Quartz a classy counter offer when building a kitchen

Published: Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014, 9:00p.m. Updated 3 hours ago

Quartz is becoming a bigger ingredient in kitchen design, even if the flavor doesn't agree with everyone.

Julie Moore from Bridgeville's ProSource outlet reports dealing with quartz countertops for kitchen projects 75 percent of the time. Meanwhile, Liz Krohe from Copperleaf Kitchen & Bath Design in Wexford says 80 percent of her customers stay away from quartz.

Quartz has a lot going for it, she says, but granite still is the one.

Enthusiasts and those less convinced all agree quartz has benefits that are hard to rival in a kitchen project: It is harder than granite in a hardness rating known as the MOH scale; it is non-porous, which means it doesn't stain; it is easy to clean and impervious to germ growth; and its colors are predictable and consistent because it is engineered from crystals rather than originating in a slab.

People don't like having to seal their countertops, Julie Metz says, referring to the yearly maintenance granite requires. She is a countertop staffer at Plumbers Equipment, a supply and design firm with locations in Plum, Ross, Greensburg and Castle Shannon.

She says that ease combines with durability that can stand temperatures up to 550 degrees to make quartz attractive in hot-pot-filled kitchen jobs.

Twenty to 30 percent of customers are inquiring about quartz as a possibility initially, she says, and there has been about a 10 percent increase in clients deciding on it.

The biggest drawback, Metz says, is price. Quartz typically sells for a steady $70 a square foot, regardless of color or design, she says, while granite can be bought for about $30 a square foot.

Of course, she adds, that price can go well over $100 a square foot for better slabs of granite, but the lesser pieces are attractive to homeowners or builders on a budget.

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Quartz a classy counter offer when building a kitchen