtops really need to be able to put up with, it's heat. In the kitchen, you're going to be carrying around very hot pots and pans all the time, and you might sometimes have to rest one of those pots and pans on an unprotected surface. This should be fine when you have quartz benchtops since they are extremely heat-resistant, but that isn't the case with laminate benchtops. Laminate will tend to bubble up and burn when subjected to heat for even a few seconds.
2. Cleaning
It might seem pretty strange to say that cleaning can damage your kitchen benchtops, but that's just the kind of risk that you run when you go for laminate. Unfortunately, laminate benchtops just are not that tough, which means that abrasive cleaning products can actually damage them over time. Quartz, in stark contrast, can be cleaned using the toughest of chemicals without showing any signs of damage.
3. Cuts and Scratches
It can be easy for a knife to slip while you're cutting up vegetables for your stir fry or trimming the fat from your steak. If your knife is going to hit a quartz benchtop, there's really nothing that you need to worry about since quartz is a very tough material that is hard to cut and scratch. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for laminate benchtops, which generally take cuts and scratches very easily.
4. General Aging
Ultimately, even the most fastidious care isn't going to protect laminate benchtops against general signs of aging. Laminate benchtops are easily discoloured by sunlight, and they tend to begin looking old and worn very quickly. Quartz benchtops will look as good as new for years to come.
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