If you have hired an interior designer to help you design and remodel your kitchen, there is a good chance the designer could recommend granite counter tops for your new kitchen. If you follow the designers recommendation, you will be extremely happy. Granite makes a room feel cozy, yet unique. An outstanding designer knows this, and will incorporate granite in the design to give you kitchen its own special personality.

Nothing compares to a granite kitchen counter top for durability and elegant appeal. The naturalness of granite makes it attractive in a very eye-catching way. Like all things in nature, each piece of granite is different. Nature never makes the same design twice. Structurally, it is a perfect choice for a kitchen because it exhibits:

Durability - Granite stone is extremely durable so it makes sense for an interior designer to incorporate it into the design of the kitchen. On a hardness scale, granite ranks as one of the hardest rocks and minerals. In fact, it is harder than the blade of a stainless steel knife.

* Ease of Maintenance - It is not only important to use beautiful building materials when designing a kitchen, but to insure that the materials can be maintained easily. Cleaning granite and maintaining its natural beauty is actually easier than cleaning some man-made materials. In fact, you do not even have to buy expensive cleaning sprays. You just wipe it with a damp sponge dipped in soapy water and dry it with a soft towel. Its natural luster is restored immediately!

* Health Aspects - As incredible as it sounds, granite counter tops in a kitchen helps your family stay healthy. Bacteria that might be on the counter top from raw meat, for example, will not be retained by granite because it is not porous. Other materials used for kitchen counter tops do not have this characteristic.

The Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management in Minnesota (a group that develops educational materials and conducts research for the food industry) measured how resistant six common counter tops were to bacteria. The six materials used for counter tops were contaminated with almost 2 billion E. Coli microorganisms, washed with soap and water, followed by a vinegar-and-water solution to sanitize. The study then measured the quantity of microorganisms eliminated from the surface after this cleaning process. The results were:

Stainless steel 85,113,804,Granite 79,432,823, Laminate 498,884,Ceramic Tile 293,765,Concrete 32,810,Wood 2,080

An expert interior designer will take the health benefits of counter top materials into account when designing kitchen counter tops since your food is prepared on these counter tops.

Granite benefits building contractors as well. Of course, when the job is done the building contractor will be pleased at the beauty of the job using granite, but the profit margin is another huge benefit for the building contractor when granite is used. The Factory Plaza gives discounts of 40% to 80% on granite, marble, and other stone building projects. No other retailer offers such steep discounts. As a result, contractors can make large profits on jobs using granite.

Not only does the client benefit from granite counter tops, but the interior designers and building contractors do as well. A smart interior designer or building contractor should recommend granite counter tops when remodeling a kitchen or bathroom.