Wooden Worktops

A wooden worktop from Mountain Hardwoods is simply not like a mass produced worktop from a discount retailer.  Wooden worktops may all sound the same on paper, but only in the same way Bentley and a Kia are both cars with 4 wheels.  What makes choosing a wooden worktop difficult however, is that the difference in build quality may not be as striking as the car analogy, but it exists none the less.  Further complicating this are the retailers who are selling a Kia quality wooden worktop for a Bentley price.  Everyone would like to buy a Bentley for the price of a Kia, but logic tells us that’s simply impractical.  So it is with wooden worktops, although there is one very important difference in the structure of the market place; there are plenty of retailers selling low grades of wooden worktop for a high price, because the market doesn’t truly understand the product.  Often, a good deal of the price is absorbed by the distribution chain – the number of hands it passes through on the way to you the customer.  The fact of the matter is, a wooden worktop manufacturer has two choices – price or quality.  They can’t do both, just as Bentley and Kia know.

So how does that leave a wooden worktop from Mountain Hardwoods.  Well, first of all, we buy direct from the manufacturer.  The manufacturer we have chosen makes the finest wooden worktops in the world.  We had a choice – in fact we have travelled all over the world looking for suppliers of wooden worktops and architectural timbers, and we chose them.  They are more expensive than most other suppliers, but that is to be expected - they are one of only two wooden worktop suppliers who have chosen quality first, not price.  The amazing thing is that for the difference in quality, the actual relative extra cost is really very small.  The problem for the other manufacturers and suppliers is just that once you compete only on price, then the downward spiral starts.  Other manufacturers with no imagination do the same – it then becomes an arms race to see who can make the cheapest worktop.  Cheaper timbers, cheaper glue, cheaper process – miss a few quality control steps…… before you know it it’s a collapse of society as we know it…   Next thing that will happen is that banks will go out business lending to companies making poor quality products……...  This may all be a bit tongue in check – thanks for sticking with it – but in a way, it’s one of those stories from down the pub that has more than an element of truth to it.  Before you know it, someone will come up with environmentally friendly and sustainable African Hardwoods.  That’ll be the day.

Buying a wooden worktop on price is a dangerous and ultimately disappointing way to finish a kitchen, especially since a good wooden worktop makes a kitchen look great.