Experience with Dark, Solid engineered quartz? X-post in baths

14 years ago

I was all set to order and schedule templating for my Bathroom vanity counters: Cambria Fieldstone, a dark gray engineered quartz. I have Caesarstone Blizzard (white) in my kitchen and I love it. Unfortunately, I was with DH and the sales person said: "you do know that DARK quartz scratches very easily, right?". Now DH wants to reassess this choice. We are going to go to the stone yard this weekend to see if any dark, solid, modern looking granite slabs exist and speak to us, but I'm not a fan of mixing stones, and my BS will have a marble/glass mosaic.

I had never heard that dark quartz "scratches" easily. I'm not sure I believe this. My kitchen counters are bulletproof, though I don't cut directly on them. Here, it's a bathroom and there will be no knives near it anyway, as there might be in a kitchen. Anyone out there with real life experience with dark, solid, Cambria quartz counters in particular?

TIA

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Comments (9)

sara_the_brit_z6_ct
14 years ago
I've had Cambria Bristol Blue for almost 4years now. Very dark blue. Not a scratch, not a chip. I don't baby it at all. The sales person is talking nonsense.
barbarany
14 years ago
While I don't have Cambria - I do have Silestone in a dark brown (mahogany) in my kitchen (just about 3 years now). I do not baby it either and it looks as good as the day it was installed.
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clergychick
14 years ago
Don't believe it. We've had the Cambria Burnbury -- a very dark brown mottled color -- in our kitchen for almost 2 years now. Just like sara_the_brit, we've had no scratches, no chips, nothin'! -- Amy
boxerpups
14 years ago
This is really good news for me.

I am one of those that thought Quartz could scratch.
DH and I are in the process of changing our hideous tile
bathroom counters to either Quartz, Corian or Granite.
I want Marble but have worries about that too.

~boxer
hellonasty
14 years ago
We have Silestone in GEDATSU... a solid Brown. No scratches, but it has chipped on the edge in several places when we've banged a pot against it (ie: around the sink).
wizardnm
14 years ago
My quartz is Chroma by Pental in a dark gray and after a year of use it is still perfect. I don't baby it either.
iroll_gw
14 years ago
I have Caesarstone Pebble, which is medium gray, it's been in about 4 months now, no scratches. The concept of a darker color being more scratch-prone sounds like nonsense to me; engineered quartz is 93% quartz, with color and resin added. I don't see where the color could possibly affect the integral hardness of the quartz. Let me guess--the sales person sells something else that he net him/her a bigger commission, right?
User
14 years ago
93% quartz is by weight, not volume. "Quartz" actually has quite a bit of resin in it. Some colors with the tiny little quartz "flour" crystals are more than half resin. And yes, it can be scratched. It's not as easy to scratch as Corian because of the quartz component but it can happen. And once scratched, it's harder to polish out than either granite or Corian.
adel97
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks all!! DH is feeling better about the Fieldstone quartz after reading all your responses. We'll probably go back tomorrow and order it.

The sales person was not pushing any other product, in fact she knows we're using our own fabricator no matter what material we pick. Maybe she just had one unsatisfied dark quartz customer, who knows.
Thanks again!