If you prefer Corian, get Corian.

Do you care about resale in your future? Buyers like quartz. I have bright white quartz in my bathrooms, and I’m messy with makeup and hair products, no stains, everything wipes up. The one thing is heat, you have to use trivets (unlike granite) but it’s a slight inconvenience.

@K R You should still use trivets with granite. A hot pan can cause granite to crack.

I put white quartz in my new kitchen about 5 years ago. Yes, I love it and it’s pretty spectacular looking, but a word of caution - every little speck of dust, one little crumb etc really stands out. Not going to lie, it’s work. It’s the look I wanted and I absolutely would do it again. Our previous home had corian (in a color) which I loved too, but going with white this time, I picked quartz because the corian looses that shine and 5 years later my quartz still looks brand new.

I have white ceasarstone quartz, and I like it, but it’s definitely not perfect. There are a couple small stains that won’t come out and a couple small chips where things were dropped. But it still looks very nice and I’m likely the only one that would see those. I like that I see dirt so that I know I need to wipe it. I would do it again. I’m not in a market that supports corian and even though we thought it would be our forever home, we’ve had a change of events requiring us to sell.

Maybe it depends on the finish you prefer. In my upcoming update I’m doing white corian because I don’t want slick and shiny. I had quartz for over 20 years and it still looks brand new, so if I wanted shiny I’d absolutely do quartz again.

I agree with Annette. We just installed corian glacier white countertops because I prefer a more muted shine to my countertops. The quartz whites are super glossy which is not my thing. The other thing that I have been enjoying is the softness (quieter when setting down dishware) and warmth to the touch of the countertops.

I had Corian in a former house and I loved that counter top. It was a speckled grey (might have been called pepper ivory?). It looked brand new 6 years later when we sold the house.

I'd get glacier white corian in a heartbeat.

But I also like granite and quartz too. Honestly, they all look good in the right settings. Get what you like, who cares what other people think. :)

@rockycalle we also went with Corian for those exact reasons. The hardness and coldness of other surfaces is a bit like nails on a chalkboard to me, and we loved the soft white color of glacier white.

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the comments and I am happily surprised to see the support for solid surface/corian. If this were not our "forever home" I would likely pick quartz to be safe for resale value. But this is the home we will be in for a very, very long time so I should pick what I really like. I guess my only concern for any material in a solid white color is stains. I have seen some posts on Houzz regarding quartz chipping which got me thinking I should stick with the corian/solid surface.

IMO both are fake plastic crap so either one I guess. IMO a polished granite will outlast either of them with none of the limitations and a solid white counter in a actual working kitchen is IMO a big mistake. There are some nice white granites and the bonus they can go behind your range too and you can put hot pots on them.

Some things, like subway tile and apron front sinks, are not subject to fads, whims, and trends. That's the reason Glacier White Corian just celebrated its 50th birthday. Tough, repairable, refinishable, beautiful, sanitary, and plays nicely with others put it in the club of the timeless.

"The one thing is heat, you have to use trivets (unlike granite) but it’s a slight inconvenience."

The Natural Stone Institute, the 70-year-old trade association of the industry, recommends trivet use for all natural stone countertops, as do the manufacturers of engineered stone and solid surface, making them all essentially equal in the heat resistance department.

I have quartz in the kitchen and I always use trivets, as I did with granite. Thermal shock is real. White Corian is timeless. We have it in a guest bath. My sis put it in her kitchen back in the 1980s and it still looks brand new, integrated sink included. Like you, I am not a huge fan of granite, though occasionally I do see a slab I’d kill for. There is no wrong choice. Get exactly what YOU want.

That’s funny, I had uba tuba granite for 14 years and never once used a trivet and it looked perfect until the day I ripped it out. I never knew that.

I'm doing corian because I love the warm, soft feel and the modern matte look. It's quieter when you set something hard on it. And I've read some really bad things about quartz manufacturing, like workers getting silicosis from the dust and I'm not interested in being part of that.

Robbin:

That's quartz fabrication, not quartz manufacturing. Let's put the blame where it belongs please.

Wish I knew this about granite and heat. We had granite counter-tops and a table and I always put hot pans and pots directly on it for 15 yrs. Never cracked. Never stained, nothing.

I like granite better than quartz.

Jane

I have had laminate, granite and solid-surface, and I prefer the solid surface. I chose a slightly speckled bright white Hi-Macs with a tiny bit of sparkly reflective particles and it lit up the kitchen and wore like iron. The dark laminate I had in the past scratched easily and showed white, and the granite was too shiny, too cold, too loud and too hard.

I wanted Carrera marble, but I’m liberal with red wine, olive oil, tomatoes and lemon. I have it in my bathroom instead.

In 2012 the quartz “marble” options weren’t great so we went with Corian Rain Cloud in a matte finish. It’s a little warmer than the marble and has held up well. We’re still really happy with it.

I chose Corian over quartz two years ago. Our house has seasonal movement and imperfect walls, and solid surface has resiliency that quartz does not. I opted for an integrated 2" backsplash meaning no seam or caulk. Bonus is an integrated drain board and stainless sink. I was not in the habit of putting hot cookware directly on the counter, and I can live with scratches knowing they can be polished out. Plus, I wanted color and the color selection was better. No stains. Take a sample home and put it to the test.

We just moved from a house with soapstone in the kitchen, where we theoretically could have put hot things straight on the counters. In the five years that we lived there, I can’t remember doing this even one time. Before that, we lived in a house with Corian in the kitchen for eight years and do not remember ever having a single moment of struggle about not being able to put super hot things right on the counter. Therefore this did not factor into our decision to use Corian in our current kitchen.

Like MizLizzie, once in a while I see granite or quartzite that I swoon over, but for the most part I am a Corian/soapstone kind of girl. One day I might try marble, but again the coldness gives me pause.

We put in glacier white corian when we remodeled 2 years ago, mainly because of the easy upkeep and the softness. I love it. So far, I have removed turmeric, wine, red sauce, coffee, beet juice, and yellow highlighter from it. Soft scrub cleans everything right off.

The only thing I've found in my area (Western NY State) is that the entry level colors of Corian or Hi-Macs are about 33% more expensive than mid-priced granite, quartz or soapstone. The percentage went up even more for the more "designer" colors and designs. I seriously considered both Corian and Hi-Macs but the price was well beyond what I wanted to pay. I wonder if the higher price is because in my area, most fabrication is being done for commercial and medical applications? I'm not sure.

I do know that I'll personally stay away from quartz. It looks lovely but when see manufacturers including statements like this in their use and care guides, it tells me that the products attributes are being oversold and in the long run, the product performance comes up short. This positioning of the product as developing a patina is just marketing BS to mask a very undesirable characteristic of quartz. These undesirable characteristics are across all quartz brands.

Below is a page from Caesarstone's Residential Care and Maintenance Guide. Note the out they provide them themselves with the phrasing I bolded in the excerpted quote. I'll pass on the quartz.

"Patina is a thin layer that variously forms on the surface of stone over 6 months of use. Patina can provide a protective covering to materials that would otherwise be damaged by corrosion or weathering. They may also be aesthetically pleasing."

We, too, are having the countertop struggle right now and having a hard time deciding what to do. DH has decided he does NOT like quartz at all as it's too boring and man-made. He says if we go that route, he'd rather have Corian and I'm starting to agree with him.

For those with a white Corian/Hi-Macs solid surface, I'd love to see pics of yours in your kitchen.

"The only thing I've found in my area (Western NY State) is that the entry level colors of Corian or Hi-Macs are about 33% more expensive than mid-priced granite, quartz or soapstone. The percentage went up even more for the more "designer" colors and designs. I seriously considered both Corian and Hi-Macs but the price was well beyond what I wanted to pay. I wonder if the higher price is because in my area, most fabrication is being done for commercial and medical applications?"

DuPont, Corian's manufacturer, wisely won't play the "race to the bottom on price" game and I don't blame them. They've spent 50 years and lots of warranty calls building and defending their brand. Their fabricators make money too by not chasing the bottom-feeder's dollars.

Cambria does the same thing with engineered stone. They've got the most innovative and desirable colors, always have had, and they aren't giving their brand away either, despite incredible price pressure from the copycat Chinese.

The last guy that asked me for a price reduction got his proposal pulled. Like DuPont and Cambria, I don't play the price game. Some of us have the best stuff, know it, and charge accordingly.

@Joseph Corlett, LLC, quality wise, how does Hi-Macs rate with Corian?

houzz://user/joseph_corlett also, how does Wilsonart Solid a Surface compare to Corian?

Corian's patent ran out decades ago. Hi-Macs and other solid surfaces are Corian without the name. Excellent products.

Thanks for that info, Joseph!

@shead, here's mine. Ignore the outlets. The photographer caught the outlets in every single picture and Idk why. Let me know if you want a close-up of the counter.

@stillpitpat, gorgeous!!

I've had Corian in an extremely busy kitchen for around 15 years. No stains that a bleach-soaked paper towel couldn't handle. So clean looking.... My only regret is that I didn't get Glacier White, but Vanilla, which will probably be replaced soon. When I read the threads about the care and keeping of gorgeous granite counters, I remember that I only have so much time left in my life on Earth and I don't want to spend it on maintaining countertops. So yes, Corian.

Does home depot sell glacier white Corian?

They may, but all the major manufacturers sell generic Corian so just get the color you like.

@dove41 I dont believe so.

I worked at HD til 4 years ago. At that point they did sell Glacier White Corian.