white marble countertops?

my husband and i are redoing our kitchen and would like to have white marble as our countertop. ive heard such mixed reviews about the stone. some say its great, it looks great, it ages well, high maintainence but its worth it. while others say it scratches, it stains, it not for the kitchen...

does anyone have this material in thier kitchen? or know information about it? we havent seen a granite that we like, soapstone we've heard scratches too much, and marble is what we want. however, i dont want to spend the money for something that is going to look like hell in a year..

any thoughts? thanks in advance

This is one of my favorite subjects. One of my past jobs was an operations manager for a marble and granite shop. If you are in the industry, the answer to your questions is STAY AWAY from white marble, or any marble for that matter. Marble is inherently porous. Now let me say for the record that honed Carrera marble in 2cm with a flat polished edge and no overhang is one of my favorite looks in a modern kitchen aesthetic. Marble has been used for floors for centuries, why do we think it will not hold up to counter top traffic. The biggest reason is it does stain. If you spill red win on it, or let orange juice acid eat it, it will make a mark. Unfortunately when Corian came out, the solid surface people trained us to think if a surface is not flaw free, it is no good.
This is what you will get with marble (and I suggest honed). You may have to wipe on a sealer once a year, but only places that are heavily cleaned. The surface in soft and cool to the touch, great for pastries. If it gets a stain, scrub it with Comet. If the stain remains, it starts to form a wonderful patina. I have a good friend that has a 4’ X 8’ Carrera marble island top, 3cm, honed. The island accommodates 6 counter stools and a Jenn-Air downdraft. Needless to say, this top gets heavy use (did I mention two boys 8 and 12?) The top is eight years old and still looks great. It does have some slight stains that blend in with the grey veining, but that is the patina I was talking about. My opinion is you can not go wrong with natural stone. If you want something perfect and also a great modern product, try laminate (brand: Formica) or one of those $60.00 sq. ft. quartz materials

Personally I like quartz, you get the look of stone without the hassle and they now have honed look quartz. Plus you can find it for a lot cheaper than $60/sqft if you shop around.

greg beere....your response was all i needed! thanks!!!

Marble it is wahoooo:grin:

As a kitchen professional I second Greg's post on all counts.
We put carrera and statuary into lots of kitchens because it's gorgeous and has a life to it. We always hear the My friend says marble is a nightmare because it stains etc etc.
Will it look flawless forever? No way. It will wear in and is always a classic and beautiful counterbalance to contemporary spaces. It's got a character that no quartz will ever have. (Not that quartz doesn't have it's own beauty- like concrete colors for people who don't want something with a life of it's own- but that's that yin to marble's yang).

I say if you love marble go for it- but don't be outraged when it starts to get some character.

Right on.
We're putting marble in our new kitchen. My wife is from Spain and grew up with it. When it's 10 years old it won't look new. And that's OK.

I don't mean to hijack the post, but jjasper, what quartz product that is honed is under $60 sq ft? Is this installed?

I believ it is Silestone that has a leather finish product, not sure if it comes in white though. I heard somewhere in these forums that it has a honed look.

No, those prices are not installed. Not sure what the actual pice is on the leather finish stuff as I have not seen it carried anywhere yet, but everything else I have seen it $50 and under so I doubt it would be much more expensive. I am lazy though when it comes to maintaining things, but I like things to stay looking new which is why Quartz is appealing to me.

My wife likes Marble because of the perceived resell value, but when she was Quartz she fell in love with that. We are probably doing solid surface in the bathrooms though since they have a nice gorgeous matte finish with integrated sinks, but for a kitchen I would think stone would hold up better than Corian and such.

jjasper.....
You are correct that they advertise the price to be $50.00 a sq. ft., but just like natural stone, you have a waste factor. You also need to calculate the backsplash if any. (4 inched of splash every three running feet will cost another $50.00) You also need to figure a sink cut out, usually $100.00 for a drop in (why would you?) or $250.00 for an undermount. Anyway, sorry about rambling on, but what I am trying to say is, have the installer give you a total price for the tops, material, fabricated, all edge details, splash, sink cut outs and installation, divide the number by you actual square footage and walla! $60.00

So is marble cheaper then installed? Because I have a nice ebony black honed marble might be cool.

Usually...... Material costs are usually lower for marble as long as it is not exotic. Carrera and statuary are usually pretty stable materials, but some marbles with heavy veining can break at that vein. It is perfectly normal for a piece of marble to be cut and then crack, get glued back together and then installed. The crack at the vein will be stronger than the remainder of the piece. You can also get the material in different thicknesses. 3cm is approx. 1.25 and 2cm is approx. 3/4. A great look for a modernist kitchen is to use 2cm but do not let the material overhang past the face of the cabinet door. When the guys come to template, the standard overhang is usually 1.5 past the cabinet face frame. 2cm is obviously less expensive. Also, please realize that on a black honed material, every finger print will show. To get an idea of how the surface will perform, have the fabricator give you a sample so that you can test it for finger smudges

With the 2cm thickness is there greater risk of cracking after the material is installed? I don't know how close to perfect cabinetry installation usually is, but with the thinner material and no overhang is it even more important to get everything square and level?

I love the look of the countertops of the Bulthaup b3 system. I think they are 1cm, and Bulthaup hypes how they have some new technology that makes such thin tops strong/stable.