Submitted by carlover on January 18, 2008 – 9:36am.
It’s funny, I always hear people berate granite being used for kitchen countertops but I never understand why. Granite has to be about the most practical of choices for counter-tops. It’s smooth and easy to clean, you can place a hot pan on it without burning or marking, it doesn’t scratch so you can cut on it, you have to try hard to chip it. Compare this with really poor choices for kitchen countertops like Concrete or Soapstone or Marble with which you basically can’t do any of the above because they are all fairly soft.
I pretty much agree with the above. Granite is durable, it has to be sealed but not often and some of the darker colors don’t need to be sealed at all. Soapstone has a rustic, earthy appeal and all, BUT it scratches. I was looking at some soapstone countertops yesterday and the small scratches on new showroom kitchen countertops were very visible. Not saying it looked bad, but they were visible. The scratches show up white against the dark stone and you have to apply mineral oil to get them out. But in a vintage,rustic setting, it’d still look fine.
With granite, the darker colors do require more work, fingerprints and waterspots show. That’s a shame because high polished black galaxy and absolute black will take your breath away. Imo, these colors are worth the maintenance. You can also get black granite in a honed finish and it will look similar to soapstone.
Seattle-relo, I would think brown/blackish granite wouldn’t readily show fingerprints. What color is your kitchen countertop. Is it Baltic Brown?
