Quartz worktops
Quartz worktops, templated and fitted by us
Engineered stone. Non-porous, never needs sealing, and consistent slab to slab, which is why it ends up in most family kitchens. It has one real weakness, and we would rather tell you about it now.
Heat
Use a trivet
Porosity
Non-porous
Sealing
Never
Sunlight
Not UV stable
What it is
How quartz is made
Quartz worktops are engineered rather than quarried. Ground natural quartz is mixed with a polymer resin and pigment, then vibrated, compacted under vacuum and cured into a slab. The quartz gives it hardness; the resin holds it together and makes it non-porous.
That manufacturing route is the whole story of the material. Because the colour is pigment rather than geology, it is repeatable: two slabs of the same colour ordered months apart will match closely, which matters enormously if you are running an island and a perimeter, or adding a splashback later. And because the resin fills every void, there is nothing for liquid to soak into.
In our catalogue
71 quartz surfaces
- Supply price range
- £130 – £500/m²
- Most sit between
- £150 – £280/m²
- Brands we hold
- WWX Collection, Silestone
- Colour tones
- 6
Every figure above is supply only: the slab, before fabrication, edge profiles, cut-outs, delivery and installation. Those are itemised separately on your written quote so you can see what each choice costs.
How it behaves
Heat, staining, sealing and wear
The four things that decide whether you are happy with a worktop in five years' time.
Durability & scratching
Hard enough that ordinary kitchen use will not scratch it, though a knife used directly on the surface will eventually dull the polish. Use a board, not because the stone will fail, but because the sheen is what you paid for.
It chips at corners and around cut-outs if something heavy is dropped on them. The advantage over the alternatives is that quartz repairs well: a colour-matched resin fill on a solid colour is usually invisible once cured and polished back.
Heat
Quartz is the least heat-tolerant of the three materials we fit, and it is not close. The resin binder scorches and can discolour permanently, and a sudden temperature change can cause a thermal crack. A pan straight off a gas ring or out of the oven needs a trivet, every time. This is the single most common way a quartz worktop gets damaged.
Staining & porosity
Non-porous, so nothing soaks in. Red wine, olive oil, turmeric, coffee and beetroot all wipe off with soapy water even if left overnight. Avoid bleach, oven cleaner, drain unblocker and anything strongly alkaline. Those attack the resin rather than the quartz, and the dull patch they leave is not repairable.
Sealing
None. Not on installation, not ever. Anyone selling you a quartz sealer is selling you something you do not need.
Thickness
Quartz is produced in more than one slab thickness, and a mitred edge lets a thinner slab read as a much deeper one. Which thicknesses are available depends on the colour you choose, so we confirm that in writing at quotation rather than guessing here.
Whatever the slab thickness, a mitred edge folds the surface down at 45 degrees so a thinner slab reads as a deep one with the pattern running unbroken round the corner. See the edge profiles.
Who it suits
Busy family kitchens, anywhere you want two areas to match exactly, and anyone who wants a worktop they never have to think about maintaining.
If that does not sound like your kitchen, say so when you send us the plans. We fit all three families and we are not paid more for one than another, so the advice you get back is the advice we would give a friend.
The honest part
Where quartz is the wrong choice
Three things a showroom will not lead with. If any of them describes your kitchen, tell us and we will point you elsewhere.
Direct sunlight will yellow it
The resin is not UV stable. Conservatories, outdoor kitchens and long runs under strong south-facing glazing are all outside what quartz is built for, and most manufacturers exclude UV damage from their warranty. The yellowing is uneven. You get a shadow where the fruit bowl sat. If sun lands on your worktop for hours a day, we will point you at sintered stone or granite.
Hot pans are a real risk
Not a marketing caveat. Scorch marks and thermal cracks from hot cookware are the most frequent quartz damage we are called out to, and neither is covered by a material warranty because neither is a manufacturing defect.
It looks engineered, because it is
The marble-look patterns are printed and pressed, not geological. On a large island under good light, some people read that as clean and some read it as repetitive. It is worth seeing a decent-sized sample before you commit.
Colours
71 quartz colours
A dozen of them below. Photographs are indicative. Screens and slabs disagree, and a sample in your own kitchen at night is worth more than any image on this page.
Jump to a tone
15 of our quartz surfaces are not yet colour-tagged, so they will not appear under a tone filter. We would rather leave them untagged than guess and send you the wrong sample. Browse the full 71 to see them.
Send us the kitchen and we will price it properly
Plans, a sketch or photos with rough measurements is enough for an indicative range. After templating you get a fixed written quote with every cut-out and edge itemised, and installation 3–7 working days from template.
Not sure this is the right material? Tell us how the kitchen gets used and where the light falls. If quartz is wrong for it, we will say so before you have spent anything.
+44 7479 194398 · 5.0 from 23 Google reviews