Quartzite Countertops
Quartzite is the answer for people who want marble and can't live with marble. It's a natural stone, it often has that same white background with grey veining running through it, and it behaves much more like granite. We fabricate quartzite at our Commerce Township shop and fit it across Walled Lake and the surrounding Michigan communities.
One warning up front, because it matters more on this stone than any other: a lot of what gets sold as quartzite isn't.
How quartzite behaves
Quartzite starts as sandstone. Heat and pressure fuse the quartz grains into a single hard mass. The result runs about 7 on the Mohs scale, harder than granite, and because it's silica rather than calcium carbonate, acid does not etch it. Lemon and wine won't leave dull spots the way they do on marble.
The "soft quartzite" problem. Some slabs on the market labeled quartzite are actually dolomitic marble. They look right and they price right, and then they etch in the customer's kitchen. The test is simple and we'll do it in front of you: acid on an offcut, and a scratch test with a steel point. If it etches or scratches, it isn't quartzite, and you should know that before it's in your house rather than after.
Sealing. Hardness and porosity are two different properties. Some quartzites are dense and barely absorb anything. Others are surprisingly thirsty. Do the water-drop test on your actual slab and seal accordingly.
Fabrication. Quartzite is hard on tooling. It cuts slower, it eats blades, and a complicated edge or a mitered waterfall takes real time. Expect it to cost more to fabricate than granite of the same price per square foot. That's labor, not markup.
Where it works best: kitchen counters and islands where you want a light, marble-look surface that can take daily use, master baths, and full-height backsplashes.
Come see the stone
Quartzite slabs vary enormously piece to piece, so this is one you really do have to see. We're at 3011 Haggerty Road in Commerce Township, and we fabricate quartzite for jobs wherever we work. Estimates are free.
Call (248) 624-8280 or request a quote.
Work we have cut and finished.
A few pieces from the yard on Haggerty Road. There are 75 more.
