Browse Forums Kitchen Corner 1 Oct 06, 2009 5:30 pm Could someone explain the main difference between these benchtop materials? I want to upgrade from the standard square postformed laminate benchtops in the new build, but not sure which to go for. How do they generally rank in terms of price and durability? Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 2Oct 06, 2009 6:01 pm aLLaNNa1 Could someone explain the main difference between these benchtop materials? I want to upgrade from the standard square postformed laminate benchtops in the new build, but not sure which to go for. How do they generally rank in terms of price and durability? We are using ceaserstone as this was the only option that was available to us. The three products that you mention above a pretty much the same product with slight difference, they are all manmade stone. Try the link below, hope that helps. http://www.stoneconceptsqld.com.au/html ... _info.html Builder; Big M Design; Soho 32 Facade; Ascent Blog; http://mickeyb-soho.blogspot.com Trend; viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23990 Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 3Oct 07, 2009 9:14 am Corian is an Acrylic (plastic). Scratches easily, however can be repaired easily by sanding and polishing with a cutting compund and woolen buff as you would a car. Essa and Caesar are much of a muchness.... caesar has a brand name well recognised, where as Essa doesn't but offer the same limited colour range. Both are engineered stone products with the same durability. I would go the engineered stone all the way. Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 4Oct 07, 2009 10:32 am aLLaNNa1 Could someone explain the main difference between these benchtop materials? I want to upgrade from the standard square postformed laminate benchtops in the new build, but not sure which to go for. How do they generally rank in terms of price and durability? Well we have just been going through this ourselves and have found out that the difference in price between the 2 options, Corian or Caesar, was not that much. We have one island (kitchen) 5.3m x .9m. One bench (kitchen) 5.4m x .55m. One vanity (bathroom) 1.5m x .55m. One vanity (ensuite) 1.7m x .6m. Total Cost: $11,000. Inc G.S.T Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 5Oct 07, 2009 5:21 pm Never heard of Essa or Corian. We have Caesarstone..fantastic product. See photo thread in signature. Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 6Oct 07, 2009 6:14 pm Nathan SteelFab ...have found out that the difference in price between the 2 options, Corian or Caesar, was not that much. That's interesting, coz another friend told us that Corian was normally cheaper than the engineered stone or granite types.... 12 March 2010 - Land titles received 3 April 2010 - Signed building contract 14 April 2010 - Prestart 28 April 2010 - Loan approved 30 June 2010 - Slab completed 27 August 2010 - Brickwork completed 22 September 2010 - Roofing completed 30 September 2010 - Internal walls plastered 12 October 2010 - Lock Up 19 November 2010 - PCI 26 November 2010 - Handover 29 December 2010 - Moved In https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32584 Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 7Oct 07, 2009 6:18 pm Being Acrylic, the Corian is not very heat restistant. The Corian feels warmer to touch also, like a buffed piece of plastic, which is pretty much what it is. The engineered stones are heat resistant and feel cold to touch. Building at The Ponds Land reg 3/12/09, Land settled 18/12/09 Approved by Design Panel 16/11/09, Submitted to council 24/11/09, Approved by Council 21/1/10 Site Start 21/5/10 http://andyminpondsbuild.blogspot.com/ https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19800 Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 8Oct 08, 2009 2:32 pm Hi, The products are like chaulk and cheese. Corian is a acrylic base mixed with a stone powder and Essa/Caesar stone are 95% quartz based product. Let's start with Corian. Being an acrylic product it is refinishable and renewable, which like in trayc says in an earlier post means that is able to be repaired and repolished. So if you accidently drop something from a great height and take a divet out of your top, it can be repaired to the point where you can not see the damage. Corion is joined on site and polished, so you can not see the join lines. It is warmer to touch and can be shaped into just about any shape you want, non pourous so it wont stain. You can have stainless steel rods imbeded into the top for you to place hot pots on straight from you cooktop. Both undermount and drop in sinks can be used. The quartz based Essa/Caesar stone are much the same. Caesar has a bigger range of colours and a stronger name in the market as it was owned by Gerry Harvey (Harvey Norman) up until about a year ago. He did a great job marketing the product and in turn was able to bring more colours in from overseas (middle east). They are both 99% non pourous (unlike granite) and are now used in the majority of commercial kitchens/restaraunts (McDonalds etc). It is manufactured through a stone mason and normally comes with a weeks lead time from templating once your kitchen goes in. You see a slight join and it's best to use a kitchen company who mitres their edges rather than sandwiches. What I mean by this is that the thickes the product comes in is 20mm - 30mm. If you are getting tops that are over 30mm the edges need to be made thicker. Some companies take the easy option of sandwiching two 30mm to make 60mm, will others mitre the front edge. The mitre looks a million dollars better when done right. Again undermount or drop in sinks can be used. I personally prefer Caesarstone over Corian (just my opinion) Hope this helps With 25 years kitchen experience and a passion for what I do, I have joined this forum to offer advice or at least my opinion on all things relevant to kitchens. I was a cabinetmaker by trade and am now a senior manager of a kitchen company. Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 9Oct 08, 2009 4:22 pm thanks for the clarification guys! very informative . i think we'll go for the quartz based benchtops for our new kitchen 12 March 2010 - Land titles received 3 April 2010 - Signed building contract 14 April 2010 - Prestart 28 April 2010 - Loan approved 30 June 2010 - Slab completed 27 August 2010 - Brickwork completed 22 September 2010 - Roofing completed 30 September 2010 - Internal walls plastered 12 October 2010 - Lock Up 19 November 2010 - PCI 26 November 2010 - Handover 29 December 2010 - Moved In https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32584 Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 10Oct 08, 2009 8:56 pm I saw the Corian in person and its awful (very sorry to anyone who has it, this is just my opinion ) We chose Essa as from what I saw (and I looked around ALOT) Essa stone seemed slightly glossier than caesarstone (but CS has a wider colour selection) There is also Smartstone http://www.smartstone.com.au/, Silestone http://www.parbury.com.au/silestone/silestone.asp, Stone Italiana http://www.stoneitaliana.com.au/home and probably a heap more out there but these were the ones we looked at. Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 11Oct 09, 2009 2:21 am EKT I saw the Corian in person and its awful (very sorry to anyone who has it, this is just my opinion ) We chose Essa as from what I saw (and I looked around ALOT) Essa stone seemed slightly glossier than caesarstone (but CS has a wider colour selection) There is also Smartstone http://www.smartstone.com.au/, Silestone http://www.parbury.com.au/silestone/silestone.asp, Stone Italiana http://www.stoneitaliana.com.au/home and probably a heap more out there but these were the ones we looked at. How much did it come to for it installed? I'm in WA as well, and we are building in harrisdale next year once the titles come in. We are trying to work out what to put on our kitchen benchtops. Pre-start is on monday :O Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 12Oct 09, 2009 10:48 am Hi, EKT what was so awful about the Corian? We will be having Corian in our kitchen as that was the standard ($15k extra if we wanted to change to essa stone!!!) I thought Corian looked ok, warm to the touch, but looks wise I think is very smart. We are having waterfall edges, and I believe Corian is one of the best products if you want the seamless look. Just curious as to why you thought it was "awful". Thanks. Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 13Oct 09, 2009 10:56 am We've gone with essa stone as that is what our builders offer as they are part of the company that includes laminex and formica. We will have a join line on our island bench as it is longer than the sheets they come in. My sister just renovated a house and has corian, only because there are two load bearing poles coming out of the island bench, so the corian was more suitable, as they constructed it on site and there is no join lines from where they've joined it around the poles and straight down the middle. I think it looks fine, but it does scratch really easy, but they have a lighter colour, and it's not too noticable unless you look really really closely. jaelee Hi, EKT what was so awful about the Corian? We will be having Corian in our kitchen as that was the standard ($15k extra if we wanted to change to essa stone!!!) I thought Corian looked ok, warm to the touch, but looks wise I think is very smart. We are having waterfall edges, and I believe Corian is one of the best products if you want the seamless look. Just curious as to why you thought it was "awful". Thanks. Wow, that's a huge difference to pay between corian and essa stone. How big is your kitchen?? It cost us 8k to upgrade from laminate to essa stone and we have an island bench that is 4.5 metres long, and a another bench where the oven is. Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 14Oct 09, 2009 11:26 am we have a 3m island bench + 3m cooktop bench. spoke to the builder yesterday and they said that essa or caesar will cost at least $5-8k more than corian for our kitchen. was thinking about it last night, and maybe we might go with corian since we can then add waterfalls (which we really really like) with the money saved. but im still abit worried about what others have said about corian scratching easily... hey deeps...we're building in harrisdale as well....vertu estate. which part of harrisdale are you in? our titles due in jan/feb 2010. 12 March 2010 - Land titles received 3 April 2010 - Signed building contract 14 April 2010 - Prestart 28 April 2010 - Loan approved 30 June 2010 - Slab completed 27 August 2010 - Brickwork completed 22 September 2010 - Roofing completed 30 September 2010 - Internal walls plastered 12 October 2010 - Lock Up 19 November 2010 - PCI 26 November 2010 - Handover 29 December 2010 - Moved In https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32584 Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 15Oct 09, 2009 11:59 am aLLaNNa1 we have a 3m island bench + 3m cooktop bench. spoke to the builder yesterday and they said that essa or caesar will cost at least $5-8k more than corian for our kitchen. was thinking about it last night, and maybe we might go with corian since we can then add waterfalls (which we really really like) with the money saved. but im still abit worried about what others have said about corian scratching easily... hey deeps...we're building in harrisdale as well....vertu estate. which part of harrisdale are you in? our titles due in jan/feb 2010. We are in vertu estate as well, and expecting our titles in early jan/feb too! We have a 3.6 x 0.9m island as well as a 4.6 x 0.7m cooktop with a 2.1 x 0.5 coffee bar. The best quote I've got so far is about 5.5k for caesarstone (without waterfalls) Might have to stick with laminex as we are already at the ends of our budget Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 16Oct 09, 2009 12:41 pm deeps We are in vertu estate as well, and expecting our titles in early jan/feb too! We have a 3.6 x 0.9m island as well as a 4.6 x 0.7m cooktop with a 2.1 x 0.5 coffee bar. The best quote I've got so far is about 5.5k for caesarstone (without waterfalls) Might have to stick with laminex as we are already at the ends of our budget That's a pretty good price actually for so much benchtops. Was this quoted by the builder or an separate kitchen installer? if your titles are due about the same time, that means we should be pretty closeby then...we're on kudos circuit 12 March 2010 - Land titles received 3 April 2010 - Signed building contract 14 April 2010 - Prestart 28 April 2010 - Loan approved 30 June 2010 - Slab completed 27 August 2010 - Brickwork completed 22 September 2010 - Roofing completed 30 September 2010 - Internal walls plastered 12 October 2010 - Lock Up 19 November 2010 - PCI 26 November 2010 - Handover 29 December 2010 - Moved In https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32584 Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 17Oct 09, 2009 12:49 pm We're just off kudos circuit, foundry turn or lane or something The quote was by a stonemason. Novus Marble and Granite The other quotes I received were above $6300. So far that's the cheapest i've got Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 18Oct 09, 2009 1:21 pm If you're sticking with Laminex, perhaps you can consider their Diamond Gloss benchtop range....they look like stone but still very affordable Some members in the other thread have given good comments on its looks and durability. I'll certainly be considering these as well.... 12 March 2010 - Land titles received 3 April 2010 - Signed building contract 14 April 2010 - Prestart 28 April 2010 - Loan approved 30 June 2010 - Slab completed 27 August 2010 - Brickwork completed 22 September 2010 - Roofing completed 30 September 2010 - Internal walls plastered 12 October 2010 - Lock Up 19 November 2010 - PCI 26 November 2010 - Handover 29 December 2010 - Moved In https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32584 Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 19Oct 09, 2009 2:25 pm I think our builder just plucked the $15k out of the air, like they did with other upgrade costs ... they weren't really interested .. I think they have a good deal with corian and that's pretty much who they want to use. We have corian in our ensuite too, that was included in the price. I didn't think the corian looked bad at all, just felt warmer to touch than essa/caesar stone. We have chosen a light colour with some flecks through it (Whisper) and a full waterfall side with a smaller waterfall side aswell, so the seamless look was quite an advantage for our particular design. We have a lot of bench space in our kitchen, with an e nook aswell, but the $15k was ridiculous for the "upgrade" (especially as we believed corian was actually more than essa/caesar). We are just about at lock up, but when the kitchen starts I will post some photos, as I notice corian does get a bad wrap on this forum and I hope I will be a positive customer with a positive review on it. Thought I would post the display home bathroom with the corian (this is very similiar to what we have chosen) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Corian vs Essa vs Caesar 20Oct 09, 2009 2:36 pm jaelee I think our builder just plucked the $15k out of the air, like they did with other upgrade costs ... they weren't really interested .. I think they have a good deal with corian and that's pretty much who they want to use. We have corian in our ensuite too, that was included in the price. I didn't think the corian looked bad at all, just felt warmer to touch than essa/caesar stone. We have chosen a light colour with some flecks through it (Whisper) and a full waterfall side with a smaller waterfall side aswell, so the seamless look was quite an advantage for our particular design. We have a lot of bench space in our kitchen, with an e nook aswell, but the $15k was ridiculous for the "upgrade" (especially as we believed corian was actually more than essa/caesar). We are just about at lock up, but when the kitchen starts I will post some photos, as I notice corian does get a bad wrap on this forum and I hope I will be a positive customer with a positive review on it. Thought I would post the display home bathroom with the corian (this is very similiar to what we have chosen) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Great pic, can we get one that is closer up? I like that colour and need to convice the wife! Thankyou for your advice. We do have Caesar coming out and hopefully resolve the issue for us. 4 18730 |