Transcript:
What is Quartz? What is Natural Stone? Hi, I’m Jeanine with Lamont Bros, and today’s video is going to be about walking you through the differences between engineered quartz and natural stones like granite and marble.
What is Engineered Quartz?
Engineered quartz is quartz crystal, just like shklovsky. We take that crystal, we grind it up into a fine powder, put a little bit of pigment, color, and resin, glue, and make a slab with a very deliberate design and color, which is what makes this a very popular choice right now, because you can’t get natural stone that looks this clean and simple.
What is Natural Stone?
Natural stone. I have two great examples here. This is granite, which, as you can see, is very busy. And this is quartzite, not to be mistaken for the engineered type. Quartzite is pure quartz crystal, but in the slab form taken from a mine, they literally slice the side of the mountain and then polish it, seal it and deliver it while the engineered stuff still a natural material is actually made into a delivered slab.
Differences Between Quartz and Natural Stone
Now, let’s talk about some of the differences between the two.
Porosity
The key differentiator between natural stone and engineered quartz is the porosity. So, what is it to be porous? To be porous means that it’s kind of crumbly on the inside, like angel cake, right? You cut it, it crumbles.
Where engineered quartz is more like cheesecake. It slices nice and creamy. And the reason is that this is very densely compressed and there is no air pockets in it where granite or natural stone has lots of different air pockets, minerals and little pits and fissures.
Because of that, it needs to be sealed. It off-gases radon, where this doesn’t have any.
Design Preferences
One of the other really important details between these two materials is design. Many people note that engineered Quartz is more popular today. And the reason for that is that people want a more simple design, which you can pretty much only get a consistent, simple design with engineered quartz.
I mean, that’s the whole reason that they made it. When you’re looking at natural stones like Granite and Quartzite, there’s no such thing as simple. It is busy, busy, busy. But it is beautiful but busy and it’s not consistent at all.
Slab Variety
So one of the things you need to know is that when you are buying these materials like natural stone, you want to go out and pick your actual slab because it is going to vary tremendously from one slab to another where engineered quartz is made in batches. So you’re more likely to get a very consistent color and pattern, but not a perfect match.
The Pricing
How are they priced differently? Well, to be honest, you can spend a lot or a little on either of these.
What Affects the Cost of Natural Stone?
Quartzite, being pure quartz, natural stone in a slab form is very expensive. Why? Because it looks simple.
It’s the only natural stone that you can find that looks simple. So as a general rule, if you’re looking at natural stones or what you think is granite and it’s very simple looking, it’s probably quartzite.
What Affects the Cost of Engineered Quartz?
Engineered quartz is often priced according to design, where granite and natural stone is priced according to where it’s mined, what the tariffs are and what is the look of it, how much radon does it have, and does it have a lifetime seal.
A lifetime seal really means more like 15 years. And sealing a material is actually not a big deal. It’s like putting a coat of clear polish on your nails. Generally, it will last a long time and it will keep out some of those nasty things that can seep into granite.
Unique Traits
What are some of the unique traits between quartz and natural stone?
Required Sealing
Well, engineered quartz never needs to be sealed. It’s anti-microbial. It’s almost impossible to stain, and it comes in very simple designs, whereas natural stone like granite absolutely needs to be sealed at least every 15 years. 100% heat resistant, which engineered quartz is not. We’ll talk a little bit more about that in a sec.
And also, natural stones do have little bits of pitting and fissures, which means they’re not perfectly smooth. So they are porous, meaning bacteria can seep in, stain can seep in. That’s the reason that we seal them. So when you put the two side by side, truly both are great choices for your home. Both will increase the equity and the value of your property.
Home Value
They both have a checklist on that appraisal, so it doesn’t really matter which of the two you choose. However, many people will choose quartz over granite because of the simplicity of the designs, while others will choose granite over quartz because of the heat resistance.
Heat Resistance
So final note on that. What is heat resistancy? Well, both are very good and practical for a kitchen, so you can put hot things down, but quartz can scorch a little bit from that tiny bit of glue that’s in there. So how much glue is in the countertop is important, but what is scorching?
It’s just when the heat gets activated, it activates the glue and then it causes a clear ring. And both materials can chip. Both materials can crack from thermal shock, which is extreme hot and cold. And we actually do have a video just on that, if you want to check that out on our YouTube channel.
I guess the only other thing I would say is if you really, really wanted the best of both worlds, maybe you should think about Dekton. We do actually have video on that and it is all about Dekton.