Marble Countertops - Are They Worth The Expense?

The simple answer to that question is ... maybe. Marble is a beautiful natural material that can be used as a countertop but most professional countertops manufacturers will steer their customers away from using them in their kitchens.

When customers are looking for the types of countertops they would like to use, there are certain things that they are looking for. For instance, will the countertop last for a long time? How much maintenance is required to maintain them? Are they affordable? How will the choice I made look over the entire kitchen? If you are thinking about choosing marble countertops, then you could wind up being very disappointed with them in a very short time.

When you first have them installed they will be beautiful and you may think to yourself "that so-called professional didn't know what they were talking about!" but in a few weeks you will see that they knew exactly what they were talking about.

First of all, marble countertops are very expensive but they are not a practical expense. They make your kitchen very hard to work in. One of the main reasons is because they are very easily scratched. Sliding just your average kitchen things on them can leave visible scratches.

They are also very porous which means that they will stain very easily. Be very wary if a fabricator tells you they can be sealed. That is true but the very nature of marble will still leave them susceptible to stains.

Marble is also a very fragile material. You can easily chip or crack it. For instance if you drop something on it you can expect to leave a chip, and once you chip it there is nothing you can do to fix it.

Then once you have weakened the area with a chip, you will see small stress cracks start to form, and now your once beautiful marble countertops looks horrific and the only way to make them look good again is to purchase new ones.

The good news is that if you love marble and want some of it in your home, you can use them in your bathrooms. Cultured marble countertops hold up well for the normal wear and tear of the bathroom. You will still need to be a little careful with them but they don't usually take the same abuse that can occur through natural use in a kitchen.

Marble countertops in your bathrooms will also help with the cleaning. Cultured marble tops can be poured so the sink is one continuous piece and so are the back splashes leaving fewer places for grime to build up. They can also be shaped, one of the more popular shapes used is the sea shell design.

So when trying to decided what kind of countertops you would like in your home, marble is not a great way to go unless your kitchen is a showroom and is never subjected to the normal daily traffic that most kitchen have. The good news though is that if you love marble you can use it in your bathrooms.