On Mar 24, 9:18 pm, "S. Barker" wrote:
Thanks Mike for a very informative reply.

steve

"mike" wrote in message

...
On Mar 24, 9:07 am, "S. Barker" wrote:



My wife is doing research of what is a better choice for a countertop in
our
soon to be remodeled kitchen. She can't seem to come up with unbiased
facts
on the internet. There is the Corian camp, the granite camp, and a quartz
camp. All seem to think what they bought, sell, or install is the best.
Here are some facts that should affect our decision.

#1. and probably foremost important. We are not yuppies and will not buy
something just because everyone else is
#2. We ACTUALLY use our kitchen and sometimes in a very haphazard way.
These activities include canning, cookie cutters, vegatable chopping, cast
iron cookware, and an absent minded wife occasionally setting hot pans on
the counter. (she told me to say that)
#3. We have 6 grandchildren that are in our house often.
#4. Just suffice to say the kitchen gets hard use in our family and we are
not afraid to USE it and get it dirty.

Any unbiased thoughts out there?

thanks

steve barker

Testing tends to rank quartz (like Silestone) contertops on top, and I
tend to agree.

Quartz does not stain. Test it yourself, as they let you take home
samples for free. Granite can stain especially if you leave a drop of
oil or peanut butter in spot unnoticed for a great length of time.
We've had a number of "help, my granite is stained" posts here. Once
granite is stained, there's not a lot you can do.

Quartz, like granite can take an accidently placed hot pan. Again,
test it yourself. You can build small matchstick fires or leave a
smoking hot cast iron pan on quartz with no damage. Both quartz and
granite have a slight possibility of cracking from thermal shock, but
it's not a big risk (but don't get in the habit of misplacing a 700
degree pan). Only a metal countertop will perform better here, but
metal scratches easily, and is spendy.

Quartz is very hard. It's like granite without granite's softer
components that make it porous and cause it to require periodic
sealing. Both will have great longevity against scratches.

Quartz has a higher bending strength for bigger overhangs, and quartz
has no microcracks or chips that might be a source for breakage either
during fab or use, like granite does. Quartz' lack of pores makes it
virtually impervious to molds, mildew, bacteria, fungus.

The only advantage granite has over quartz is natural grain flow
beauty, but then again, that can be a liability when trying to make
seams disappear.

Other random thoughts: Concrete is WAY too prone to cracks and chips
for countertop use. Marble is too prone to acids and stains. Tile
tops are cheap but a joke. Everyone I've known that had them loathed
them (grout, mildew, not smooth, hard to clean). No matter what
countertop you get, you have to use cutting boards to save your knives
from being dulled from hard materials and from possibly damaging
counters just from high force divided by small area of the knife
edge.

One test you may want to do that I never got around to is taking equal
sized samples of quartz and granite, and just bang them with a hammer
a few dozen times with increasing force to see what happens (with eye
protection, of course)

Anyway, don't take my word for it. Get samples of quartz and put it
thought the wringer. Right now, Silestone has the nicest looking
patterns, but then you're stuck with Home Despot and 100% payment in
full before work begins.




We remodeled our kitchen three years ago. The builder had installed
cabinets made of fiberboard. I had new tile put down on the floor,
counter top and back splash after we moved in. Many things to like
about tile. Unfortunately, the grout started leaking into the
fiberboard cabinets and they swelled up.....that was why we had the
remodel job. Now I have one half inch plywood cabinets - but the
counter top is laminate. I chose Wilsonart...it is a dark blue
speckled. I am careful - I have some left over tile which I use for
hot pans. The re-modeler was able to save the tile back splash so all
my tiles match. Laminates may be out of vogue but they cost less and
they don't leak.