Take Your Choice of Counter Toppings : Kitchens: Materials can range from granite to tile to wood, but each has drawbacks and the price range can be extreme.

No other surface in a house takes the kind of punishment kitchen countertops get. Not only do they have to withstand the torture of heat and cold, spills and scratches, chopping and pounding, but when the work is done, we expect them to look as if they’ve never even been used.

Even in their idle moments, kitchen counters earn their keep. More than any other component, they set the tone for the whole room, whether it’s the earthy, informal look of tile or the super-clean appearance of a continuous smooth surface.

Tile has long been a popular choice in Orange County, as it is all over the southwestern United States, says Steve Salazar, owner of Kitchens Del Mar in Corona del Mar. But it’s now being challenged by the toughest surface of all: granite.

“Granite is indestructible,” Salazar says. “It’s impervious to stains, to heat--you could start a fire on it. You can chop on it, slide things across it. It doesn’t matter. About the only way you could do a granite countertop any damage would be if something sharp and very heavy hit it on the edge. Then it might break.”

Because the stone must be polished to a high gloss to be properly sealed, granite still shines after a simple cleanup when the work is done.

Granite is also expensive, ranging from $75 to $150 a square foot, installed, depending on the stone itself, the time and effort necessary to fabricate it, and the individual conditions in a kitchen, such as the number and angle of corners and cutouts for sinks and stove tops, Salazar says.

The granite used for kitchens here may come from as far away as South America or the Mediterranean, he says, or it may be from domestic quarries. The most exotic-looking slabs, with intricately colored veins, are usually South American.

Some homeowners get closely involved in the process, not only choosing the individual slabs of granite they want for their kitchens, but even deciding where and how they want the stone to be sawed so that particular veins of color are highlighted, Salazar says.

Granite’s strength is also its weakness. It’s an unforgiving surface, which means there’s no room for mistakes or even fudging inaccurate measurements. “Whatever you do with granite, you can only do it once,” Salazar says. For that reason, it is not recommended for do-it-yourselfers.

Even with a professional installer, Salazar warns, it’s possible to spend as much as $10,000 and end up disappointed. “Before you hire someone to install granite countertops, demand to see an installation he’s done in somebody’s kitchen. Not a photo. You need to actually see it. You want someone who deals with an established granite fabricator and who has experience with the material.”

The choices in color and pattern of granite surfaces is limited only by nature itself, but it is limited. Not so with solid-surface synthetics such as Corian or Fountainhead, which has a stonelike appearance. Less expensive than granite at about $35 to $60 per square foot, installed, synthetics come in a wide selection of both solid colors and patterns. Whatever the choice, synthetics are exactly the same all the way through. That comes in handy if they get stained, burned or scratched, all of which can happen. If it does, the damage can usually be sanded off, leaving the countertop looking new again.

For homeowners who want a single smooth surface throughout the kitchen, solid-surface synthetics can be attached to sinks made of the same material. Or for a decorative touch, two or more colors or patterns can be combined without breaking the continuous surface.

Tile is where do-it-yourselfers get a chance to excel, although many homeowners still prefer to select the material and design and let someone else do the dirty work.

“There’s an infinite variety of things you can do with tile,” Salazar says. “You can combine colors, textures, sizes. You can add hand-painted or custom-made tile. You can get different looks with different colors of grout, and with different widths of grout.”

Tile can be as inexpensive as $5 a square foot, installed, or it can cost as much as $50 with custom-made tiles, Salazar says.

Tile is most popular for the Southwest or French look, although it can be used with many other styles as well.

But tile does have its drawbacks. “It’s not a flat, even surface, and that can be a problem,” Salazar says. “Also, the grout is very, very porous, which means it’s susceptible to stains.”

Then there’s the old standby from the ‘60s, the laminated countertop.

Laminates, such as Formica, are inexpensive--$5 to $10 a square foot, installed--and they come in “thousands” of colors and patterns, Salazar says. “It’s a very functional, scratch-resistant surface,” he says. “But it’s not very flexible. It can be bent, but only in one direction.”

Laminated tops can be dressed up with wood or tile trim to make them less drab.

Wood countertops, once all the rage, are no longer nearly as popular, Salazar says. “It’s a rich, natural look, but it burns, stains, scratches. It takes a lot of maintenance. And if you chop onions on a wood countertop, it’s going to smell like onions for a long time after that.”