At Surface Studio we prefer natural stone to man made Quartz for countertops.

 

There must be a reason why man made Quartz surfaces do not sell in commercial applications like in restauration, and it runs counter to what that industry wants you to believe.

 

Quartz has limitations otherwise you would find it everywhere in the restaurant business. It is marketed and advertised like soap and detergent, easy to sell and demonstrate by an untrained staff. It has fixed price lists that no retailer will bulge from. Buying Quartz counter tops is like pumping gas and the places that sell it are not unlike gas stations. There is no remnant, sometimes borderline precious slightly blemished material that you can get for a song. There is no uniqueness in the material unlike with natural stone as it is made to specifications. Like Formica it will wear and tear, not take a patina and an antiquated look as it ages, looking worse and worse overtime. Time to get a refill, a new counter!

 

The Romans used marble throughout. It is still there pillowed by the time, timeless. Forget about a brushed, leather antiquated finish in Quartz. It looks brand new when you get it but after that it will deteriorates. You will get tired of your Quartz counter after five years.

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If this is not bad enough for you most man made Quarts material comes with an easy to reproduce dark granite look, something Europeans frown upon, would never use in their home because they rightly think that granite, real or not, is too commercial looking and too dark for the home. They use granite in the cemetery in Europe. It is bad luck in the home. Then with Quartz you cannot get the marble look right. You can tell it is a fake right away.

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I am always surprised at the way the American market views marble floors and counter tops.

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What is this obsession with wanting everything to look always new?

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Before Americans started to use granite on counters and floors, marble was the stone of choice, always was in Europe. If you travel to France, Italy, Spain or Portugal -all those counters you admire or those table tops in chateaux and restaurants are all marble.

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And it is marble that has endured CENTURIES of pastry and wines and beers and often has mellowed from a pristine white to a much coveted cream and a "saddling" where the dough was rolled out again and again. The scratches are part of the patina.

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I buy antiques and covet the mellowed, pillowed surface of much used marble tops and the scratches are the narrative, not something to be edited out or corrected (do you correct, edit a Picasso?), like they tell you with Quartz because Quartz does not age gracefully.  Above all buying Quartz is like buying a bad reproduction instead of buying the original. More often than not your fake Quartz counter will cost you more than natural marble, it has no value after its original purpose and you wont want to re use it, cut it down to size to fit some table top because it does not age well. It is junk while and an old piece of marble is valuable.

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