Las Vegas stone supplier

Quartz vs quartzite

These are unrelated materials with confusingly similar names, and mixing them up is the most common mistake in this trade. Quartzite is a natural rock: sandstone metamorphosed until the grains fuse, around 7 on the Mohs scale, quarried and cut into slabs. Engineered quartz is a manufactured product: ground quartz bound in polymer resin with pigment, made to a formula. The consequences run in opposite directions. Quartzite is porous and takes a sealer; quartz is non-porous and never does. Quartzite is indifferent to heat; quartz contains resin and a hot pan can scorch it permanently. Quartzite varies slab to slab because geology made it that way; quartz is consistent because a factory did. Neither is better — they are different purchases — but you should know which one you are being quoted for, and the words are close enough that it is worth asking twice.