White Quartz Countertops what you need to know about them

White Quartz Countertops in recent years are gaining in popularity, compared to traditional natural stone - granite, quartzite or marble. Let's find out what is the secret of the popularity of this material and why it is so beloved by many in the interior of their kitchens. What comes to your mind when you hear the word Quartz? Transparent small crystals or elemental sand, indeed, quartz is very common on our planet and readily available for use. Essentially, quartz stone is recycled very pure sand that is mixed with binders and baked into slabs (slabs) of certain sizes.

White quartz for countertops is an artificially created material, although it has natural materials and raw materials in its composition.

Engineers involved in the manufacture of quartz stone noticed that if you clean the natural quartz well enough, add a little coloring and bonding materials, you can get a very strong, comfortable performance and beautiful material for use in the interior, particularly in kitchen countertops. In this regard, recently, design trends are increasingly shifting to quartz stone in kitchen finishing, quartz attracts with its clean premium look, convenience, practicality in daily use.

But why has white become the new trend in kitchen countertop design and kitchens in general? 

There are several reasons for this:

• White visually makes a room lighter and brighter
• White stone makes your kitchen visually larger n more spacious
• White quartz countertops go well with almost any color of kitchen drawers
• White stone looks discreet but at the same time premium
• Any dirt and stains will be immediately visible and you can promptly remove them. It is worth noting that quartz is virtually non-absorbent of liquids and stains from oil or food pigments are easy to remove
• It's easy to match white quartz countertops with sinks of almost the same color and tone.

If you decide to create your dream kitchen or update an old one, the choice of quartz stone for it is not an easy and painstaking process. At first glance, you may be intimidated by the huge range of white quartz for countertops, if we sum up the lines of quartz from all major manufacturers, we will get several hundred variants of this stone. But do not despair, even in spite of the huge choice you will eventually lean towards a few options that will suit your taste, because quartz stone for countertops is very diverse in texture and color. 

When searching for stone online, pay attention to vendors in your location because it's extremely important to look at the stone in person before you purchase. Ideally, you should visit the seller's stone store, get a set of samples so you can evaluate on the spot at home what exactly suits your type of interior, type of lighting in the kitchen, and color tone. It often happens that the stone that looks perfect in the showroom does not look good combined with your interior, remember the stone on the vendor's counter always looks perfect due to the exactly right lighting and surroundings.

When you receive your stone samples, you should also pay attention to how a large slab of quartz looks as a whole, as small samples often do not reflect the overall texture and pattern of the stone, which will be clearly visible on the final product. Take a picture of the stone slabs you like when you visit the seller's warehouse; this will make the final choice much easier later.

In a general sense you will need to choose which white quartz you want:

• Uniform white surface or with veining (texture)
• A subtle quiet texture or an intense bright pattern.
• Veined or particle texture
• Crystal white or with ivory or bluish tones

In this material we are talking about white quartz for countertops, but even this material has many variations in textures and nuances, you can choose as a pure white stone without any inclusions and patterns, or stop at the quartz, which resembles in its pattern exquisite natural marble (but unlike marble quartz is more resistant to stains and mechanical damage). Determine your choice will help you with examples of kitchens already made with different types of quartz, just look at these examples and imagine how this or that stone (texture) will look exactly in your interior:

Here are a few basic textures found in quartz for countertops:

• Pure white with no inclusions. Maximum versatility and unpretentious with the rest of the kitchen
• Thin sparse veins.
• Medium-width veins of white or white color interspersed with thinner, hardly visible veins.
• A texture made up of short, frequent veins that evenly cover the surface of the stone
• Very wide bright veins of gray, beige or bluish colors, often such veins occupy up to 50% of the stone surface and stand out brightly against the general white background

It should be noted that the countertops made of quartz with a light texture of gray veins are more practical - you do not need to remove too often from the surface of the small traces that can inevitably leave dishes or knives, gray texture of the veins as it disguises the small deficiencies that are inevitable during cooking. While these marks are easy to remove, they can get you in trouble with too much care and frequent maintenance to keep your kitchen looking perfect at all times.

But why quartz? When you hear the expression "a countertop made of stone" then for sure the first thing that comes to your mind is granite or marble, these types of stone are indeed often chosen for interior decoration but a kitchen countertop is at the same time a working surface during cooking and experiences much more loads on wear and tear than for example walls made of stone in the bathroom. Let's see what quartz is different from natural stone, what are its advantages and probably disadvantages.

• Manufacturing technology of quartz is made so that the resulting stone had minimal porosity and as a consequence is easier to clean and requires minimal care.
• It is much easier to make complex in form table tops out of quartz stone as it is more uniform in comparison with a natural stone which in any case has various in structure on density and durability areas
• As the quartz stone is created artificially it is more uniform in texture and pattern, unlike a natural stone texture which as a rule is always unique from slab to slab.
• The quartz practically does not undergo a chemical pollution, unlike for example to strongly porous marble that demands special covering and regular leaving, from which it is practically impossible to remove for example coffee stains, if you casually left the spilled drink for some time, it is necessary to use deep grinding after which ideal smooth geometry is lost
• Suitable natural stone slabs have to wait a long time to be processed and delivered, while the supply of quartz is more stable and is usually available from selling companies. In addition, natural stone is not immune to cases where your perfect slab accidentally damaged in transit or as a consequence of internal invisible defects in natural stone is never perfectly durable

Let's summarize to make it easier for you to decide whether to order a white quartz countertop or some other material.

Pros:

• Incredible resistance to stains and dirt. Most stains can be removed with an ordinary kitchen cleaner and a sponge. Stains are removed no matter how long the countertop was exposed to the pollutant.
• Mechanical durability. You can not fear that your countertop will have chips or cracks, the stone has a homogeneous structure and polymeric binder components in addition to pure quartz, so quartz countertops are both durable and resilient, which allows you to survive mechanical shock or the impact of kitchen appliances - often our customers use the surface of the countertop as a cutting board, without any consequences for the surface
• Wide range of colors and textures to choose from, which fits any style of kitchen cabinets and interior
• Visually, quartz looks bright, due to the white color increases the amount of light in the interior, makes the interior more spacious
• Always enough stone in stock.
• Durable, you get a really stunning product for many years

Cons:

• Relatively expensive, but this depends entirely on the manufacturer of white quartz for countertops
• White color. Yes, it is the main design advantage of the stone can seem quite troublesome because you need to always keep the countertop clean, otherwise the white background will clearly show all the crumbs and small dirt
• Subjective disadvantage but often the shade of stone looks a little different than on the screen when you choose a stone online, having to spend time traveling to companies to see the stone with their own eyes and get samples. Choosing the right shade can be time consuming.
• Not very good heat resistance. You should not put too hot dishes on a quartz countertop, such as pans for example, this can cause damage to the perfectly polished surface because there are polymers in the composition of white quartz stone