Edinburgh is an awkward city to fit a worktop in, and that is not a complaint. It is the reason the job is worth doing properly.
A Georgian flat in the New Town, a Victorian tenement in Bruntsfield, a stone-built cottage out past Colinton: these are rooms with character, and character usually means walls that have moved half an inch in two hundred years, chimney breasts that are not plumb, and corners that are not ninety degrees. A worktop cut to the dimensions on a plan will not fit any of them.
Go4Marble has been working with stone for over twenty years. We are a family-run business with a workshop in Whitburn, West Lothian, and we template, fabricate and install across Edinburgh and the Lothians. Every job is measured on site and cut by our own stonemasons in our own workshop.
What you are buying with granite
Granite is natural stone, formed deep underground and quarried in blocks, then cut and polished into slabs. It is one of the hardest materials you can put on a kitchen, and it is genuinely resistant to scratching and to heat.
The thing to understand before you choose it is that no two slabs are the same. Your worktop is a specific piece of stone, with its own grain, its own flecks and its own movement. That is the appeal for most people who choose granite. It also means the sample in the showroom is a guide rather than a promise.
Granite wants sealing periodically to keep it working at its best. It is not a difficult material to own, but it is a natural one, and it behaves like a natural one.
There is more detail on our granite kitchen worktops page.
Fitting stone into a period Edinburgh kitchen
The measurements are where period properties punish you, so this is worth dwelling on.
In a modern kitchen, the units go in, the walls are broadly true, and the worktop can be cut from the plan. In an Edinburgh flat, you can have a wall that runs out by 20mm over the length of a single run, a window recess that is shallower at one end than the other, and a press or cupboard that is not square to anything.
If a worktop is cut before those realities are measured, the result is a visible gap at one end, a filler strip that was not in the design, or a scribe that someone has to hide with sealant. It looks nearly right, which is the worst outcome, because you will notice it every day.
We template on site, once your units are fitted and the true dimensions actually exist. That is the point at which we can account for the wall, the recess and the corner properly, and it is the difference between a worktop that looks built for the room and one that looks dropped into it.
The full sequence, from first quote to finished installation, is on our how we work page.
Granite, quartz or marble in an older kitchen
Which surface suits an Edinburgh kitchen depends on the room as much as on your taste.
Granite works well in period kitchens because the stone has depth to it, and it holds its own against original cornicing, shutters and a fireplace without looking like a modern insert. It is also the most forgiving of the three if the kitchen is used hard.
Quartz is the easier material to live with. It is consistent, needs no sealing, and comes in a very wide range of colours, which helps when you are trying to match a kitchen to original features you cannot change. If you want a pale, uniform surface with no variation between the island and the run, quartz does that and granite will not. See our quartz worktops page, and the Silestone range if you want the brand end of the market.
Marble is the most striking and the most fragile. It is softer than granite and it reacts to acids, so a lemon or a glass of wine left on it will leave a mark. In an Edinburgh townhouse, marble is at its best on a bathroom vanity, a fireplace surround, or a piece of the kitchen that is looked at rather than worked on. The marble range is where to browse it.
We sell all three, so we will give you the same advice whichever way you lean: tell us how the room is actually used, and we will tell you which material will still look good in ten years.
Edges, thickness and the details people notice
Two choices make more difference to how a granite worktop looks than most people expect: thickness and edge profile.
Granite is normally supplied in 20mm or 30mm slabs. A 20mm top with a mitred edge is built up at the front so it reads as a much thicker piece of stone, which is a common way to get the solid look without the weight of a full 30mm slab across every run. On an island, the thickness is part of the design. On a galley run in a tenement, it barely registers and the money is better spent elsewhere in the kitchen.
The edge profile is the part you touch every day. A square edge is the simplest and suits a contemporary kitchen. A chamfer takes the sharpness off without changing the silhouette. A bullnose is fully rounded and softer under the hand and along the forearm, which people notice on a breakfast bar. An ogee is decorative, and it is the one place where a modern profile can look wrong against original period features. Mitred and laminated edges are how a thinner slab is made to look thicker.
You will also need to decide about upstands and a splashback. Upstands are the short strip running up the wall at the back of the worktop. A full splashback is the panel behind the hob or along the wall. Both are cut from the same stone, which helps the kitchen read as one continuous surface rather than a worktop with something else stuck above it.
Living with granite
Granite is close to self-sufficient, but not quite.
It wants sealing every so often, because it is a natural stone with pores, and the seal is what stops spills soaking in and leaving a shadow. How often depends on the stone and how hard the kitchen is used, and we will tell you what your particular slab needs.
Day to day, warm soapy water and a cloth handle almost everything. The things worth wiping up promptly are the ones that would mark any natural stone: wine, vinegar, lemon juice, oil. That is about not leaving them sitting, not about panicking every time a glass tips over.
It is worth avoiding abrasive cleaners and anything heavily acidic on granite, because both will dull the polish over time and the polish is most of what you paid for. And we would say the same here as everywhere else: a pan straight off the hob belongs on a trivet, not on the stone. Granite handles heat better than most surfaces, but a sudden temperature change can crack any stone, and a crack is not something you can polish out.
Choosing the stone
Bring photographs of the room, or come to the factory showroom in Whitburn and look at the ranges in person. Stone behaves differently under different light, and Edinburgh light changes through the year more than most places. A surface that looks warm in a showroom under spotlights can look grey under a north-facing sash window in January.
Bringing a sample home before you commit is worth the trip.
The 25 year guarantee
Every worktop we supply is covered by a 25 year guarantee, and if a product develops a fault we fix it free of charge. You can see completed work on our our works page.
Questions people ask us in Edinburgh
Will granite work in a flat, or is it too heavy?
Granite is heavy, and in an upper-floor flat that is worth thinking about. It is usually manageable because the weight is spread across the units, but it is a sensible thing to raise with us early rather than late, especially if there is a tight turn on a stair.
Can you match an existing worktop?
If your existing surface is stone and you can identify it, we can look at what is available. If it is a granite, matching exactly is unlikely, because your piece came from a specific block. We will tell you honestly what is and is not achievable.
Do I need to remove the old worktop first?
We will talk you through it when we quote, because it depends on your units and how the existing surface was fitted.
How long does fitting take?
We would rather give you a realistic answer for your specific kitchen than quote a number that does not apply. Ask us when we come out to quote.
How do I get a price?
Call 0150 174 2360, or send your details through the contact page.
Get a quote for your Edinburgh kitchen
We are open Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm, and Saturdays by appointment if you would rather come to the showroom at the weekend.
Phone 0150 174 2360, or send us your kitchen plans and photographs. Twenty years of fitting stone into Scottish homes means we have seen most of the awkward corners Edinburgh can produce, and we will tell you plainly what your kitchen will need.