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Take a look at "luxury vinyl flooring".
I am a developer and builder, so I get samples and pitches on a large variety of new products. A few years ago, mostly for commercial projects at that time, a product called luxury vinyl flooring came out. It had an amazing warranty, was very thick, self healing, and came in many different styles. We had a nice custom home project where the client was allergic to carpet and didn't want the maintenance of hardwood and didn't want too much tile. We used a luxury vinyl that looked like wood. Nobody could tell it wasn't really wood, including our cleaning person that called about what product to use to clean the "wood floor". It had texture, and once down actually felt like wood. I ended up putting some of the leftover flooring on a gunsmith bench and a reloading bench. You can beat the stuff with a hammer and put a dent in it. Come back an hour later and it's self healed and you can't tell anything was ever done. It's an amazingly resilient product. We have since used it in quite a few projects, both residential and commercial. In fact, many large national chains now spec luxury vinyl flooring for their facilities because of the longevity and lack of maintenance required.
It's available as sheet goods (rolls) as various shaped squares/rectangles that go down like tiles, and as luxury vinyl planks. You can get colors and a wide variety of patterns. We had a parade home this year with a luxury vinyl plank flooring and nobody could believe it wasn't really wood.
I am building a new shop, including a stand for a new Esteem grinder, and several of the work benches will use luxury vinyl on the tops. Easy to install. If you do the tile type, or planks, if one ever did get completely ruined, it's easy to take one piece out and replace it. If you cut it with a sharp knife you won't ever be able to see it.
Might be worth a look. Everyone that I have recommended it to for different types of benches have been really happy with it. You can end up with a bench that looks like it has a really nice wood top if you like.
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