The city of Vancouver has some of the world’s highest housing prices. The average price for a detached home in Vancouver is $1,073,311. This is an enormous amount of money and therefore it is important for buyers to receive a quality built home. Since the heart of a home is the kitchen, countertops are a very important detail. Due to their durability and strength, stone countertops are on top of everyone’s wish list. A majority of the newly constructed homes use either granite or quartz countertops. But one question arises, which is better?
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Granite is a naturally occurring rock that forms from the cooling and solidifying of magma from the earth’s crust. This type of formation classifies granite as an igneous rock. Granite rocks come in a variety of colours due to their chemical composition, making it a go to countertop option because of its design flexibility. It also is very durable in the kitchen and has minimum maintenance. Other countertops, such as marble, need to be sealed with protective layers very often and are not able to withstand very high temperatures. Granite on the other hand only needs to be sealed with a protective coating once a year and has a density of 2.65, making it very strong, and has a melting pointing of approximately 1250 degrees Celsius. This allows individuals to place hot trays and pots onto granite countertops without fear of it cracking or getting destroyed.
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The other main competitor to granite in the housing industry is quartz. Quartz is not a natural stone instead it is engineered. It is a mixture of approximately 90% quartz, which is a very common mineral founds in many different types of rocks, and 10% resin, which is a hard glue like substance. The combination of these substances makes quartz countertops very strong and durable. It has a melting point of 1300 degrees Celsius and a density of 2.75. Another benefit of quartz countertops is that they never need to be sealed; there is no fear or problem of liquids or food ever getting into pores in the slab. Also because quartz rock is so widespread, it comes in very large range of colours.
A quartz crystal from factmag.com
Based on the data and stats of both countertops, they are fairly similar in terms of their strength. In terms of their appearances, granite does have more variation, but due to its extremely easy maintenance, quartz is superior to granite. Overall buyers should not be discouraged by granite countertops, but quartz countertops are slightly better in terms of their quality.
