Has anyone used quartz for a counter top?........

Mark Rios

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Central CA
My current kitchen remodel job is, of course, getting a new countertop. The owners chose to go with Costco's countertop program and they decided to go with quartz for the countertop material. They were shown (I was also present at the time) quartz, marble, granite and a solid surface material similar to Corian. The quartz gave them a top that they liked at a fair price, 21 linear feet of counter including a full height backsplash that wraps a window for roughly $4200.

Has anyone used quartz before? It's a material that I've never had installed in a house that I've done anywork for so I'm unfamiliar with it. I understand that it is a manufactured stone product as opposed to a natural stone like marble or granite, hence the lower cost. Is there any special things I should look/watch out for when they do the install? Anything different than with any other solid countertop?

Anyone?...Anyone?....


Thanks very much.
 
You're welcome Ken,

We're going to put in a new counter top, but going with granite..because we are considering selling our house and moving. Granite is the "thing" to have in the house market now, so we have to bite the bullet. We should get our money back, though. If we were going to stay, I'd probably go with another stone or Corian for less maintance (sealing, stains..etc.).

Greg
 
Mark, we have Silestone on our counter tops in the kitchen. IIRC, it is made in Spain and is an excellent product, better than granite.:)

It is difficult to work with. We had to physically give the under-counter sink to the local company to fit it to the slab. They are very particular about fitting. The main problem seems to be the rounding and polishing of edges and sink openings.

IF the other quartz products are like Silestone, you will have to have have the counter tops made and fitted by the selling company.

My two cents.
 
Thanks for the replies and I have to apologize if I wasn't clear enough.

I'm not doing ANYTHING that has to do with the install of the countertops. I only, of course, need to know how they want the cabs left for them to do the install. They say that they don't want any plywood on top as they have their own material that they use for support. I'm just to leave the cabs bare on top.

I was just wondering if ayone had had quartz tops installed and how it came out with regards to the seams, edges and so forth. And maybe how it had held up if you have had it installed for a while. The owneers wantd a stone/granite look but didn't like the extra $1000 or so for the granite so they settled on the quartz.
 
Mark, like Ken, We installed Silestone, which is a quartz product. Quartz is reputed to be more maintenance free than granite, as strong, less likely to crack due to grain in the product, and 93% solid material. You can clean Silestone with acetone! It does not require an underlayment, however you will find that the installers will reinforce the cabs at any joints. I watched the installers and it looked to me that the only problems they had was making the joints tight and hitting any window openings. The sink opening was cut and polished at the fabricators. Color matching to fill the slight gap at the joint can be tricky and getting the joint matched up vertically is often a task. We used tile for a back splash and had more trouble with the tile setters than the counter top installers, who were pretty good in my estimation.
 
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