Granite worktops
Granite worktops, cut from slabs we pick ourselves
Natural stone, quarried and polished, with nothing added. It shrugs off heat that would ruin quartz, and no two kitchens ever look the same. In exchange, it is porous and it needs sealing.
Heat
Hot pans fine
Porosity
Porous
Sealing
Periodic
Sunlight
UV stable
What it is
How granite is quarried and cut
Granite is an igneous rock, molten material that cooled slowly deep underground, which is where the visible crystals come from. It is extracted in blocks, sawn into slabs and polished. Nothing is added, nothing is pigmented, nothing is pressed.
That means the slab is a geological object, not a product line. Colour, crystal size and movement vary between blocks from the same quarry, and even between slabs cut from the same block. A sample tells you what the stone is; it does not tell you what your slab looks like. For a large island, seeing the actual slab is worth the trip.
In our catalogue
45 granite surfaces
- Supply price range
- £121 – £550/m²
- Most sit between
- £148 – £250/m²
- Brands we hold
- Sensa
- Colour tones
- 4
Every figure above is supply only: the slab, before fabrication, edge profiles, cut-outs, delivery and installation. Those are itemised separately on your written quote so you can see what each choice costs.
How it behaves
Heat, staining, sealing and wear
The four things that decide whether you are happy with a worktop in five years' time.
Durability & scratching
Very hard. Most kitchen knives will not mark it, and it takes years of heavy use without visible wear. Corners and the edges of cut-outs can chip if hit hard, and a chip in natural stone is repairable but rarely completely invisible, because the repair has to match a pattern that is unique.
Structurally it is the most forgiving of the three around a hob or a sink, provided the cut-outs are properly radiused, which is a fabrication matter, not a material one.
Heat
Excellent. Granite formed under heat and pressure; a pan off the hob does not register. You can put a hot roasting tin down on it without thinking, which for a lot of cooks is the entire argument. The only heat caution is the sealer, not the stone.
Staining & porosity
This is the trade-off. Granite is porous, to a degree that varies a lot by stone. Some of the dense blacks absorb almost nothing, while lighter, coarser-crystalled slabs will take up oil readily. Unsealed or under-sealed granite will mark from olive oil, red wine and citrus, and an oil mark can take weeks to draw back out.
Sealing
Sealed on installation, and topped up over the life of the worktop. How often depends on the stone and how hard the kitchen is used, so we tell you what your specific slab needs when we hand it over rather than quoting a generic interval. The test is simple: splash water on it, and if it darkens within a few minutes it wants resealing. It is a ten-minute job with a cloth, but it is a job that has to actually happen.
Thickness
Granite is sold in slab thicknesses set by the quarry and the processor, and availability differs by stone. A mitred edge can build a deeper profile from a thinner slab, though on a heavily patterned granite the mitre needs care so the pattern turns the corner convincingly. We confirm what is available in your chosen stone before you commit.
Whatever the slab thickness, a mitred edge folds the surface down at 45 degrees so a thinner slab reads as a deep one with the pattern running unbroken round the corner. See the edge profiles.
Who it suits
Serious cooks, anyone who wants a surface that is genuinely one-off, and kitchens where hot pans land wherever there is space.
If that does not sound like your kitchen, say so when you send us the plans. We fit all three families and we are not paid more for one than another, so the advice you get back is the advice we would give a friend.
The honest part
Where granite is the wrong choice
Three things a showroom will not lead with. If any of them describes your kitchen, tell us and we will point you elsewhere.
It is porous and it needs maintaining
Sealing is not a one-off. If the idea of checking your worktop with a splash of water once in a while irritates you, granite is the wrong material and we would rather say so than sell it to you.
What you order is not exactly what you saw
Natural variation is the point of granite, but it catches people out. If you need the finished kitchen to match a photograph, or you are matching an island to an existing run, engineered stone is the safer choice.
Some stones move a lot
Heavily veined granites can look dramatic in a slab yard and busy in a 3-metre run. Where possible, see the slab and think about how much of it will actually be visible once cabinets, appliances and a splashback are in.
Colours
45 granite colours
A dozen of them below. Photographs are indicative. Screens and slabs disagree, and a sample in your own kitchen at night is worth more than any image on this page.
Jump to a tone
16 of our granite surfaces are not yet colour-tagged, so they will not appear under a tone filter. We would rather leave them untagged than guess and send you the wrong sample. Browse the full 45 to see them.
Send us the kitchen and we will price it properly
Plans, a sketch or photos with rough measurements is enough for an indicative range. After templating you get a fixed written quote with every cut-out and edge itemised, and installation 3–7 working days from template.
Not sure this is the right material? Tell us how the kitchen gets used and where the light falls. If granite is wrong for it, we will say so before you have spent anything.
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