Why Granite Over Quartz and Other Engineered Stones? There has been a lot of misinformation spread in the last few years (mainly by large conglomerates like Dupont) about granite as compared to artificial stone products these companies produce (i.e. Engineered Stone, Quartz, Silestone, etc). These companies cannot “control” natural stone so they spread misinformation about granite in hopes of scaring the consumer and boosting their own sales. Here are the REAL facts: • Engineered Stone (ES) is comprised of ground up granite dust mixed with coloring and epoxy to hold it together. These companies will tell you that ES is 93% stone, 7% epoxy. What they won’t tell you is that these percentages are by weight, not volume. As granite is much heavier by volume than epoxy, the actual stone to epoxy ratio is closer to 75%-25%. • ES need not be sealed, granite needs to be sealed once every few years. It takes 5 minutes and can be done easily by the homeowner for $5. It’s that easy. • Granite countertops can be polished to a much higher gloss than ES. ES looks dull by comparison. • ES and granite are both stain and acid resistant. Under rare circumstances, both can be stained or etched but only granite can be restored to the original factory finish. • ES can scratch and is difficult to repair. Granite can only be scratched by other granite or diamonds and repairs are easily made. • Don’t put a hot pot on ES. While ES manufacturers say it is heat resistant, putting a hot pot on ES will burn it! It is the glue that burns. You can safely put any hot pot on granite and it won’t hurt the granite or its finish. See below for proof! • Due to better quarrying methods and greater availability of stones from around the world, most granites are now less expensive than ES. • There are 100’s of different colors of granite and each color has a wide variety of shades and movement. Your granite countertop will be a unique piece of art. ES is institutional looking. Your ES countertop will look exactly like 1000’s of others. Buyer beware: ES is susceptable to burns like this that are extremely difficult and expensive to repair.