Best Low-Maintenance Countertop Materials

With your busy life, you don’t have time to deal with countertops that need tons of regular maintenance.  Sealing natural stone and worrying about scratches and stains is more work than many of us want to put into our kitchen!  Fortunately, there are a wide variety of countertop materials that are significantly lower maintenance, allowing you to have great countertops without the added work or stress.

Solid Surface

Naturally, we’re going to recommend solid surface above all others.  Solid surface is worry free, with scratches easily being buffed out; as the color and pattern go all the way through the material, you don’t have to worry about ruining your finish.  Solid surface is easily cleaned with soap and water, is resistant to staining and resist heat and impacts better than nearly any other surface available.  It’s hard to go wrong when you pick solid surface.

Stainless Steel

If you’re looking for a more industrial/modern-chic look, stainless steel is an interesting option – and you can’t get any lower maintenance than stainless steel.  As the name would imply, they don’t get stained by food or juice or anything else that they might encounter in the kitchen, and are heat resistant, to boot.   They don’t need to be sealed or refinished, and require no special products to clean.  They can be slightly more expensive than solid surface, however, and they are much noisier.  Still, they’re a solid alternative.

Laminate

Laminate is a very affordable alternative for a low-maintenance countertop.  Many of the same manufacturers make both laminate and solid surface options, including Wilsonart and Formica.  They are easier to install than solid surface, and offer many of the same benefits – a nonporous surface, no need for sealing or refinishing, hundreds of colors and patterns, etc.  The main issue they have, compared to solid surface, is that the pattern doesn’t go all the way through the material, so you risk having unsightly damage to your counter that is impossible (or, at least, very expensive!) to repair, as opposed to a quick-and-easy solid surface repair job.