Choosing a Countertop

One of the choices homeowners who are remodeling a kitchen or building a new home will have to make is the material to use for the kitchen countertops. Back in the old days (30 years ago) the choices were pretty much limited to ceramic tile or formica. But in the 1980s along came Corian and similar brands of resin made stone-like tops. Then came the rage to use natural granite slabs buffed to a mirror-like shine. Of late, a new product has come on line just to make your choice more complex.Engineered quartz offers the natural beauty of granite without all the drawbacks of natural stone. It is made from approximately 93-95 % natural quartz with the remaining 5-7% consisting of resin and pigments, Natural quartz is first ground to small particles of varying sizes, then mixed to specific color and blends and combined with the resins. The resulting mixture is then molded into slabs, and the slabs are then vibrated and compressed while a vacuum removes all air, all of which is designed to eliminate air pockets and create a hard and dense material. The slabs are then heat-cured, rolled to specific thicknesses and polished to a beautiful sheen.All of the above processing results in quartz counters that are very hard and very dense, are resistant to knife cuts, and do not require ongoing application of sealers to prevent the staining common to porous natural stone. These counters do not have fissures and cracks, and are also more heat resistant than natural stone .Engineered quartz is worth investigating if you are looking for a countertop that has the natural beauty of real stone.
Original post date February 26, 2007.