My kids have a granite bathroom. Trust me, there is not much cleaning going on in there. Nail polish, nail polish remover, toothpaste, assorted goo...it sits for weeks. When they get around to cleaning up, it cleans up purty. Nary a chip have developed in 3 years. Now, they don't have iron stools, but they do occasionally slam curling irons down when angry or stand on the counter to replace light bulbs.

Does anyone have the chiseled edge on their counters? How are they for cleanup? Can you get the grime from the rough surface?

bump...

How attached are you to the iron swivel stools? Kids + iron swivel stool = chipped counters no matter what material you choose.

We installed Zodiaq in our guest bath for the reason that we are not around to monitor what lotions and potions get used in that room. If I had it to do over again, I'd choose a nice lively granite and take my chances with any damage that might occur. Granite is just so much more interesting to look at.

I have modified the swivels on the stool so they have some resistance but if I need to I can screw into the base to stop the swivel. We do love the stools though.

We do love the look of some of the granite we have seen. We are just concerned about the staining with the kids.

I don't think that you will have a problem with staining at this age only because since they are so young you will be on top of them more and most likely are going to clean up the mess as it happens. When they become teens that's another story. I have 2 boys 13 and 16. When I get home from work there is always something fermenting on the counter. I have come home to grape juice, chocolate syrup,jelly and protein shake just to name a few. This is the reason we have the very unpopular Corian which cost us more than the low end granite we liked.

I had iron swivel stools with granite (and 3 kids) in my last house and never had a single problem. It was a very dark granite that was truly bulletproof, and my kids did all sorts of craft projects and just plain hung out there most of the time. No chips or stains. At the time they ranged from 8-12 yrs. and were teens by the time we moved. Good luck.

iamnodiy/jshore,
We try and keep on top of the messes, but sometimes you just get pulled away or don't know they are there. That is where our concern for staining has come in. On the existing flormica we may get the occasional popsicle or juice stain which will eventually come out with bleached comet but we can't count on that with granite. I am encouraged by jshore's comments though. I guess I will have to realy pay attention the density of the granite we choose if we go that way.

I've got white quartz and it seems pretty kidproof so far. I also have an overhang of 30" along one wall with no cabinet under it, and while I do have one leg under it, they did say that it's strong enough that I wouldn't need it.