Are the kitchen, bathroom, and living room countertops in your home starting to look a little drab, no matter how much polishing you do? Then consider replacing them with amazing new quartz countertops that will bring a stylish sheen and gleam into your home.
Quartz is a hybrid surface décor material composed of crushed stone (such as granite and silica), crushed ceramic, glass fragments, and of course quartz, bound with a cement-based binder through the application of intense heat and pressure. The result -after years of trial and error by the industry- produces a thermally flexible, durable slab of fragmenting beauty. Quartz countertops come in a variety of colors and textures and can be ordered to fit any preferred requirements.
However, it should be noted that not all quartz surfaces are the same, and consideration should be taken when selecting what to have for your home. These fields include:
Choosing New Quartz Countertops: Colors, Patterns, and Textures
These are basic and essential criteria that can greatly affect the look and feel of your home. Textures can range from rough to smooth, sometimes being an irregular mix of both, in that some of the chips used won’t be smoothed over when being added to the quartz mix. By using a variety of dyes, the colors can be customized to fit your needs. Patterns are also very varied, from single colors to particulate shade differences in the grains used in the slab.
Thickness
Quartz slabs come in different sizes of cuts. Depending on where you want to use it and the load you expect it to bear. The standard thickness of quartz slabs is 1.25 inches, with diminishing standards of 1.5 inches, 0.75 inches, and 0.5 inches. Quartz is a very hard material, but can still break when put under great stress.
Choosing New Quartz Countertops: Corners Styling
The shaping of the edges and corners helps bring some definition to the type of style of the room the quartz countertops are being used in. Curved and beveled edges introduce softness to the room, a great option that reduces the risk of injury.
How Much does it Cost?
Good to high-quality quartz countertop slabs range from 50 to 75 dollars per square foot. Looking for the best quality slabs? Then you can expect to pay from 75 to 150 dollars per square foot. Depending on the manufacturer, making customizations to the slabs could incur an extra cost.
When compared to other stone slab materials, quartz slabs are more economical, as well as versatile. Single cuts of stone can easily crack or fracture from heat or shock and do not have such a wide range of customization either. Their inherent properties may also make it that over time, they wear away and result in uneven surfaces.
Choosing New Quartz Countertops: Maintenance
Quartz slabs are composites of different types of stones and sand, in varying degrees. This gives them inert properties, that is, they don’t react quickly with acidic or alkaline fluids. This makes them great for home use, where cooking and cleaning liquids are rarely highly corrosive. They are easy to clean as well, getting the job done with simple soap and water.
Armed with this information, you can go into the market and be in a better position to decide what you want your new quartz countertop to look like. What better place to start than here at Karin Ross Designs, where we have a team of dedicated experts ready to bring the home of your dreams into reality.
