Quartz is a great choice for countertops, but it is NOT bulletproof. No counter choice is bulletproof. Everything has it's pluses and minuses. You are extremely lucky that you didn't scorch the stone. Manufactured quartz contains a high amount of resins (at least 50% by volume, not weight) and high temperatures can cause "ghosting" on any type of engineered quartz. It looks like an etch would on marble. The color and sheen are slightly different. Quartz can also chip, especially on any of the more abrupt edges like an eased edge.

Trivets and cutting boards should be used with ALL countertop types. Even granite, which is a lot more heat resistant than resin containing counters (excluding granites that have been resined, of course) can crack from thermal expansion if you set hot pots on it.

Thanks for the tip. I actually would never set a hot pot on a countertop - years with formica has taught me that! I was just experimenting and the sample was next to my oven so I used it as a trivet.

I have quartz in my bathroom and it is fantastic - even splotches of hair dye which are unnoticed until they turn dark brown wipe up easily. . . I prefer the veiny look of marble over the speckley look of my older Silestone vanity tops so I was glad to see the Torquay - which is the most realistic looking white marble quartz I have seen (I have seen some good limestone or crema marfil looking ones though). . .

If you go to the Houzz site and use Torquay as a search term there's a very nice island where they've used Torquay.

I was just at a home show that featured a display of large Cambria samples, rather than the tiny paint-chippy things you usually have to flip through a box to see. The new colors looked really great in person--even better than they do online. I was considering doing a post on them, but though it sounded kind of silly to start a thread saying essentially, "hey, I like this."

I'd love to see your photos! I'm having a hard time deciding and every bit of info helps.

Cambria Torquay I feel is beautiful and you will be very happy with this stone for your counters!

Honed? Is there a choice of finishes with Cambria?

Not sure if Cambria will offer it honed or not. Some manufacturers do - but they will make you sign a waiver. My parents did honed quartz (don't know the brand - purchased at Walker Zanger and not silestone) at the beach and it looks fantastic. I am going to see if I can get a honed sample and test it out. . . they may not offer it but the disclaimers seem to suggest that they will do honed and semi polished as well as polished . . .

Saw a vanity countertop in Torquay today at the fabricators. It looked great! In some of the photos it looks a little washed out, a bit too white, but in person it was perfect. Lots of variation, so didn't have that machine made look of so many quartz's. As close to marble as I've seen in quartz for sure.

I ordered countertop from Cambria Torquay and left a deposit, but still waiting. Already two weeks and fabricator said Cambria moved delivery time on the slab at the end of October. ( :

yes, you can hone cambria. i asked already :)

I have Cambria Torquay in my kitchen. It is so beautiful & I could not be happier with it. I too had a terrible time getting my kitchen design place to get a sample so I finally ordered a sample directly from Cambria & it came in a couple of days. Cambria shipped it out the day after I ordered it. It seems that Cambria subcontracts out the job of supplying kitchen design places with the samples & the subcontractors do a really poor job of supplying samples. Cambria themselves were super fast. I had gotten so discouraged waiting for the kitchen design place to get samples that I also ordered samples from Silestone (Lyra & Lagoon) in case I wanted to give up on Cambria. I liked Cambria's Torquay so much better. Torquay's white is whiter instead of being just shades of gray or slightly muddy. It is a very serene design to me. If you have any doubts about what you want and you cannot find a sample, just order a sample. The cost is nothing when you compare living with a countertop pretty much forever. BTW, Cambria's samples are 12"X12" so you get a really good picture of what it is like, not like looking at a 1" square!

Hi..I saw you were installing a walnut countertop. How have you liked it and is it holding up? I is yours around a sink?

It’s fine if you like black resin pooling. I am the unlucky one