Malaysia quartz stone countertops market in chaos since the year of 2018.
Many house owners bought quartz stone countertops with these problems.
There are similar posts on Facebook on the renovation, interior design, and construction groups.
We believe there are many cases hidden below the iceberg.
As a consumer, how could we avoid buying these kinds of quartz stone countertops?
Continue reading to know more.
Big Hassle for House Owners
Imagine you and your family moving into your newly renovated sweet home; one or two above problems happen to your kitchen top after cooking for a few times.
How do you feel?
You complained to your contractor, and the contractor said he could change to a new set for you, but do you think about the dust?
People moving in and out, how about the protection of your home furniture?
Will the dismantling and reinstalling damage your kitchen cabinet?
What if the contractor changes to a new set with the same quality?
You’re lucky If your contractor willing to change.
Remember the defective photos above? Those suppliers are ignoring and blocking the house owner’s contact.
House owner had no choice but to reach us for help.
What Is Kitchen Top Problem You Hate the Most?
Sticky Oil?
Hard to clean? Need to keep wiping?
Stain Mark
Turmeric, curry, beetroot, or coffee stain permanently on the surface?
Burnt Mark
The chips were decolourized by heat.
Another Burnt Mark
The owner said she did not often leave hotpot on the kitchen top.
Mildew Grow
Mildew grew around the sink edge or even on the kitchen top.
Chemical Damage
According to the owner, she put a bottle of cleaning foam bottle on the spot, then…..
Acidic Food Damage
The owner cut a lemon and left another half on the surface. Then a dim mark?
Scratches
Does kitchenware scratch the kitchen top or what?
Chip Off
Chip-off part is not homogenous. The supplier still dares to say it’s quartz stone.
Water or Oil Mark
Cannot be wiped out.
Unknown Problem
We also don’t know what causes this problem. This kind of quality stone kitchen top is heartbreaking to the owner.
Unknown Problem 2
Another heartbreaking owner. The owner said this is a new house. She hasn’t moved in yet.
Others Hassle Might Annoy You
- Discolouration
- Colour fading
- Hidden bacteria
- Crack
- Need to apply sealant every 2 years to keep the countertop nice and clean (Natural stone)
- Always need to repolish (Solid surface)
Could Quartz Stone Avoid These Problems?
Yes! Genuine quartz stone is still the best stone material to avoid the problems shown above.
How could quartz stone prevent these problems?
First, let’s look at the essential feature of quartz stone.
Non-porous Material
What is non-porous?
Please have a look at the orange skin.
Do you see the tiny hole?
The stone surface also has similar tiny holes. We called this “cannot be seen by human eyes tiny hole” – porous.
Every surface has porous, either big or small.
How Quartz Stone Categorized As Non-porous Material?
How do we determine quartz stone is non-porous?
Check the test report (technical sheet) provided by the two manufacturers.
To pass the non-porous test, the water absorption rate cannot be more than 0.10%
Caesarstone water absorption is 0.05%, and China quartz stone is 0.049%.
At this rate, water takes a very long time to penetrate the surface.
With this result, quartz stone is categorized as a non-porous material.
Non-porous Make Quartz Stone Stain Resistance
Sometimes, we cannot simply trust technical data provided by the manufacturers. Let’s do our own test to see the stain resistance level of a quartz stone.
We used a highlight pen and a permanent marker in the test to simulate the stain. If a permanent marker penetrates quartz stone’s surface. No way we can wipe it.
Let’s watch a stain test video.
The permanent marker is hard to wipe on a polished surface of quartz stone. As the result shows, we can still wipe it. The permanent marker is not penetrating the quartz stone’s surface “YET”.
What? Yet?
Quartz stone is stain-resistant, not stain-proof. As you can see in the technical sheet. There is a 0.05% rate of water that can penetrate the quartz stone’s surface.
If you leave food colouring such as turmeric, curry, coffee, beetroot, carrot, red wine and etc. on the quartz stone’s surface for a LONG TIME. It might stain the quartz stone.
Hence, we recommend not leaving food colouring on the quartz stone’s surface for not more than 48 hours.
Non-porous feature solves hygiene problems. Continue reading to know more.
Non-porous Makes Quartz Stone Bacteria & Mildew Resistance
Bacteria & Mildew need space and a damp environment to grow their colony. But, non-porous leave no room for bacteria and mildew to grow even a couple.
Hence,
Quartz Stone Is Safe For Food Preparation
You could prepare foods and knead the dough on the surface directly without worrying about bacteria, mildew, food residue and other harmful germs.
That’s why quartz stone is NSF 51 certified.
Extra information
Hospitals which require a high hygiene environment will use NSF 51 certified products.
If you are looking for NSF 51 certified quartz stone, check out Caesarstone Quartz Surface.
Non-porous Make Quartz Stone Easy to clean.
There is no grid point for food residue to stick.
Most of the time, you just need to clean the quartz stone with water and a clean cloth.
You no longer need to clean the sticky oil on the surface multiple times.
Resist Acidic Foods
Acidic foods such as lemon or lime juice do not affect or dim the surface – acidic resistance.
(Video Coming Soon!)
Low Maintenance
Unlike natural stone like marble which needs to apply sealants to maintain lustre, extend the lifetime of its beautiful surface and increase its stain resistance level every few years.
Quartz stone does not require much maintenance because non-porous eliminate most of the hassle.
Could Quartz Stone Resist Heat?
Let’s refer to the technical sheet again.
So many alien words and jargon code ya?
Let’s make it simple by focusing on the boiling water test. The test report indicates “no effect”. What does it mean?
We need 100°C heat to boil the water. It means 100°C caused “no effect” on quartz stone.
Let’s watch one of the test videos,
How About Extreme Heat?
We don’t have the equipment to get the extreme heat. But, we found a stonemason from YouTube who tested the heat on quartz stone from 200°C to 600°C.
Let’s watch it,
What surprised us is he tested on one of our popular colours – Zenstone Quartz Surface White Mirror.
The video shows that quartz stone can resist heat over 150°C. However, we DO NOT encourage putting hot cookware on the quartz stone countertop without a trivet.
Torture The Quartz Stone
Could quartz stone remain the same surface after we scratch it with cutter?
Why can’t the heavy cutter scratch the quartz stone?
According to the US National Park Service’s Mohs Hardness Scale, quartz’s hardness is scale 7.
A knife with a lower hardness scale of 5.5 can’t scratch a higher hardness scale 7 material – quartz stone.
What is the Mohs Hardness Scale, in short?
It is a hardness test to scratch among 2 specimens to determine which material is harder.
The harder the material, the higher it can resist scratch.
For more information about Mohs Hardness Scale, visit:
Why is Quartz Stone Hardness Important?
Quartz stone is the highest hardness in the kitchen environment, making sure no kitchen item, cookware or utensil can scratch it so easily. Hence, it could maintain its appearance for a long time.
This hardness makes quartz stone a high scratch-resistant surfacing product in the kitchen.
Are You Satisfied With Genuine Quartz Stone Features?
Let’s summarise the features discussed above.
- Non-Porous Material
- Stain resistance
- Scratch resistance
- Bacteria resistance
- Mildew resistance
- Heat resistance
- Acidic resistance
- Low maintenance
- Easy to clean
- Safe for food preparation
Custom Made Your Quartz Stone Countertop Today
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We Are Not Done Yet. Genuine Quartz Stone Has More Features
Quartz Stone Is Non-Flammable Material
Let’s have a look of the test report again.
Well, it’s complicated to explain all these fire test results,
In short, this fire test determines that quartz stone is not easy to flame, fire spread, or smoke.
Quartz stone is made of natural quartz and stones. It is like we can’t fire up the stone, right?
If you want to know the fire test index and result details, you could read the fire test on Wikipedia.
Repairable Up To A Certain Extent
Unlike engineered stone using printing technology which has a 1-2mm texture on the surface, quartz stone is homogenous.
Minor scratches can still be polished. Please note that we can’t polish 100% back to its original status. Similar to granite and marble, the polish spot is noticeable.
We noticed the discolouration in the third year (2019), and it remained the same discolouration until 2022.
Colour Consistency
Quartz stone is excellent for large-scale cladding, and the manufacturer can produce a uniform appearance of quartz stone.
Said you want the whole corridor wall to have the same colour, veins and pattern. Quartz stone can satisfy your needs.
Wide Range Of Colour
With 42 Caesarstone quartz surfaces, 49 Zenstone quartz surfaces, and 43 Silestone quartz surfaces, We could provide more than 134 colour and shade options, mimicking terrazzo, granite, jade, pure and marble to match your kitchen design.
Chemical Resistance
A natural or engineered stone is not afraid of the household dishwasher. If a dishwasher is so powerful that it damages the stone, it’ll hurt your hand first.
To check whether the quartz stone is chemical resistant, use lacquer thinner; It’s corrosive. You could buy a lacquer thinner from a hardware shop and pour it on the quartz stone.
If you see the surface become matt. It is not chemical resistant.
Lacquer thinner does not affect genuine quartz stone at all. We often use it to clean the remaining sticker glue on the surface.
Crack and Chip-off Resistance
One of the key ingredients in quartz stone is resin – a highly viscous plant substance used to bond quartz stone ingredients.
It makes quartz stone a hard material while maintaining some flexibility.
This flexibility is needed to fight against thermal expansion and avoid cracking.
And also, because of the resin, quartz stone rarely chip-off.
However, the resin also brings a disadvantage to quartz stone.
The Quartz Stone Disadvantage
Every type of stone has its advantages and disadvantages.
Quartz stone is not suitable for outdoor usage especially exposed to direct sunlight. The UV ray of the sun affect the resin and slowly cause discolouration.
Based on our test, we installed a quartz stone countertop on one of our staff’s apartments next to the window without a blind in 2016. The countertop exposes to evening sunlight.
We started to notice the discolouration at the right side in the third year (2019), and remained the same discolouration until 2022.
Conclusion
The benefits of quartz stone make it a virtually worry-free surface, especially for indoor countertop applications.
No need to pay extra attention to take care of and maintain it.
Wait, We Mentioned to Expose Why Those Quartz Stone Got Problems?
Remember the quartz stone defect photo you saw at the beginning? How could the problems happen?
First, Low Quartz Content’s Quartz Stone
Suppose a quartz stone slab needs 85-93% quartz content to gain all the above benefits.
To lower the cost,
Manufacturers lower the quartz mineral to a low percentage.
The lower the percentage of the quartz content, the more benefits will be sacrificed, for example:
- The lower the quartz content, the lower the hardness; The easier the stone can be scratched.
- The bigger the porous, the stone is easier to be stained.
- The more the stone powder manufacturer replaces quartz minerals, the easier the acidic foods can damage the surface.
- Even worse is some quartz stone composition; lacquer thinner also can damage the surface easily.
Second, The Worst Material For Countertop
The low-content quartz stone can still hold up to a certain extent. The problem might occur a few months later.
The worst countertop material you might get is a compressed marble countertop.
This stone is initially made for budget wall cladding. But, it looks similar to natural marble at a significantly low price.
But if custom-made for countertop application, the countertop problems happen as soon as you use it or sometime before you use it.
What Is Compressed Marble In Short?
The manufacturer used recycled crushed marble mixed with pigment, colouring, lime powder, and glass powder and used compressed technology to make it a marble slab again.
After that, using a stone print technology to print marble’s texture, vein, and pattern on the surface.
Low Price Attract More Customers
Genuine quartz stone prices might include scared owners away.
Compressed marble looks like marble and is lower in price,
Since the house owners are not stone experts. They wouldn’t know in-depth about a stone
Those suppliers make a final blow and say it is marble-effect quartz stone. Bang, close deal and the owner tragedy begin.
Profit Or Reputation?
What!? Do you ask why those suppliers do not keep their reputation?
The answer is simple – a custom-made stone countertop is not a repetitive business. Custom made one set, last for a decade.
You will not custom-make a second set so soon anyway. Plus, even if you want to custom-make a second set after a decade, they don’t think you can remember them.
For short-sighter suppliers, what is reputation? Can feed the hunger?
Business Ethics
Some suppliers will be honest with you and tell you the product they’re selling is low-content quartz stone or compressed marble.
They emphasize the disadvantages and let you decide whether to use or not to use it.
Don’t expect all suppliers to practice business ethics.
Owner Ask To Repair
Owners find us online and hope we can help repair or polish.
We’re willing to help, but repair or polish could not solve the problem.
The same situation will continue because the actual problem is the stone’s quality.
How much money and time do you plan to keep spending on polishing?
We Can’t Polish Quartz Stone With Hand Tool
A picture speaks a thousand words
Just have a look at quartz stone after polishing
Why Do Owners Not Contact Their Ex-Supplier?
We asked: “why not call back their supplier to touch up?”
The owners’ replied: “after telling the supplier about the problems, the supplier.
- Keep dragging and never appear to look at the problem
- Not picking up the call
- Read by no reply
- The worst supplier is blocking contact
Why Do Those Suppliers Ignore Owner?
We guess the supplier sells very low price. The touch-up cost can’t cover their losses. Ignore the owner; at least can maintain some small profit margin.
Or the supplier knows the product is low content quartz stone or compressed marble that touch up is useless to solve the problem.
We Need To Ask The Question Again
Mr/Mrs owner, what if this tragedy happens to you?
Would you close your eyes and let the problem keep getting serious? Or take the hassle and money to find a new supplier to custom make a new countertop?
If you are researching quartz stone for your home kitchen top, we share some tips to help you filter unwanted quality quartz stone.
Custom Made Your Quartz Stone Countertop Today
Get An Free Estimate Quotation
