What material to choose for kitchen countertops? Quartz stone, marble, stainless steel, rock slab, which is better?

Dec 01 - 2023

quartz benchtops

Kitchen renovation, from plumbing and electrical remodeling to tile laying and ceiling installation, to choosing countertops, choosing sink faucets, and finally to cabinet customization, kitchen appliances purchase, etc., each link is critical, and together they determine whether the kitchen renovation is good or not.

If you ask, in so many aspects of the decoration,quartz benchtops which one most affects the value of the kitchen? It must be the choice of kitchen countertops. However, there are many kinds of kitchen countertop materials, they have different characteristics, many people do not know how to choose.

Kitchen countertop materials, in fact, common only five categories: artificial stone countertops, natural stone countertops, stainless steel countertops, wooden countertops, tile countertops.quartz vanity tops What are the advantages and disadvantages of different material countertops? Kitchen decoration, we should choose which material countertops? Next, we will talk about these issues.

1. Quartz stone

Quartz stone is a kind of stone synthesized by the time crystal and resin, most domestic kitchens use quartz stone countertops. Because quartz stone has many advantages, wear-resistant, scratch-resistant, heat-resistant,quartz slabs long service life, high hardness, texture like natural stone, more styles, high value, and most importantly, cost-effective, low price.

Disadvantages of the main aspects, quartz stone is not for the one-piece development of molding, concave modeling ability is slightly worse, do not seamless splicing, quartz crystal structure between the gap is easy to seep color, seepage, seepage of water, seepage of oil and dirt, which means that, quartz stone countertops, the study of the difficulty of cleaning, usually pay much attention to the environment to clean.

Therefore, if we want to buy quartz stone table, the key is to look at the density. The higher the density, the smaller the quartz crystal particles, the denser, the smoother the surface, the fewer the spots, the better in terms of color, water penetration, oil penetration ability.

2. Acrylic

Although acrylic is also artificial stone, but it is made of acrylic and ultra-fine aluminum hydroxide, commonly known as "plexiglass". Acrylic also has many advantages, good wear resistance, scratch resistance, high temperature resistance (slightly worse than quartz), long service life, but its greater advantage lies in the high toughness, easy to concave molding, seamless splicing, so it is not easy to bleed the color, not easy to water, not easy to oil, easier to clean and handle.

As for the disadvantages, there are a lot of fake and shoddy products, and the price is more expensive. Therefore, we must pay more attention to the purchase of acrylic countertops, the better the quality of acrylic countertops, the more gentle performance, the texture is closer to plastic, the worse the quality, the colder the surface, the texture is closer to stone.

3. Natural stone countertops

Natural stone countertops, as the name suggests, is made of natural stone kitchen countertops, such as granite, marble, jade and so on. Simply put, it is a natural stone that is cut and spliced and then made into a kitchen countertop.

Natural stone has a very beautiful natural environment texture, so the face value is very high, in addition, natural stone hard texture, wear-resistant, scratch-resistant, heat-resistant, in principle, natural stone is very suitable for a large kitchen worktop material. However, some of the disadvantages of natural stone worktops are also very obvious, because natural stone has to be studied for cutting and splicing, so for the stone there will be a lot of gaps between, these gaps in addition to breeding bacteria, the same will seep color, seepage, seepage of water, seepage of grease and dirt, cleaning and tending is very uncomplicated and convenient.

One more point. Although natural stone is hard, but the toughness is very poor. Countertops are easily broken under impact. In addition, natural stone is very maintenance-oriented. Every 1-2 years, we should do a closed maintenance, otherwise the countertop will become more and more expensive, the color oozes out, and the oil seepage will become more and more serious.

4. Stainless steel countertops

Stainless steel countertops have many advantages, wear-resistant, scratch-resistant, heat-resistant, corrosion-resistant, long service life, easy to clean and care, antibacterial, concave modeling ability, cost-effective, low price.

However, few families will choose to install stainless steel countertops, the reason is that its face value is not high, easy to give a kind of restaurant kitchen atmosphere.

5. Rock slab countertops

In the past, people will use the corners of the tiles to make cabinets when decorating, and by the way, use the tiles to make kitchen countertops, this kind of countertops made of tiles have a lot of advantages, high temperature resistance, grease resistance, hardness, wear-resistant and scratch-resistant, and especially save money, but the shortcomings are also very obvious, the modeling is not good-looking and unattractive.

In recent years, many families will choose to use ultra-thin rock slabs, this different material design looks similar to tiles, but in fact, it is made of natural stone powder, long quartz stone and other natural food raw materials for pressing and processing. High value, good toughness, can concave shape, with no color bleeding, no water absorption, wear-resistant and scratch-resistant, high temperature resistance and other advantages, cleaning staff to take care of is also very simple and convenient.

If the disadvantage of the rock is expensive, processing and production process requirements are relatively high, the market has a lot of fakes with large ceramic plate pretending to be ultra-thin rock plate.

By:Cloris