Treating yourself to stylish replacement worktops can brighten up a tired-looking kitchen, introduce a fashionable new look, add value to your home and needn’t cost the earth
Market research indicates that a million of us replacement our worktops annually. But are you put off by the prospect of all the demolition mess and debris, days with your kitchen out of commission and making endless mugs of tea for workmen? Worry not, there is a solution...
It’s an advanced, diamond-polished worktop surface that is available exclusively from your Granite Transformations showroom in Derby on the Alfreton Road. Having measured up your existing kitchen units and made precise templates, they fabricate custom-made sections, including cutouts for taps, sink units and hobs, in their own workshops. Then they bring the finished sections to your home and bond them directly onto your existing worktops, as well as fitting seamless edges and splashbacks, usually within the same day. Just how this material is tough enough to survive all the stresses of a workaday kitchen, yet lightweight enough to need no extra reinforcement to units, is down to the unique production process.
Here’s the technical bit. Known as agglomerate, Granite Transformations worktop material is are made from genuine Italian granite, natural quartzite or recycled tempered glass, bonded together with up to 5% specially-formulated polymer resin. It is then heat-cured to create a dense, highly cross-linked structure, which is impervious to moisture and extremely resistant to thermal and mechanical shock. What that essentially means is Granite Transformations surfaces are much tougher and harder than granite slab and can take more or less anything you can throw at them.
Yet surprisingly, Granite Transformations agglomerate is much slimmer and up to a third lighter than granite slab or conventional engineered stone, which means it fits neatly on top of existing worktops, with no need for additional strengthening. Also, unlike cheap imports that are made using cement-based resins, GT worktops have high tensile strength, so are not susceptible to cracking, and are flexible enough to follow the exact contours of the worktop beneath, as well as enabling gentle curves and sweeping bends. The material is also made in generous 3m long x 1.25m wide sheets, which allow most worktops to be fabricated without joins, adding to the luxurious ‘seamless’ look.
That’s the technical stuff over, but you should also know that there’s a lifetime material warranty too. Because your local Granite Transformations showroom will carry out the complete installation themselves, using factory-trained fitters, not sub-contractors, and have the full backing of the worldwide manufacturer, they can extend this guarantee to every worktop they fit. Which, you’ll agree, is very reassuring.
Nor are you limited on the choice of materials and colours. Three different agglomerate surfaces are offered, featuring either the distinctive look and appeal of Italian granite, the subtle shades and fine grain of quartzite, or the eco-friendly credentials of recycled glass, which in case you wondered is just as tough and durable as the other GT materials.
Also, there is a choice of more than 50 different colours, from ‘green’ worktops that are actually green, neutral shades that project a more refined finish, to bright red and orange for eyecatching blocks of colour. Naturally, there is a series of black gloss worktops for contemporary kitchen styling, through to off-white and polar ice that reflect natural or artificial light, plus many colours between.
To see exactly what’s on offer and evaluate these unique agglomerate materials for yourself, visit the Granite Transformations showroom in [location] and book a free home consultation. But remember, it’s not a genuine fitted-in-one-day Granite Transformations worktop, if it doesn’t say Granite Transformations over the showroom door.
Further enquiries to Granite Transformations, Unit 6a Centurion Way Business park, Alfreton Road, Derby, DE214AY, T 01332 370953
