Blackstone Construction and Design, Cambria did not increase prices. We offered new product lines which showcases Cambria’s designs developed through continued investments in proprietary natural stone technologies and with only the purest, highest-quality materials available to ensure designs that are exceptional and unlike anything else in the world. Final price is determined by a number of factors including layout, design choice, application, finish, edge profile, and more. We do appreciate the feedback you have provided and are more than happy to discuss projects in depth for those who have further questions. As stated above, Cambria provides a Customer Care team that is available to assist with any questions that arise before, during, or after your install alongside a Full Lifetime Warranty on our products. To learn more, visit CambriaUSA.com or call customer care at 866-226-2742.

We have been supplying Cambria for many years, and today it is still the least expensive product in my showroom. When doing quotes and the client isn't sure on colors or even quartz as an option, I always just quote Cambria's standard designs and everyone so far has been happy with the price. I think the problem is when a fabricator is buying the slab from Cambria then turning around and jacking up the price as if it was fabricated product. Being on the line of slab vs fabricated I see a lot of that going on.

my intention was not to place negative light on Cambria as I mentioned for years it was the only counter option I offered I completely believe in the product its manufacturing, QA, customer service ect... all I am saying it that I feel it is out of touch with market pricing and needs to look at making a pricing correction in my market because I don't feel it is competitive any longer. Maybe this is not the case in the US market but in the Canadian market getting pricing between $100-160 per foot is not competitive when I can get there competitors whom have a comparable product at between $70-110 per foot is all I'm saying

I see where you are coming from now. I pay no where near that for any of my brands.

exactly I used to pay between 70-100

Georgia Roberts, what other lines of quartz do you carry that Cambria is the least expensive??

I have these items in my showroom : Silestone, Vicostone, Viatera, Corian Quartz. They all come out higher than the Cambria I get. I am only 2 hours from the Cambria plant so I have to purchase all ready fabricated material from Cambria.

Ah

George Robert, where are you located ?

Central Wisconsin

Thank you

Would be curious in learning how many people have overpaid? Anyone beat $45 a square? If so...

Very interesting thread. Blackstone Construction and Design, are those prices in USD or Canadian dollars?

I'm just in early phase of selecting countertops and one thing I've noticed right away: Cambria must spend a ton of dough on marketing and PR. Their thick, fancy brochures seem to weigh nearly as much as one of their samples. LOL. Maybe I'm overly skeptical at this point, but it always makes me think twice when I see stuff like that.

My prices are in CND. Before selecting a local company to supply fabricate and install your counters I highly recommend that you contact whom ever you choose to work with directly whither it be Cambria, MSI, Stylestone, caesarstone, or Amy of the many other fine counter manufactures on the market today and ask them for a recommendation as to whom to contact in your area for fabrication and installation services. Its always good to be able to to go back to the manufacture if there is an issue and be able to say you recommenced them. Meaning that they have been correctly trained on their product and that they are in fact install the product you think you are purchasing.

Excellent suggestion. Sometimes I'm leery of recommendations I get from salespeople, figuring (cynically) they must have some underlying motive ($$) in their recommendation. But that is an excellent point. Thanks!

How does Ceasarstone rate compared to Cambria?

Caesarstone gives a lifetime guarantee on residential use and has amazing options to choose from. Prices are also very decent.

After reading about the NSF concerns I did some research. I found out that it appears MSI is indeed NSF/ANSI 51 certified for contact with food for most, if not all, of their products.

You can see the current certifications here:

http://info.nsf.org/Certified/Common/Company.asp?CompanyName=MS%20International

This said, now that I have done my research I am going forward with MSI Countertops myself.

I have both Cambria and MSI counters and am pleased with both equally!

We just received a Cambria quote through Costco - $108 sq ft is the starting price which includes basic installation. MSI started at $45 with installation. I really like the Stellar White from MSI but want to make sure it will last well.

As a trade professional, I will not suggest any other quartz other then Cambria. We have clients come in our showroom all the time and tell us that they got quoted thousands less for other brands of quartz. But the fact is that no one gives the correct information. Cambria is made in the USA, it has a lifetime warranty on it. It is non porous, stain resistant, scratch resistant, mold and mildew resistant. It is made of 90% quartz and 10% pigment and polymers. Other quartz products generally come out of China or Brazil and MAYBE havwe a 15 year warranty if you're lucky. And the amount of actual quartz in them, God only know. They have a ton of fillers in them, curshed glass/mirror, sand etc.

We basically picked the quartz based on the color/look....we really liked a cambria but it was so expensive. Found an MSI that worked equally well and it was literally half the price. Just installed a few weeks ago so who knows about performance/durability yet.

Love my Cambria Brittanica.

Thanks for posting pictures! Your kitchen looks fantastic!

@robertgoulet MSI has their own line of quartz? Which color did you go with? Photos per chance?

Kitchen cabs are coming our way and I'm under the gun to order counters by end of this week. Sadly giving up on natural stone for a variety of reasons and going with a white quartz, sigh. Looking at Pental at moment as my childhood friend/tile seller has had good luck with it. We're close to an MSI showroom. Never got a very good vibe there, but maybe I'll take another look.

@sue can I ask what your cost for the Brittanicca was?
@Georgia Roberts - where all do you service, looking for options in North Central IL?

The cost was around $10k. We also got MSI in the bathrooms and laundry.

natelynately isn't featurphotofeaturphoto... it's msi Arcti

@Ryan Hass, I checked out those NSF listings last night and couldn't find MSI's True White on any of the four MSI lists. Very cool that they list where various materials are made, though!

Lindse Cira ....Just to correct you a little. Cambria Quartz is actually 93% Quartz. Not only do they have a Full Lifetime Warranty, but that warranty is also transferable.

I have a cut slice of white MSI and man oh man...it really makes you wonder what you're paying for. Looks like a very densely compressed brick of Colgate toothpaste. My installer said all quartz brands look like that inside. (If there's a quartz rep listening in to this conversation, I'm all ears.) Another reason I wish I could have gone with white granite. Just seems more cost worthy, IMO.

@tackykat, which MSI did you install? Wondering if the color makes any difference re the performance. Or maybe bathroom quartz is more likely to hold up than kitchen?

I wish I never chose MSI. I just liked the way it looked compared to the Silestone I was considering. It has been in my kitchen for literally a few days and I can’t seem to get it clean from Finger prints or smudges all the time, it’s not as smooth as my LG Viatera in my bathroom, it does feel sort of sticky and sandy, like @Georgia Roberts said. Worst waste of a lot of money!

@gali444 :-( sorry to hear that! What type did you get?

I have alabaster white. This stuff is awful. I think resin pooling is forming. If I wipe the entire island with a wet sponge you see all these areas in the shape of finger prints and streaks. This is where I‘ve been scrubbing with a rag and spray way Glass cleaner after and they really don’t come out!

Sorry to see some negative comments on MSI quartz.

For what it's worth, we had MSI Blanca Statuarietto installed by our local remodellers during our kitchen remodel a year ago and we love the MSI quartz counters! NO problems at all; no staining, no chipping, no stickiness. They still look brand new. From what I've seen in the comments on this thread, there must be several grades of MSI being sold. I suggest you go with a supplier you can trust, with good reviews, and with at least some sort of warranty on their work. Our contractor really stands behind their work and even fixed some minor issues with the bathroom work they had done more than two years previously, when they were working last September on our kitchen.

@gali444, Ugh. And yours is a polished not honed finished, yes?

@Anne in Virginia thanks for that. Our local fabricator installs every brand but says he's seen no more problems with MSI (which is pretty popular around here due to their HQ being nearby). Still, I'm leaning toward Pentel, I guess.

At this point, I think my DH would probably be fine just covering the counters with leftover concrete from the backyard hardscape (read: JUST MAKE A DECISION ALREADY!!) Ha ha.

Lindse Cira

"As a trade professional, I will not suggest any other quartz other then Cambria. We have clients come in our showroom all the time and tell us that they got quoted thousands less for other brands of quartz. But the fact is that no one gives the correct information. Cambria is made in the USA, it has a lifetime warranty on it. It is non porous, stain resistant, scratch resistant, mold and mildew resistant. It is made of 90% quartz and 10% pigment and polymers. Other quartz products generally come out of China or Brazil and MAYBE havwe a 15 year warranty if you're lucky. And the amount of actual quartz in them, God only know. They have a ton of fillers in them, curshed glass/mirror, sand etc."

I highly doubt an industry professional would post such misleading information.

I picked Ceasarstone Frosty Carrina and the sample and company descriptions were ivory white with light grey veining but what the fabricator installed looked like a light grey countertop. At first I thought it was the lighting as it was a dark dismal day but soonn realized it wasn't the lighting but by then it was already installed. Ceasarstone basically said too bad and that stone shades don't always match the samples.

Janet Williams that is why you never sign off on any material without approving the slab first. If the fabricator can't accommodate that, then you need a new fabricator.

The fabricator was the one designated by Ikea and you get a discount when you buy your kitchen from Ikea. I wasn't able to get to see the slab and all the samples in various tile stores were ivory white frosty carrina. Live and learn, don't trust without verifying is the lesson.

The fabricator was the one designated by Ikea and you get a discount when you buy your kitchen from Ikea. I wasn't able to get to see the slab unfortunately but all the tile stores samples of frosty carrina were ivory white. Live and learn, trust but verify is the lesson sadly.

I have cambria quartz and it looks great. I was told that it is very durable but I have had several tiny chips. The charge is $125 for cambria to repair them. It is not as durable as I thought it would be.

Maybe the MSI issues are with products other than the Q Premium Natural Quartz.

The % and warranty sounds same as Cambria (?)

Introducing Q Premium Natural Quartz™, the latest in elegant and durable natural quartz from MSI. Made with 93% quartz and backed by a Residential Lifetime Warranty, Q is scratch-resistant, stain resistant, and offered in an array of contemporary colors.

We had our MSI quartz countertops installed in Feb and now 9 months later, I still love them! They look just as good as when they were installed. Extremely pleased with them and we saved over $1000 over the Cambria brand (which I really had my heart set on), but the cost savings won me over.

As someone who has specified and sold both MSI and Cambria, they are both very similar products in the way they are made and they way they hold up. With Cambria a lot of what you are paying for is the marketing and branding as well as the definition they put into their colors. There is also a premium for it being an American made product. I think you can put either in and have a great experience and a great finished product and there is always going to be someone who can say they had an issue with any product. the first post on here I read said that they would only recommend Cambria because they always fix the issues and have had to use them to fix things twice, so if they are so great why are the needing to do warranty or repair work? Because any product no matter how well it is made can have an issue. From my experience selling both I have seen both companies have material issues and both companies stand behind the material and take care of any issues. I think the material selection can come down to a lot of things and it can be a very personal decision. In our market Cambria is substantially more but I feel their colors are more detailed. If you like a color enough to justify the color difference and it is something you can fit in your budget then go for it, if it is not that much of a difference in color to you or you need to lower your costs, you can go with MSI and you should be happy in the long run and end up with a great countertop. Cambria and MSI just seem to have a different place in the market from each other and neither is a bad thing. In our area MSI only sells to fabricators and not direct to the public and they dont do a bunch of marketing or advertising so their costs are lower and Cambria is seen as the higher end designer option with a ton of different color options and a recognizable brand name, and it all just depends on your individual needs and desires. This is where a good kitchen and bath designer will be able to help you figure out what is best for you by seeing the overall project needs , budget, as well as your personal tastes , needs, and desires and then giving you the best information to be able to make your own informed choice, not be biased between one product or the other and tell you there is only one option you should choose, there are a lot of options and each option is right for someone, there is no one size fits all in the industry.

If you have any choice, get Cambria!

I put Cambria in two of my homes and it is bullet-proof! I dropped a hammer on my Cambria countertop (accidentally) and NOTHING happened. I have Bala Blue in two homes and it never shows dirt. Thought about going with the Hadley (navy blue) for a new home, so I got a sample that I left in the kitchen, and it shows every single speck of dust, paper towel lint, etc. - I imagine it would be like trying to keep a black car clean. So cleanliness is down to the color you pick.

I have Caesarstone countertops in another house and chipped the edge by barely grazing it with a jelly jar.

Can't speak to MSI, but I am remodeling a new home and love one of the colors, but I don't want something cheap or made in China. I read a blog post about some MSI colors not being food-grade? Is that possible?

I have MSI fossil gray and MSI stellar gray in my bathrooms and bar. No Cambria, but I have Caeserstone in one bathroom. I can see little splashes in the stellar gray , which is a honed surface. It cleans up well though. Not a huge deal but I think it would bother me in the kitchen. I put granite there and never any worries about stains.

" I put Cambria in two of my homes and it is bullet-proof! I dropped a hammer on my Cambria countertop (accidentally) and NOTHING happened. "

You were VERY lucky. I assure you, your counter is NOT bulletproof.

Anyone price MSI lately? I just had MSI Calacatta Laza quoted and came back approx 100 per sqft. I heard it used to be closer to 60 prior to Tarrifs/it being stuck in China. Doesn’t seem to be much of a savings at 100 per sqft over Cambria as people have said.