Granite Kitchen Worktops blog

Wooden Kitchen Worktops

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:52:00 +0000

Another option is solid wooden worktops. Wooden worktops usually are more expensive than laminate but not as expensive as Granite worktops or quartz engineered stone worktops. The advantages of wooden worktops are that they can look amazing when new and can be shaped to suit your kitchen. The disadvantages are however that of all the worktops I will discuss they require the most amount of maintenance. They need regular oiling in order to stop them drying out, splitting and warping. They may also burn or discolour if hot pans are put on them.

In summary wooden worktops offer a nice alternative to laminate so long as you are prepared to put the work in to keep them looking good.

Robert Shaw

Kitchen worktop options

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 07:47:00 +0000

So, what are our options when it comes to kitchen worktops and what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Lets start with the the most popular, laminate worktops. The biggest advantage of laminate which is also the reason it is the most popular is price, there is a wide spectrum of quality of laminates but generally they will be your cheapest option. The other advantage is the wide choice of colours available.

The disadvantages are durability. Although laminate kitchen worktops are fairly durable in their own right they are no where near as durable as say granite worktops or quartz worktops. Over time the area which is used the most will begin to wear out and if water gets under the laminated surface the chipboard underneath can swell or warp.

Another disadvantage is basically laminate worktops don't exactly have the wow factor and you are limited by the shapes available.

In summary laminate worktops are okay but given the choice most people would prefer a better kitchen worktop if cost were not a factor.

Robert Shaw

Choosing your materials

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 10:20:00 +0000

Over the next several blogs I intend to run through the whole process of granite worktops and quartz worktops from the idea stage right through to fitting and aftercare.

So let's start at the decision stage, you've decided to have either a completely new kitchen or refurbishing an existing kitchen. Obviously the choice of worktop is crucial as not only will this take the most wear and tear but will also be the centre piece of the kitchen. So the worktop not only needs to be durable to last the coming years and decades of work being done on it but also look fantastic and stay looking that way over the many years.

In my next blog we'll look at the various different options for kitchen worktops.

Shaped granite worktops

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:33:00 +0000

Quite often people ask me if we can put a curve on the end of a breakfast bar or the end of a run. Of course we can. I have to remind people that we are producing a bespoke product and they can have any shape they want within reason. We are after all dealing with a big slab of stone. At the the end of the day if Michael Angelo can carve David from a block Carrara marble then sure we can curve the edge of granite worktops.

Also, as we use highly accurate CNC machinery the shapes we produce are millimetre accurate. So let your creative flair show and don't just stick to boring old straight lines.

Robert Shaw

Granite windowsills

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 08:13:00 +0000

Quite often when we turn up at a customer's house to carry out the templating we will notice that the windowsill in the kitchen is bare.

When we ask what is going on the windowsill the customer often says they aren't sure, maybe they'll tile it or buy an MDF windowsill to put there. It always seems to be a after thought. Well my solution would be to have a granite windowsill matching your granite kitchen worktop.

As with the granite backsplash I spoke about in my last blog I think it ties in with the granite worktops (your not using too many different materials), it looks great and is practical as it easy to keep clean and won't be effected if it gets wet from condensation etc.

Robert Shaw

Use a granite backsplash in your new kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:52:00 +0000

In your lovely new kitchen you will need something behind your hob to stop splashes spoiling your wall.

You could tile but then you've got the problem of the grout lines getting dirty. Stainless steel is an option but feedback I have received from customers is that stainless steel backsplashes are difficult to keep clean.

Glass is nice but in my opinion the best option is a granite backsplash matching your granite worktops. Practical as there are no grout lines and they look fantastic too.

Robert Shaw

Upstands for granite worktops

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:11:00 +0000

Upstands are the strips of granite that are fixed to the wall at the back of the granite worktop. They are usually about 100mm high and 20mm thick although you can have them any height you want from about 50mm up.

I always recommend them as in my experience walls, even in new houses, are never straight and the upstands will cover any gaps at the back of the granite worktop. When installing we have a tolerance of up to 10mm at the back which is often needed in order to get the worktops into position. Therefore if you're not tilling they are essential.

You can tile down to the top of the upstand or fill any gaps behind the upstand with decorators caulk and paint it the same colour as the wall. Besides the practical reasons for upstands there is also the fact that they look great and really finish off a beautiful granite worktop.

Robert Shaw

Spring clean your kitchen with a new granite worktop

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:22:00 +0000

If, like me, you have children then your worktops are probably cluttered with half eaten easter eggs, chocolate bunnies and the remnants of this years effort to win the prize at school or nursery for the best bonnet or card.

Why not give your kitchen a complete spring clean during the coming weeks and treat yourself to some new beautiful granite worktops. You don't have to replace the whole kitchen, just give it a new lease of life with stylish granite worktops. Come along and see us we can promise you there isn't a half eaten easter egg in sight.

Claire

Rubbish written about granite worktops

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 09:41:00 +0000

I do a lot of research on the Internet and come across some real
rubbish written about granite worktops. Now I'm no professional
salesman. My sales technique is to show the customer our product,
explain the benefits and why they should consider buying from us and
then leave the decision to them. However I do know that a sign of a
bad salesman is someone who relies on rubbishing the competition in
order to sell their product. I have read things like granite will
stain easy or it's hard to maintain. In America there was even a
campaign by the big artificial solid surface manufactures to scare
people about the danger of radon in granite. It has since been
scientifically proved that radon in granite posses no danger to humans
but it does show the tactics that some companies big a small will us
to stifle competition.

Granite worktops off-cuts

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 12:40:00 +0000

In the course of fabricating first quality granite worktops we end up with a lot of granite off-cuts. For example say we have a customer who wants a granite that we don't have in stock. To make their worktops we need one and a half big slabs of granite. We have to buy in two slabs to do the job. We are then left with half a slab. A few months later we get another job in the same granite and again we need one and a half slabs, but our supplier has sold all of the last block we had and we have to buy two slabs from the new block otherwise the colour won't match. Now we end up with more off-cuts. The same goes for quartz engineered stone worktops.

We literally have tonnes of off-cuts in our yard with absolutely nothing wrong with them. As granites are on average 300-400 million years old a few years sat in our yard is not going to affect them.

These granite off-cuts are ideal for smaller jobs such as window sills, fireplace hearths, small tables, vanity tops etc. We are now doing a special offer on the off-cuts just to try and clear some space in our yard. Take a look, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Robert Shaw

Your granite worktop, your choice

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 07:13:00 +0000

Mike our templater has been on holiday this week so I have been covering for him and going out to do the templates. One thing I've noticed this week is that many people do not realise the amount of choice they have when it comes to their granite worktop or quartz engineered stone worktops. When asking questions like how big do you want the overhang people say well what do the worktops come? They come whatever size you want within reason. I have to remind people that we are making a bespoke product exactly to their specification so although we can offer advice as to overhangs, where the sink and hob should go or which side to have the drainer grooves ultimately the choice is yours.

Robert Shaw

How heat resistant are granite worktops

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:30:00 +0000

I often get asked this question. In reality nothing is completely heat proof, heat it enough and it will react. Granite is no different, after all it was originally formed from super heated magma being pushed up through the earths crust.

What about your kitchen? Well I should say never put anything hot on your granite worktops and then we are completely covered but that is a bit like saying 'may contain nuts' on a packet of peanuts. Granite is very very heat resistant and it it very unlikely to meet the extreme temperatures that would be needed to damage them in the average family kitchen. I have had granite worktops at home for many years and I put pots straight off the hob and trays straight out of the oven on the worktop, and yes I do do the majority of the cooking at home. In the fifteen years I have been in the stone industry

I know of only one instance when a granite worktop was damaged by heat and that was when someone lit a disposable barbecue directly on the worktop and left it on there for a few hours and it cracked the granite. Lets be honesty thought, that was a bit stupid!

So the short answer to the question is don't worry about putting hot things on your beautiful new and shiny granite worktops.

Robert Shaw

Why we stopped using 'Blanks' for Granite Worktops

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:50:00 +0000

For many years Shaw Stone used granite blanks. In fact when we first started out it's all we could afford to use as as a new business starting from scratch we couldn't afford a forklift to lift full size slabs or a bridge saw to cut them so we lifted and cut the granite worktops by hand. The quality of the blanks was okay but wasn't as good 1st quality full sized slabs. Don't get me wrong, we did some very good jobs back in those days quite cheap but it was very much you got what you paid for.

Things are very different now, we have one of the most technologically advance factories in the South with huge investment made into state of the art CNC cutting and polishing machinery. Over the years as the demand for blanks imported from China and India grew the quality got worse , slabs were chipped and filled with wax, colours was poor and blanks were bowed so could never achieve a level joint when they were fitted. We tried several different suppliers but they were only interested In selling a container and couldn't really understand the high quality granite kitchen worktops demanded in the UK market.So last year we decided to stop offering blanks as to be frank they were more trouble than they were worth.

We now only offer 1st quality full sized slabs which give us a lot more flexibility with the sizes we cut and a lot higher quality granite worktops. The cost of this Superior material is obviously more expensive but we believe that we still offer the best value for money granite worktops in the South taking into consideration the superior quality material, cutting, polishing, fitting and service that we offer.

Robert Shaw

Launch of granite worktops Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:51:00 +0000

We are please to announce the launch of our new granite worktops newsletter. The idea behind the newsletter is to keep our regular trade customers up to date with relevant news about us, the stone industry and the kitchen industry as a whole. Although we are not journalist we’ll try our best to make the articles as professional and interesting as possible. The newsletter is free to anyone, simply go to the newsletter page and subscribe. You can unsubscribe anytime you like.

Robert Shaw

What is a CNC machine?

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:14:00 +0000

CNC stands for 'computer numerical controlled', which basically means a machine that is run by a computer. We at Shaw Stone have a CNC milling machine for milling and polishing shaped cuts, for example polished bowl cut-outs and shaped worktops. We also have one of the only CNC saws in the country used for cutting granite slabs into granite worktops. For both machines we use a sophisticated CAD program for the design of the pieces to be cut. The big advantage of using CNC machinery for the production of granite worktops and quartz engineered stone worktops is accuracy and quality of finish. These machines work to within point three of a millimetre, something that cannot be matched by cutting by hand or manual machine.

Robert Shaw

What is digital templating?

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:18:00 +0000

Well, digital templating is a way of templating without making physical templates. There are a few digital templating machines on the market, some use lasers and others use a wire. The market leader is Proliner as it is the most accurate and user friendly. We at Shaw Stone use the top spec Proliner 8-series. See it in action on our about us page. The biggest advantage to using digital templaters is accuracy when templating granite worktops or quartz engineered worktops (i.e. Silestone). The accuracy of the Proliner is with 0.5mm over 3 metres. By creating such highly accurate digital drawings which can be fed into our state of the art CNC computerised saw the end result is a granite worktop which fits perfectly. However at £15,000 per templating machine and £80,000 for the CNC saw only premium fabricators such as Shaw Stone use this technology!

Robert Shaw

Should you spend more on your worktops and less on units?

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:38:00 +0000

Well obviously I would say yes wouldn't I. I had this conversation with a customer last week although it was a bit like preaching to the converted. But when you think about it, it makes sense. If budget is a constraining factor, which to be fair for most of us it is, wouldn't it be better to spend more of the budget on the area of the kitchen that is going to take the most wear and tear and less on the hidden bits that no one ever sees? Also when you walk into a kitchen what is one of the most dominating features? The worktops! By spending at little less on the units in order to afford the granite worktops or quartz engineered stone worktops that you want, you can make a cheaper kitchen look expensive and fabulous like the ones you see in all those glossy magazines.

Robert Shaw.

New Year New granite worktop

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:05:00 +0000

Now that you no longer need to dig your car out of snow drifts or icebergs to come and see us why not pay us a visit. We are certainly filling up the calendar ready for Valentines Day. So for all you men out there why not impress the lady in your life with beautiful granite worktops for Mothers Day, and to all you ladies reading this I strongly believe that you deserve to be the proud owner of some bespoke granite worktops or quartz worktops. What better reward for all your hard work and to know how appreciated you are than to have a permanent reminder in your kitchen? So please feel free to contact either myself or Pauline and we will arrange a quote for your. Hope to see you all soon. Claire

We're Still fitting granite worktops in the snow.

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:08:00 +0000

Well despite the snow and ice we are still managing to fabricate and fit first quality granite worktops for our customers. The cold weather has brought it's challenges though. As with many companies last week we were short staffed as people couldn't make it into work, in fact on Wednesday after the big snow fall no one managed to get in. Although the cold doesn't affect the granite or quartz stone we have had problems of the slabs being frozen together and the forklift truck getting stuck in the snow. Also as we use a lot of water in the fabrication of granite and quartz worktops we had a few frozen pipes to deal with in the machines. Notwithstanding the problems the Shaw Stone team have pulled together to insure the minimum about of disruption to our valued customers.

Robert Shaw

Your new Granite worktops in the New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:52:00 +0000

Well you have all been paying attention to my blog - we are booking up now steadily for templating and fitting in January. The idea of romantic candle lit dinners for Valentines being prepared on beautiful granite worktops is certainly catching on - and I will be only too happy to help you plan your kitchen and arrange templating and installation. So just pop in while you are out christmas shopping or give us a call and Pauline or myself can help to make your New Years wishes come true.

See you soon - Claire

Pre-Christmas joke

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:16:00 +0000

Several years ago, Andy was sentenced to prison. During his stay, he got along well with the guards and all his fellow inmates. The warden saw that deep down, Andy was a good person and made arrangements for Andy to learn a trade while doing his time. After 3 years, Andy was recognized as one of the best carpenters in the local area. Often he would be given a weekend pass to do odd jobs for the citizens of the community.... and he always reported back to prison before Sunday night was over.The warden was thinking of remodeling his kitchen and in fact had done much of the work himself. But he lacked the skills to build a set of kitchen cupboards and fit a granite worktop which he had promised his wife. So he called Andy into his office and asked him to complete the job for him.But, alas, Andy refused. He told the warden, "Gosh, I'd really like to help you but counter fitting is what got me into prison in the first place".

Impressing Santa!

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:32:00 +0000

Only 16 days to go until Father Christmas comes to visit - just picture his face when he goes into our customers kitchens and sees the mince pies and milk waiting for him on the beautiful granite worktops. You too can have the opportunity to impress Father Christmas next December 25th but if you would like your kitchen to look stylish before then why not give myself or Pauline a call or pop in and see us. January is filling up fast - so don't just keep thinking about it let us prove to you how achievable your new look kitchen can be with your choice of granite or quartz worktops. Don't forget our virtual showroom to enable you to "virtually" try before you buy.
See you soon - Claire

Fully booked before Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:04:00 +0000

What a busy few weeks we are having - so many people are going to have lovely granite worktops in time for Christmas. It's just a shame that it is only 4 weeks away as we could have filled our fitting calendar over and over again. It has been nice though making sure that our customers have their worktops in place in time for the turkey. So if anyone would like some gorgeous granite worktops in time for valentines make sure you come in and see Pauline or myself and we will arrange it all for you.
Hope to see you very soon - Claire

Introducing Claire

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:06:00 +0000

My name is Claire and I have been working for Shaw Stone since the beginning of August 2009. This is my first foray into the world of granite and have been amazed by the variety of colours and patterns available. I work in the office with Pauline as a Sales Administrator. We compile quotes, process orders and co-ordinate appointments for the templating and fitting. You can request quotes from us in a variety of ways including via this website - check out the 3D showroom it gives a great insight into how your kitchen will look after we have fitted our outstanding granite worktops for you.
Pop in and see us we will be really pleased to see you and to help you get the kitchen of your dreams.

Introducing Pauline

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:56:00 +0000

My name is Pauline I am responsible for running the office at Shaw Stone. Having worked here for nearly three years I enjoy the daily challenge of working within a successful company.
Being an amateur palaeontologist, I find working with beautiful granite, quartz engineered stone and natural stone a pleasure. It is always a delight when a customer, who thinks they can not afford granite realise that we are very competitive and leave with their granite or quartz engineered stone worktop ordered and a smile on their faces. The recommendations, letters and cards of thanks always make the job worthwhile.

If you want a granite or quartz engineered stone kitchen worktop or bar top then come and see us.