Quartz vs Granite

The team at Borchert Building recently participated in the Michigan Home and Garden show and had a booth set up to answer questions about remodeling and products in general. By far the most popular question for the whole weekend was " What's the difference between quartz and granite". Good question indeed!

Quartz vs Granite

So what is the difference between these two products and what are the advantages/disadvantage between the two?

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of igneous rock  formed from  magma. Granite forms when bits of quartz and feldspar are shot out of volcanoes.  The word "granite" comes from the Latin word "granum", a grain, because granite is made of lots of smaller bits of quartz and feldspar stuck together. It  comes in different colors, usually pink to gray or sometimes black. Granite's a very hard stone. It's hard because it formed as hot liquid stone, causing the molecules inside to be all jumbled up any which way, instead of lying in layers as in sedimentary rocks like limestone or slate. Often used for building, granite has become a very popular material for kitchen countertops over the years.

Quartz is an igneous rock made out of molecules of silicon and oxygen atoms held together in a crystal pattern. Located in the middle section of the earth's core, the silica went thru a melting process before cooling down and become quartz. There are many different kinds of quartz, depending on exactly how it cooled down. Some kinds have large crystals, and some have very small crystals. Small amounts of other materials that get into the stone can give it colors - quartz with a little iron in it is a pink color or a purple color called amethyst. Some kinds of quartz are nearly transparent. Quartz is an extremely hard mineral and considered a 7 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, Diamond being 10.


THE PROS AND CONS

 Stone or Not?
If your only concern is whether or not your counters are 100% stone, then granite is the choice. Granite can come in the engineered stone version, but quartz is always engineered. What does "engineered" mean?
Cambria manufacturer explains that 93% natural quartz aggregates are mixed with the remaining 7% of color pigments and polymer resins.

Cost?
Prices of quartz and granite countertops are continually shifting, depending on the availability of the source product. Not only that, costs vary according to manufacturer, installer, homeowner's location, and so on.
The moment you think you have a handle on the price of quartz and granite countertops, the price changes. However, at the moment of this writing, we can say generally that the prices of both range from $60-$100 per square foot installed.

Durability and Maintenance?
Natural, slab granite, for all its beauty, has flaws and imperfections that homeowners either love, accept, or hate. But engineered quartz  has the flaws engineered out. In this product, you will not find invisible striations just waiting to crack open some day, as you will find with slab granite. Additionally with quartz products there is no sealing or maintenance that needs to be done.

Cambria quartz countertop and snack table in coordinating colors