The quartz surfacing industry burst onto the scene almost concurrently with the popularity of natural stone in the last decade. As granite began to be used more, its maintenance issues became more apparent. Manufacturers responded by developing quartz surfacing to provide the consumer with a material that combined the best qualities of granite with those of solid surface.

Quartz countertops provide the look and durability of natural stone along with scratch resistance and heat resistance. They are also a sanitary nonporous surface that is less susceptible to staining.

By weight, quartz surfacing is 93 percent natural quartz and 7 percent bonding resins. It is manufactured through a process that uses vibration and compaction to condense and bond the quartz particles with the resin to form a slab hard, uniform and non-porous.

Unlike granite, to which it is often compared, quartz surfacing does not contain the veins and patterns that make each slab of granite unique and eye-catching. The wide range of colors available for quartz surfacing will generally match the samples shown by the fabricator.

Leading brands of quartz surfacing include Silestone, DuPont Zodiaq, Cambria, CaesarStone, LG Viatera and Hanstone. Although there are several manufacturers of quartz surfacing around the world, most use the same or similar technology first developed and patented by the Italian company Breton in 1966.

In 1968, Breton began the first “Vacuum Vibro Mixer” plants, which made it possible to fabricate engineered quartz surfacing in large blocks and slabs. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Breton refined the technologies that are used now by almost all manufacturers worldwide.

After the completed slabs are created and polished, final refinements are made and the slabs (typically in 2 or 3 cm) are then shipped out to distributors. Fabrication shops turn the slabs into finished countertops, based on consumer specifications. The manufacturers are so confident of the quartz surfacing product that they typically offer a 10-year warranty, something that is rarely found with natural stone.