Isn't cultured marble the synthetic stuff that's impervious to just about everything? If you really mean cultured marble then don't worry about it, at least if I'm thinking of the right thing.

Isn't cultured marble the synthetic stuff that's impervious to just about everything?

I have had cultured marble and it is definitely not impervious to everything. It can become stained by toiletries, and can also melt, and scratches easily. Perhaps some sort of honed quartz countertop like Zodiac or Caesarstone, or even Corian would be a better choice than cultured marble.

I didn't like the cultured marble at our old house. Tiny scratches and yes it will stain. Have you looked at cultured onyx? It's kinda of like corian. That's what we are putting in the kids bathrooms on this house. check out Onyxcollection.com But I ended up putting Zodiac quartz in master bath remodel of old house and loved, loved, LOVED IT!

I too am building a new home and struggled with choosing a counter top. I finally decided to go ahead and use the cultured marble in order to keep costs (and mortgage payment!) down and replace them as I decide what material to use in each bathroom. I used laminate in my laundry room for the same reason. I can shop remnants at the stone yards and pick up my counter tops much cheaper, and have plenty of time to choose them.

Well there ya go ... learned one more thing from this forum. For some reason I thought cultured marble was super heavy duty.

You've gotten some great other suggestions here. I will say that if you don't mind the look I think few things are more durable than laminate and the new laminates and new edge profiles for laminates create a much more solid-surface look.

Why were you choosing cultured marble for that bathroom? Just curious. If you are selecting either a granite slab or going prefab in the other bathrooms, it may be more cost effective to use the same granite.

If you are thinking you will update the kids' bath more quickly, I second laminate as a simple choice. The house I grew up in has laminate in all the baths and it is 42 years old and still looks ok, though too. (condition wise, if not trend wise)

I've had cultured marble for 25 years. Just replaced it in our master bathroom remodel, but it's still in the other two bathrooms and powder room. Looks fabulous.

If anybody could stain something, it would have been my four sons!

Not sure if they're making it differently now, but I can't imagine anything more durable. I never sealed it and have cleaned it all these years with plain old windex or a multipurpose cleaner.

25 year old bathroom counters.....(looks a lot better in there since I put a frame around the mirror, but I'm too lazy to take another picture!)

Thanks everyone, for your advice! I was going with the cultured marble for a couple of reasons. Cost. And I do like the look of the all-white. (And all white is more expensive than a color or a swirl...) Although I'm not sure how they compare (costwise) to other products. The estimates we got for the two vanities were about $250 for the 37" girl's bath and about $650 for the 72" boys' bath. I know I could do laminate for that, but I bet not a Corian/Zodiac/Caesarstone, right?

Yes, you can damage a cultured marble top but you never have to seal it like natural stone and, like gibsm said, it's pretty durable. I bought a custom top online at Depot's site. Here's the link: Customizer At the very least it's fun to get a feel for what options you have. Not completely accurate as far as dimensions go but cool nonetheless.

We refreshed our bathrooms in 2007 and have cultured marble on our main bath vanity. We liked the vanity but the top did not work for next to the wall. We used Lowe's. DH uses this sink every day, and it still looks like new. It is not all-white, there is supposed to be swirl, but you can't really see it. We clean it with Scrubbing Bubbles. No problems with stains at all.

I'm with gbsim. I don't especially like it, but real cultured marble (as opposed to plastic that looks like it) is pretty durable stuff. Several years ago I moved into a rental in hideous condition: paint peeling, bathroom was a disgrace from a pipe burst long ago, but the owners had put cultured marble in around the tub. It was just gross, but a good scrubbing and it came up shining like new, which I can't say for anything else in the bathroom.

The problem I've found with cultured marble is how to remove scratches. Any ideas? I've gone through 6 million forum posts and nobody has a good solution.