Traditionally, one of the top sellers and most sought after kitchen worktop materials has been granite. Over the last ten or so years though, another contender has been hot on its heels – composites. If you have just begun the search for a new work surface then may not a great deal about composite stone worktops. Read on to find out exactly what composite worktops are and whether they are the right choice for your kitchen.

The newly crowned king of kitchen materials are what are known as ‘composites’. Composites are a type of man-made material and they come in a huge range of styles and colours. You may have heard them referred to as ‘engineered worktops‘ or ‘quartz worktops‘. Whether they are known as engineered, quartz or composite worktops, they are all produced in much the same way.

Why is quartz an ideal material for the kitchen?

Quartz is one of the World’s most abundant resources and can be found either in a pure form or as part of another compound. Due to its extreme hardness and resistance to acids, quartz forms the main component of composite kitchen worktops. The quartz is ground down (the size of which can be used to give the worktop a finer or coarser look for its final appearance) then combined with a high-quality resin to form the composite worktops. By adding dyes to the mixture and altering the size of the grains, there is an almost endless range of shades, colours and styles available to choose from.

The manufacturing process of composites means that composite stone is able to avoid certain downsides that appear with other materials, such as granite. This includes having uneven and non uniform appearance and unseen weak spots. If you choose a quartz worktop from Marble & Granite, you can be certain that the colour you choose is exactly what you will receive. The way quartz composites are manufactured means that they are highly resistant to stain, heat and chipping. With this in mind, you can have complete peace of mind that your new worktop will last for many years to come.

Here at Marble and Granite, we are nominated fabricators of all of the major composite stone worktop brands including Casearstone, Silestone and various others. As a relative newcomer in this sector, the German-manufactured Quartzforms doesn’t command quite as high a premium as the leading brands.