Granite vs Marble?

[Milangal]

HI! I am currently a hobby-est in the chocolate and confection area. Most of the bakeries I have worked in and the books all seem to say to work on a Marble slab. We're considering doing something different in our kitchen and I'm wondering if Granite would work the same way as marble. Does anyone know? We live in an area with a lot of granite which is why we were considering granite over Marble.

[Kerry Beal]

I use granite in place of marble for tempering - anything with a big thermal mass will work fine.

[minas6907]

You'll be happier with granite tops, they won't etch from acidic foods and cleaners, while marble will. In addition to that, granite is much harder to scratch then marbles, which is important when your using metal tools on the surface of the stone in candy making. You won't regret getting the granite, trust me, I work in the industry doing stone restoration, I've met plenty of home owners who wish they didn't install that beautiful white marble on their tops, simply because of the maintenance.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

[HungryC]

I'm planning a new kitchen as we speak...will have granite on the perimeter counters and marble on the island. Best of both worlds. If you want to experiment, call a stone supplier and ask to purchase surplus sink cut outs...you may be able to get decent sized samples of both materials to try out.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Granite over Marble and Marble over Travertine, in the kitchen. Almost any stone will form a large enough heat sink, but you need to consider the properties of each before you jump in. Granites will often have a much finer grain than Marbles, and since there's more quartz involved in Granite (Marble is calcic) they don't have the same issues with acids either. I second the suggestion to get a slab of each and test them out - sink cutouts are a great size for tempering.

Overall, though, I'd go with Granite any day. I've had fine-grained travertine work surfaces and boy howdy they were a bitch to maintain, although they did make fabulous pie crusts.

[hongda]

Have you looked at quartz countertops? Non-porous so you don't have to seal the stone, also they come in a wider range of patterns, styles and colors. Thermal mass is similar....

[Katie Meadow]

Kinda depends on what look you are going for and how much maintenance you want to do on an ongoing basis. There are lots of new alternative surfaces out there now. I am in process of redoing my kitchen counters using Caesarstone. It's reasonably priced, cheaper than granite certainly, can be had in large seamless slabs and supposedly needs little or no maintenance. I'm chosing it because of low maintenance, price, color availability (I am not redoing anything but the sink and counters, so I have to make the counter color work with the backsplash, etc.) Can't vouch for it yet, since it isn't installed. The look of all these materials is very different. Marble is warm and rustic and you can expect it to keep looking more rustic as time goes by, but I've seen it looking beautiful when old and well used. Of course it has to be in the right setting. Granite, at least to me, has a chilly feel, so it's a very different look.There are other aggregate surfaces and suspensions of quartz in various synthetics so it's really worth checking out all your options.

[Milangal]

WOW! Thanks for all of the information!! I was hoping it was simply that it was needing a large, hard, cool, mass. YAY! Now I can plan the kitchen! Thanks everyone!!

[leilaames]

I would prefer granite as it is perfect for kitchen counters and looks gorgeous. It can also be cleaned easily and is also available in wide range of colors and patterns.

[paulraphael]

I dislike both granite and marble, since it's hard to tell if they're clean, they stain, and are generally a maintenance hassle. I lived with marble for a while and have used a lot of granite. Granite is better in every way I can asess. If I could choose any natural stone it would be soapstone. But I'd prefer quarz or laboratory epoxy over either.

 

Keep in mind that there are a hundreds of different kinds of stone that fit under the marketing geologic (and marketing) headings of both granite and marble, and they can be very different from each other.

[lesliec]

Any issue with staining surely depends of the colour of the stone - my beautiful three metre length of granite is black, so I wouldn't notice!

 

It's lovely stuff to work with.  Working with pastry or bread straight on the benchtop feels somehow sinful!