Architectural Surfaces: All About Quartz
Architectural Surfaces: All About Quartz
Quartz, which is also known as engineered stone, is a man-made product composed primarily of quartz sand, quartz powder, resins and different pigments. Quartz in general has evolved a lot in the last few years. It's exciting to see what quartz is today and where it's headed into the future. The process for making quartz– we use an analogy in the industry it's very similar to baking a cake. You take the raw ingredients and mix them into a mold or a tray, they compress the product and then ultimately bake the product, and then once that comes out into a slab form, they also take it into a polishing. Then goes through a quality assurance to make sure that it meets industry standards. Quartz has come a long way. It used to be just plain whites and now the quartz manufacturers are able to basically mimic nature. Colors like the Luce Oro really give some depth to the product, which mimics the natural aesthetic and marble. They have come out with all types of new different patterns. This is actually called Unique Calcutta Blue. So we integrated the blue into the veining. Is it a thin vein, a wide vein? We've got all different types of levers we can pull to create a unique skew. Some of the stuff that you see up here, you couldn't achieve this look five years ago. In many cases, quartz was inspired by nature and now, in some cases, it's rivaling nature. Quartz is a wonderful option for those spaces where you may want a little less maintenance. For a family who is filled with children and has a rough and tumble type of lifestyle, you know, quartz is a wonderful product. It is stain resistant, scratch resistant. Quartz in general continues to increase in overall demand in the market year over year. Part of that is due to its ability to be consistent. Natural stone, while it's a wonderful product, each individual product is different, so it has to be hand-selected. A lot of times people are mixing them, they may do a natural stone island with a quartz surround, so the two products are able to intermix very well, especially with the changing and the development of new quartz colors. There are many different price points within our quartz lines, something in every aesthetic and every price point to fit every budget. Quartz has come a long way in the last five years and is taking market share, but between natural stone and quartz, you just have to pick what's right for your family and your project.
Advertisement
Architectural Surfaces: All About Quartz
Architectural Surfaces explains the origins and best uses for quartz countertops. Learn more.
Architectural Surfaces explains the origins and best uses for quartz countertops. Learn more.
Advertisement