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Many people are aware that so-called quartz countertops differ from other natural stone worktops in some way. Quartz countertops, on the other hand, are more unique than you might think, as you’ll see. Best Quartz Countertops in 2022
What Is a Quartz Countertop and How Does It Work?
Quartz countertops are constructed of ground-up stone particles linked together with plastic resins and are a type of engineered stone. What about the other 90%? Crushed granite, marble, and natural stone waste, as well as recycled industrial wastes such as ceramic, silica, glass, and mirrors.
Yes, there may some genuine quartz—indeed, there may be a lot of it at times. The look and feel of a so-called quartz countertop come from. All of this rock material blended together and held together with binders.
A quartz countertop should usually refer to as engineered stone or compound stone. As these terms better appropriately define how these products are made. In fact, the phrase “engineered stone” is increasingly being used in the industry to describe this sort of countertop.
Bottom line: quartz countertops may contain varying amounts of genuine quartz. But they do not contain solid quartz taken from quarries and are likely to contain a variety of other minerals.
All Quartz Countertops Flow From One Source
The Breton business in northeast Italy created the technique for making engineered stone in 1963 and licensed the method under the brand Bretonstone
Breton is still creating quartz countertops after more than 50 years. The procedure entails mixing pulverized natural stone aggregate with a polymer mixture, eliminating the air, and then heating and molding the material into slabs with the hardness and appearance of natural stone.
More than 50 firms worldwide have licensed Bretonstone technology, including well-known quartz brands like Silestone, Cambria, and Caesarstone. While these companies add their own twists and complexities to their engineered stone countertops, they still rely on Breton’s original brevetto, or patent. Quartz countertops now feature mirror and other glass particles, brass metal filings, and varied granite and marble combinations. Mixtures that offer unique looks take a lot of time and work to create.
Cheese and Its Relationship
Cambria is a brand that controls a significant portion of the quartz countertop industry in the United States, but few people are aware of one surprising fact about this American-owned company: it also makes cheese.
The Davis family business, which is now situated in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, began as a dairy in the 1930s and has since grown to include St. Peter Creamery, Le Sueur Cheese Company, and Nicollet Food Products. The Davis family didn’t get into the engineered stone business until 2000 when they bought quartz processing equipment.
Even today, the Davis family enterprises supply Kraft Foods with nearly a third of a billion pounds of cheese every year.
The Expression Bretonstone is not a French word.
The trade name Bretonstone has nothing to do with the word Breton, which refers to the people of France’s Brittany region. Breton stone was created about 900 miles away from Brittany, in Castello di Godego, Italy, which is aroun 20 miles from Venice.
Breton stone is a combination of the words are (for brevetti, which roughly translates to “patents”) and tonne (for tone) (for the surname of founder Marcello Toncelli).
Quartz Countertops Are Green
Fiberboard is a widely revile building material. Yet one thing can be said about it: no tree has ever fell solely for the purpose of producing fiberboard. Engineered stone countertops are the same way. The waste by-products of other quarrying or manufacturing operations make up 90% of the stone-like materials that go into quartz countertops. There are no natural stones quarried specifically for quartz countertops.
Even the resins that make up the remaining 10% of a quartz countertop have improved, becoming less synthetic and more natural. The phrase “Biolenic Resins” is Breton’s trademark word for this component, which refers to a mix of artificial and organic resins, the latter of which is sourced from non-food vegetable oils.
You Walk a Lot on Quartz
Quartz is commonly associated with kitchen and bathroom counters. However, for things like shopping malls, airports, and Prada floors, the majority of quartz is slabbed out in large volumes. Almost certainly, you have walked over quartz countertop material without even realizing it.
Because the very first material developed by inventor Marcello Toncelli was hand-poured small slabs of around 12 by 20 inches, chopped down and utilize for floor tiles, quartz has come full circle. Years later, countertop applications became available. Indeed, even in the mid-1970s, slabs were only approximately 50 inches long, scarcely sufficient for a countertop.
Granite is no longer a competitor
Quartz has been attempting to play the natural stone game for years. It aimed to establish a reputation as a more durable, less porous, and easier to produce slab granite.
While granite-look quartz materials continue to be quite popular, quartz that appears like nothing else is becoming increasingly fashionable. Caesarstone is one such example. Caesarstone now has a “ultra-modern” category with options like Apple Martini, Blizzard, and Crocodile, as if “modern” wasn’t a current enough style category for buyers.
Lower Granite Prices Due to More Quartz
Quartz countertops are continuing to eat into granite’s market share, according to a report by the Freedonia Group.
1 Homeowner who might have chosen slab granite in the past are now opting for quartz.
However, for those looking to install granite, this has one positive side effect: cheaper prices due to lower demand. “Granite prices have decreased over the last decade, making the mineral more widely available,” according to Freedonia.