Granite is falling out of favor with homeowners. The engineered stone of quartz instead is displacing the long-reigning granite as the top-choice for kitchen countertops.
“About 75 percent of our clients are opting for quartz over granite,” Bill Millholland, executive vice president of the design-build firm Case, told The Washington Post. “More people want a contemporary aesthetic in the kitchen, and the clean look of quartz goes with that. Granite goes better with traditional décor.”
Quartz is known as being harder and less porous than granite, offering greater consistency in color, stain-resistant, and does not require any extra sealing like granite and marble for maintenance.
Kitchen designer Jennifer Gilmer of Chevy Chase, Md., sees the majority of her customers now opting for quartz over natural stones. It’s “partly because modern kitchens are hot right now,” Gilmer says. “In these kitchens, the less pattern the better, and quartz helps to keep the clean look.”
Gilmer says the most popular colors for quartz countertops are white, off-white, gray, and black.
“There are good options for a marble-look that are getting better and better with all the quartz manufacturers, and we’re selling a lot of those,” Gilmer told The Washington Post.
But homeowners should be prepared to pay more for quartz. Quartz can range from about $65 to $135 per square foot, including fabrication and installation costs, says Eddie Castro, vice president of Stone and Tile World in Rockville, Md. Non-exotic granite, on the other hand, can range from about $50 to $60; marble is about $55 to $95 per square foot installed, Castro says.
Source: “With Countertops, Quartz Has Supplanted Granite as the People’s Choice,” The Washington Post (Jan. 20, 2017)
