Quartz worktops : Blends in with design

Quartz worktops are fashion. Quartz worktops are currently taking over the kitchen design, granite worktops are loosing this battle. Why are quartz worktops a current trend?

Quartz worktops are made of engineered stone, aprox. 90-93% natural quartz and 7-10% polyester resin. It looks and feels like natural stone, just as heavy as granite, and it comes in several colours and finishes.

Quartz countertops have conquered the kitchen design industry, it's unique characteristics as colour, surface finish and thickness make them an important part in innovative kitchen designing.

When you use marble, which I don't advise for several reasons (pls check my blog for more information regarding this issue), you can actually get a wide variation in colours. However the product may not maintain its initial beauty due to day to day usage. Granite is the most common stone used in kitchen counters, however granite has a very limited option when it comes to design, you can get a pure black granite with some quality, but most other colours are not as pure as designers would like them to be.

Quartz worktops are made of composite stone, although the fabricators and salesmen describe it as indestructible, truth is it can be damaged if not used correctly. Some fabricators to surpass the composite stone issue use strong marketing techniques, being the 10 year warranty the most effective one.

1. Don't use your quartz worktop as a support to your cooking pots, never, but never put o hot pot or pan on a quartz stone, it may damage it permanently;
2. Be careful when you use glass on the quartz worktop, as glass can scratch it, you'd have to make some friction between the glass and the quartz, an uneven bottom of a bottle can mark it. Darker colours are more effected by this than lighter colours.
3. Make sure no cracks are visible on your quartz worktop, sometimes due to bad manufacturing practices you can find small cracks normally on the cut-out edges. With time, these cracks will increase and may cause you a big problem.
4. Water absorption, they say it's zero, in reality it's near zero, so clean after the spill or you may see a stain