What would be your first choice for countertops?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am getting soapstone because i've always wanted it, but the designer is totally against it. He wants me to do marble-look quartz. This is the same quartz every flipped house gets and I am sick of looking at it.

You are right and your designer is wrong.

Quartz is awful.

[Anonymous]

Granite would be okay for countertops if you don't mind sealing them every year. But I would never do granite for multipurpose island. I hate the granite's icy coldness on my arms when working with laptop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In terms of current look -- any granite is out. Quartz is in. Soapstone is great but had durability issues.

This makes no sense. Both quartz and granite come in a huge array of colors/pattern - and not all granites need to be sealed. I wouldn't get hung up on what's 'in' but on what is more attractive/affordable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Granite would be okay for countertops if you don't mind sealing them every year. But I would never do granite for multipurpose island. I hate the granite's icy coldness on my arms when working with laptop.

We haven’t sealed our granite countertops (Baltic Brown) in the 20 years we’ve lived in our current house. It looks brand new. While it’s by no means fashionable right now, I’ve come to love it for its practicality. It’s nice to be able to put hot pans on it without worries. Plus it really is attractive in its own way—the patterns of the quartz and other minerals are cool to look at.

[Anonymous]

We have soapstone and marble. Everything’s a little banged up and I love it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In terms of current look -- any granite is out. Quartz is in. Soapstone is great but had durability issues.

You realize that there are a million different colors/slabs/looks to granite, right?

[Anonymous]

I have granite that no one ever believes is granite. Lots of slabs out there.

Quartz made to look like marble is very fake looking in my opinion.

Quartzite slabs were all too busy for me and the ones that were not were too soft.

[Anonymous]

I loved my leathered/antiqued granite. I've had it 5 years and it could maybe use another seal but no one needs to seal granite every year (or if they do it's some crazy soft granite).

[Anonymous]

We will likely redo our kitchen in the next year and I'll be going back to the same granite we had in our old house, trends be damned.

Love the durability, and ours basically looked like reverse marble (black with grey/white veins).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am getting soapstone because i've always wanted it, but the designer is totally against it. He wants me to do marble-look quartz. This is the same quartz every flipped house gets and I am sick of looking at it.

You are right and your designer is wrong.

Quartz is awful.

I like the look of soapstone. But my neighbor got it and a few years later it looked horrendous. I guess from water stains? I don't know if that's true of all soapstone.

[Anonymous]

OP here! For the quartzite posters, how do you know if a particular slab is soft or harder? We went to Gramaco in Maryland. The quartzite was all tagged as quartzite but there was no distinction that we saw between the slabs. The marble was all in a different section and differently tagged. Gosh the marble is beautiful, but I had to walk away from it for the kitchen!

The quartzite we selected is Blanco Superiore. It is from Brazil.

[Anonymous]

Super white is the kind that I recall was basically marble. We used Taj Mahal which is supposed to be one of the more “true” quartzites that is hard.

[Anonymous]

Hey OP. We recently did a custom home build... sounds like we have similar taste!

Kitchen: Bianco superiore quartzite from Gramaco (it's awesome--love it 6 months later)
Master bath/closet: Marble
Outdoor kitchen: Soapstone
Laundry room/basement kitchen: Quartz
Utility room: Granite (wet side); butcher block (dry side)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here! For the quartzite posters, how do you know if a particular slab is soft or harder? We went to Gramaco in Maryland. The quartzite was all tagged as quartzite but there was no distinction that we saw between the slabs. The marble was all in a different section and differently tagged. Gosh the marble is beautiful, but I had to walk away from it for the kitchen!

The quartzite we selected is Blanco Superiore. It is from Brazil.

I've been reading Houzz and quartzite can be a nightmare. It's all mislabeled and a lot of it is marble I think? Anyway, I would read the forums there because they suggest testing a piece of the quartzite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're going with quartzite! Natural stone but more durable than marble.

What would you choose and why?

Careful as lots of quartzite is not labeled correctly and is pretty soft and not much different than marble.

My house came with beautiful “quartzite”. Glad forward 7 years (even 6 months tbh) and it is disgusting. The color has darkened. All the oil from using the countertop just seeps in. It’s so gross. We haven’t been able to get anyone to even try to repair it… they all say it’s far too gone or it’s marble and unsalvagable. Ugh. Pretty pissed. Now perhaps this is all our fault for not correctly sealing it I don’t know.