My 25-yr-old, butt-ugly laminate wore like iron. It was not stained or scratched when we took it out last summer, and the kitchen got hard use with teenaged boys in the house.

Yes, I agree that laminate(at least the really old laminate) does stand up to a lot. We had laminate in our house for 15 yrs before tearing it out for remodel and the laminate was probably here for 20+ yrs before that, so I totally agree, but we are looking to upgrade with our remodel.

We've had Cambria quartz for a year, with no issues yet. I think staining/noticeable scratches would depend very much on the color/pattern you chose.

If I remember correctly, you live in a log house. I would look first at soapstone since scratches can be sanded out and you can put hot pans on it. You don't have to oil it so it stays matte. I haven't had any scratching or staining on my two-year old quartz, but you can't put hot pans on it. Your friend's stain might be a burn or etch from a chemical. You also can't bang the edges around the sink with heavy pans or it could chip. But so can granite.

unfortunately there really is no perfect material; all have pros and cons.
as far as granite needing to be sealed, some never need sealing. dark granites tend to be less porous and light tend to be more porous hence some not needing sealer.
i know very little about quartz. we thought we loved cambria until we heard the price. for us the movement in the cambria is what we liked so we went with granite. there are a lot of variables in the game of counters. try looking around to get a feel for what look you like and do some research on that particular thing.

Does anyone have granite or quartz you've had problems with(staining or scratching)?

Anyone have quartz for a long time that gets a lot of use and no problems with stains or scratches?

This post was edited by Kathy642 on Fri, Sep 12, 14 at 16:23

First house - came with white corian counters. They were about 12 years old and did have some scratches. Pretty easy to keep clean and any stains would come out with a spray with bleach.

Second house - came with a white/grey/black speckled granite which was relatively new. I never sealed it or treated it gently. Stains, like red wine, were easily removed by spraying with a spray with bleach, letting it sit for about 10 minutes and then wiping. Looked the same when we sold the house 3 years later.

Third/Current house - also came with 9 year old dark granite. Have owned it 4 years and don't treat it in any special way. No sealers. I use spray with bleach to clean round the sink area when having worked with raw meats. No changes in the look of the granite in the 4 years we have owned it.
We installed granite outside in a BBQ area. Medium beige/rust color with some movement. It bakes in the sun and is covered in dust, pollen and the occasional bird dropping. The only stains are right next to the BBQ which must be from oil marinades. It does clean up very nicely when I feel like doing that job! haven't tried my bleach "pultice" to remove the oil stains. No sealers.

Maybe the quality of the granite is changing and the complaints are due to installation of cheaper products from places like China.

I take care of our belongings, but it isn't the end of the world when an accident happens and you get a stain or a scratch. You are unhappy about it for a few days, but then life continues!

My in-laws have had Cambria countertops for over 10 years and they look perfect. My MIL loves to cook, they entertain a lot, and there are no stains or highly noticeable scratches I've ever seen. They've been very happy with their countertops from day one.

I liked my stainless steel counters. Scratches? Yep, but it's part of the look.

I'd love soapstone for a log house. Scratches? Yep, but again, part of the look!

I sold, fabricated and installed granite and quartz for many years. They are both fine products. Both products can scratch, stain and chip. Granite is no harder to maintain than quartz. Different colors of both products behave differently regardless of manufacturer. The main difference is quartz is much more difficult to repair and remove stains than stone.
It takes a very knowledgeable, experienced person to be able to accurately guide a customer correctly on the ups and downs of stone or quartz and the differences between different colors.
Quartz companies have spent millions trying to convince the public their products are far superior to stone, often by using propaganda. The stone industry has spent very little. This has led to people discovering the hard way that quarts is not as bullet proof as they were led to believe.
As long as you understand that no product is bullet proof, you should be able to find a product you will love.

I had the opposite experience with laminate. New or old, it was always chemical etched, scratched and sometimes disbonding or chipped.

On the other hand, never had problems with quartz or granite that I put in.

If you want durable, Neolith definitely steps up...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d_myR4WM70

Here is a link that might be useful: All I Can Say About Neolith is WOW

You can get honed granite, which isn't shiny. There are a few that are dense enough, even when honed, that they don't need to be sealed, if you're not picky about color. Any decent sealer should work fine, in general, especially with one of the less porous stones.

Hard glazed bisque tiles are amazingly durable. Yes, you can etch the grout with acid, but it's hard to notice. It does need to be sealed, but shouldn't need to be sealed over and over.

Any kind of metal is also wonderfully durable, though if it's thin, it can dent. Most counter grade metals, stainless steel, pewter, zinc or copper, don't dent, at least not easily. They do get a patina, however, though, with the stainless it's just small scratches, as Fori mentioned. If you have it brushed, or just go over it lightly with steel wool, the scratches just blend in.

Quartz is made out of stone dust in resin. The resin yellows over time and can stain, but if you choose your color wisely, you won't really see it. I think it can also be honed.

Soapstone comes everywhere from fingernail carved soft to tenpenny nail tough. It's impervious to water, and oil will kind of stick to the surface, so you can make an oil seal kind of like seasoning a pan--for looks. It needs no sealing for use. The hardness determines the likelihood to scratch or chip. Some don't. Many do.

Pyrolave and other enamelled lava stones have all the advantages of stone combined with those of tile. The seams may be more noticeable than with granite, but it wears like iron. It's also hideously expensive.

Concrete and concrete terrazzos are popular choices. Some etch like the dickens. There are ones that have polymers in them to make them more like quartz. Colorants can be added, and when it's all sanded very smooth it's nothing like a parking structure floor, or a Brutalist anything. :) It shouldn't scratch or chip without a great deal of provocation.

Wood also develops patina, but is surprisingly durable, though not heat resistant like the others.

There are really lots and lots of good, durable choices. There's no single magic bullet. Your best bet is to go on a shopping trip, even if you have to travel to somewhere with good showrooms, and put your hands on the alternatives, see them under the lights, and torture samples with vinegar and knives.

We also have a log house. :-)

Soapstone - I kind of wish we would've considered it, but the scratches (patina) would've taken some getting used to.

We have tropic brown granite. The fabricator put a lifetime quality sealant on it - and this granite is almost 100% non porous anyway. We don't have children, but we have a busy, casual home. This granite is about as low maintenance and trouble free as you can get. It does have a polished surface - maybe honed - or leathered? - would work well for you?

The brown, incidentally, doesn't have much drama. No movement. We have some drama with our cabinets (rustic hickory) and with the house itself. So it works well for our log house.

Our 14 y/o laminate is still in great shape. No babying it at all (just use trivets & cutting boards). We've recently replaced the island Formica with soapstone & really like it. It's a hard variety & difficult to scratch. Nothing stains it. I do prefer the warmer feel of laminate, but love our soapstone.
We're about to replace the perimeter Formica; either Danby honed marble or quartzite. All materials have their pros & cons to consider. Good luck!

I have had Cambria quartz bristol blue for nearly ten years. I cook a LOT and I also do custom cakes. My counters get heavily used every day. There is not a mark or scratch on them. We bought a foreclosure a year ago and are putting Cambria Parys in the new kitchen. Love my quartz!

Looks like I'll be going with either quartz or granite. Anyone know if all quartz are the same as far as scratching or is one brand any better than the others?

gladys1924, what do you know...We're going with rustic hickory cabinets also! lol ! :)

Kathy642, I make a conscious choice to stay away from things made in China and to choose things made in the USA. I am willing to pay a premium to support local manufacturers.

As far as scratching, a lot will have to do with how you live and not so much on how durable the quartz is.

I'll give an example with my wood floors. We are pretty good at not denting or scratching our wood floors, but who could have imagined a pre-teen falling down the stairs (on his butt) while dropping and dragging a bunch of large Nerf guns!! He was fine, but the stairs have several large dents and spots were the silvery accent paint rubbed off on the stairs. Are wood stairs easily scratched? Not at all, this was just a weird/freak accident. I was livid (after I knew he was ok!) and annoyed at the damage, but a year later I don't even notice. When he graduates we'll be safe to refinish the floors!

kathy - what cabinet maker did you use? We used Spencer out of Monroe, WA....rustic hickory really does look good in a log house. almost anything else would be out of character, but I don't think many cabinet makers offer it...although my other option would've been painted, unfitted pieces for the old time look.

This post was edited by gladys1924 on Sat, Sep 13, 14 at 11:07

Kathy642:

Research all your alternatives throughly.

It has been my experience generally that fabrication shops that always sold stone are much more likely to exaggerate its capabilities, such as saying it's heat proof, than shops that sold other surfaces and added stone later.

If quartz is scratched or scorched, it can't be polished back to its original sheen. Granite can. If your family members are used to putting hot pans on the counter, they'll need to be retrained for granite and quartz.

I find it very odd that your friend has managed to scratch her countertop every time they push something across it. I would go see for myself and find out how her scratches and non-removable stain occurred. In all the quartz threads here, people report that their counters look like new, some being several years old.

That said, the Chinese have entered the quartz game, and they use knock-off technology instead of paying for the Breton technology that reputable companies use. I wouldn't trust it.

gladys1824, We are going with a local custom cabinet maker near us.

Our friend has Silestone. Does anyone know if Silestone is not as good as another brand of quartz? If there is a difference in brands of quartz, does anyone know which brand is the best? :) Does all quartz have a downside to it?

Counter vendors sometimes misuse rock names, e.g. "granite" is not always what a geologist would call a granite. My question is about quartz, which is a natural mineral. Beach sand is mostly quartz. Some mentioned that a quartz countertop is quartz powder in a resin binder. I know that countertops are also made of quartzite, which is a natural rock in which the quartz grains are naturally bonded together with carbonate or silica cement or may be a metamorphic rock in which the individual grains are forced to grow together by heat and pressure, since they are formed deeply below the surface of the earth. Sorry for the long sentence.
My question is "when is a "quartz" counter the first, synthetic category, and when is it natural quartzite? Do the vendors always keep these terms distinct.

On a related note, a friend of mine recently installed a countertop made of honed Pennsylvania bluestone, which is a natural sedimentary rock quarried in PA. It's frequently used for walkways, outdoor steps, etc. It does make a very nice countertop with a very even blue-grey tone.

Our Formica has never presented any problems--in fact, until this moment I never really thought about it at all--just took it for granted that it would take almost anything and clean up nicely.

It came with the house when we acquired it over 40 years ago and imo it will still be here when we're dead and gone.

One less life problem to worry about.

Kathy642 - While Kevdp4 said "that no product is bullet proof", my experience is that indeed, some granites are bullet-proof. I've had mine for 8 years, and it looks like the day it was installed, I don't baby it, and I have never sealed it.

What is important to realize is that there are thousands of granites, and you can't just lump them all under one umbrella--they vary in how bullet-proof they are. What you should google when you find a granite you like is its "absorption rate". The lower the absorption rate, the more dense the granite, the more bullet-proof. Probably the most dense is Absolute Black, which has an absorption rate of 0.05-.15%. My granite, called either Piracema or Wave, is quite low at 0.1-.3%, and has never needed sealing. By contrast, a granite that does need to be sealed frequently or it will stain is Imperial White with an absorption rate of 0.35-.45%.

Other dense granites that are bulletproof are Blue Pearl, Ubatuba, Black Galaxy, Verde Peacock, Verde Butterfly, Platinum Pearl, Volga Blue. There are many more. I mentioned Absolute Black as the most dense, but the problem with it is that it is so black that it shows every speck of dust and reflects the overhead lights. When you go to a stone yard and see a granite you like, ask to bring home a sample, and do things to the sample like spill coffee or red wine on it and see what happens.

"If quartz is scratched or scorched, it can't be polished back to its original sheen."

It depends:

Here is a link that might be useful: Not bad.

Is there a site that lists the different granite colors and their absorption rates?

Ok, after doing more research, I am more confused than ever. Some say that quartz is better since it doesn't need to be sealed, yet it scratches. Some say granite is better, yet I've read complaints. Then there is quartzite.

After so many mixed reviews on all materials, I should just do a cheaper laminate, since everything seems to have problems.

Besides trying to figure out which is the best material, color also matters. I just want the most durable material that will stand up to everyday family use.

The top of my old portable dishwasher, I believe, was laminate and I spilled on it(acids such as lemon & orange, tomato sauce etc), pushed things across on it, threw my keys on it and not a single problem. 10 yrs. later, still looked brand new!

I need specific suggestions of a very "rugged" material please! If color matters, please be specific on best colors(absorption rates, scratching etc).

As far as "rugged" it's hard to beat soapstone. I love mine, gets hard use, hot pots and pans, and no maintenance. Not one thing has stained it, even wine or berries, or tomato sauce. Does it scratch? yes, but somehow every scratch seems to disappear in time....
If you do live in a log home, I would think it is the natural choice, for authenticity as well as your durability needs.

Since your cab quote came in higher than you expected and your heart doesn't seem to be set on a particular material, perhaps laminate is the way to go for you. You've lived with it, you know what to expect and it is easy on the budget, which will help offset unexpected costs that crop up during your remodel.

Even with the absorption rate of granite you need to consider the sealer. I recall my granite having a high absorption rate but the sealer is so good nothing penetrates.

Since there is no perfect surface for durability, consider the look of the material for your kitchen and the price. Many use quartz for a more uniform look. Granite can give you more pattern and laminate seems to have limitless patterns.

The laminate on my countertop was 28 years old and still going strong when it was ripped out last week as part of the kitchen reno. I'm switching to Silastone for the new kitchen, but that's because we're in a market where we'd never be able to sell the house if we used laminate in the kitchen. Otherwise, I'd seriously consider Wilsonart Calcutta Marble. Inexpensive and looks like marble w/o the hassle.