Granite outdoor kitchen: finishes, colours and care

Granite is an igneous rock: its crystals of quartz, feldspar and mica lock together into a dense mass that absorbs almost no water. Sun does not fade it, because it contains no resins or pigments: the colour is the colour of the minerals. Frost does not split it, because water finds no pores to enter and expand in. Rain runs off without leaving marks. And unlike marble, which is calcium carbonate, granite does not react to the acids of the table: lemon, wine, vinegar and tomato leave it untouched, and hot oil or grease from the grill wipes off with water and a neutral cleaner. A pan straight from the fire can be set down on the worktop. Its limit is aesthetic, not technical: granite has a crystalline grain rather than the cloudy veining of marble.

On the same slab the finish changes the colour, the grip under your fingers and how easily it cleans.

• Flamed: a flame passes over the surface and bursts the crystals, leaving a rough, matt skin a shade paler than the polished colour. It is slip-resistant even when wet: we recommend it around the sink, on steps and around the pool. On the worktop it is paired with a light brushing, which softens the roughness without losing the grip.
• Bush-hammered: a pointed hammer beats the stone down to a fine or coarse grain, like rock worked by hand. It gives body to sides and plinths; on the worktop it holds on to crumbs.
• Honed: smooth but matt, velvety, with no reflections. The most balanced choice for an outdoor worktop: one pass of a sponge cleans it, it does not dazzle in the sun and it does not show dried water marks.
• Polished: granite holds a polish outdoors far better than marble, and absolute black becomes a mirror of the sky. It does, however, reflect the midday light and gets hot in the sun.

The typical worktop thickness is 2 or 3 centimetres; the edge is finished by hand, with a chamfer or a bullnose, and a drip groove is cut beneath the overhang so that water cannot run back onto the sides.

The blacks, such as absolute black, are the most requested for islands: deep, even, elegant with steel and treated timber. The greys are the most discreet in sunlight and hide dust and limescale best. The whites and beiges, such as Bianco Sardo with its dark flecks of mica, stay cool to the touch even in high summer. Then there are the reds and pinks, for a worktop that speaks to terracotta. The darker the colour, the hotter the top becomes: on a south-facing terrace a pale granite, or a pergola, is the wiser choice. Colour is judged in person, on the whole slab.

Granite tolerates a hot pan, but it is not made to sit against a live flame. That is why the granite worktop crowns a structure of refractory stone, the same material as a bread oven: the combustion chamber, the housing of the wood-fired barbecue and the vault of the oven are refractory, and the granite stops where the fire begins. A gas or charcoal barbecue (BeefEater, Bull, the Fogher modules, the Cabinex series) is set into the worktop through an opening cut on the numerically controlled saw, with rounded corners to avoid stress points and the air gap the manufacturer specifies around heat sources. A steel hood carries the smoke away; the landing areas on either side of the fire, in flamed or honed granite, take a scorching tray without a mark.

The sink may be a stainless-steel bowl fitted beneath the worktop, with the granite edge polished and left exposed, or a basin carved into the stone itself, as in our solid-stone islands. Near the sea AISI 316 steel is the wise choice, as it withstands salt air. The waste has a trap and a drain-down tap for winter; the worktop is laid with an imperceptible fall away from the house, so that rain does not stand on it. The fridge must be an outdoor model, with its housing ventilated from below and behind: the granite must never block that airflow.

• Spring: wash with warm water and a neutral cleaner, never acids or aggressive descalers; check the flexible joints between slabs and, if you wish, renew the water- and oil-repellent treatment, which on granite mainly serves to make grease easier to clean off.
• Summer: a wipe with a sponge after each barbecue; grill grease comes away best while still warm, before dust settles on it. Polished black is dried with a cloth to avoid limescale marks.
• Autumn: leaves and soil are swept off flamed finishes with soft bristles; the grill is cleaned cold.
• Winter: drain the water system, cover the fire zone and leave the granite uncovered: frost cannot harm it.

Quartzite is harder than granite and carries the veining of precious marbles, but it must be checked on a sample: some stones sold under that name are in fact marbles, sensitive to acids. Sintered stone (Dekton, Laminam) has no pores, weighs little in 1.2 or 2 centimetre slabs and is the best suited to terraces with limited load capacity; its edge is the delicate point. Granite sits between the two: real stone, solid blocks possible, considerable weight, and among the simplest to care for.

We have worked stone in Aprilia, on the Via Pontina between Rome and Latina, since 1976, and granite asks for three particular cares. At the site survey, free of charge in Rome, Latina and throughout Lazio, we look first at the base: granite is heavy, and a solid-stone island needs a footing that will not settle. The slab is chosen in the workshop against a finished sample, because the same granite flamed, honed or polished looks like three different stones, and the 3D design shows it in the finish you have chosen. The openings for barbecue, sink and fridge are cut on numerically controlled machines to the appliance drawings, the edges and the drip groove by hand; the worktop arrives in your garden ready to go down, and our own team installs it throughout Italy, and abroad on a project basis, as in Dubai. Lead times are set out with the quotation.

This page is a chapter of our main page on outdoor kitchens in marble and stone, with the layouts, the catalogue models and our design visions. For the structure around the fire, read barbecues and kitchens in refractory stone; for the full comparison of stones, the guide outdoor kitchen: which stone to choose; to see flaming and bush-hammering up close, the finishes page. The granites in our collection are among the natural stones; if your kitchen will stand beside the water, the stone-clad pools page is worth a look too.