Surprising Things About Quartz Countertops

 A few folks are savvy enough to purely understand that quartz countertops somehow differs from other natural stone countertops. Some go further and vaguely figure out quartz is a form of engineered stone primarily made from a mixture of ground-up stone particles and plastic resins. Ideally, quartz countertops are more atypical than you could imagine. Here are some surprising things you didn’t know about quartz countertops.

Quartz countertops are not solid quartz.

With no doubt, there is a quartz percentage present in most quartz countertops. But claiming that all quartz countertops are basically solid quartz is like claiming that all vehicles in a parking lot are Toyota. In fact, about 10% of the material mass in the quartz countertop is a cement-based binder or polymeric. While the other 90% is ground up waste natural stone, granite and marble, or recycled industrial waste like silica, ceramic, mirrors, glass, etc, And sometimes it might be actual quartz – a lot of it.

There’s only one source of quartz countertops

The technology behind making engineered stones was developed in 1963 by Breton company, Italy, and licensed it (the whole process) under trademark Bretonstone®. Breton kicked and thrived for more than 50 years later. Besides, over 50 companies across the world inclusive of famous names like Cambria, Silestone, and Caesarstone licensed Bretonstone technology. The process comprises mixing pulverized aggregate of natural stone with a blend of polymers, getting rid of the air, then heating along with shaping the resulting material into slabs that possess natural stone’s appearance and hardness.

Recently in the U.S. market, Cambria represents a large portion of quartz countertops. Moreover, the company – Cambria quartz countertops (owned by Davis family) – extends their customer service to making cheese. Even today, Davis family-owned businesses supply cheese to Kraft Foods.

Quartz countertops are green

All 90% of stone-like materials present in quartz countertops are waste by-products or residues of other quarrying processes. In fact, no natural stone is actually quarried for making quartz countertops. Even the 10% plastic resins in the countertops have become more natural nowadays and less synthetic.

You usually walk on quartz

Most property owners believe that quartz is present mainly in bathroom or kitchen counters. Literally, the majority of quartz is massively present in things such as shopping malls, Prada floors, and airport. Inventor Marcello Toncelli developed hand-poured slabs that were cut down and used as floor tiles.

Quartz and granite are no longer in competition

For many years, quartz played the natural stone game! It somehow gained a reputation as a more long-lasting, less porous as well as easily fabricated slab granite version. While most quartz materials that are granite-looking significantly ply in the market, quartz that appears like nothing else is a progressively popular segment. For instance, Caesarstone was not most consumers’ current-sufficient style category, but for now, it adopted the ultra-modern class, offering Blizzard, Crocodile, and Apple Martini.

More quartz implies reduced granite prices

Freedonia Group report claims that quartz countertops are dramatically taking over market share for granite. Most homeowners who chosen granite in the past years are upgrading with quartz. In other words, granite’s lesser demand has lowered its prices, making it more readily available. Want to know more about quartz countertops? Visit graniteselection.com to get more information about it.