Granite or Quartz?

Our kitchen countertop needs some serious upgrade. Just about anything would be a huge upgrade from cracked corian (don't ask me how the previous owners did it), but to boost our home value, we wanted to invest in either granite or quartz. Both are natural stones, but the latter is a composite. Consumer Reports and Consumer Search helped me narrow down to these two choices, while I did some serious research at the store to come down to a final decision.

I was impressed by the variety of colors offered at Home Depot for quartz when compared to granite. A main feature of their quartz offering is its built-in antimicrobial protection and its low maintenance as no sealing is required.

Quartz by Silestone

At first, I thought quartz would be the answer since in general, granite requires more maintenance in terms of sealing as it is a porous stone. However, I learned from my trip to HD that the granite they carry requires no sealing at all! I was eying their color named Platinum Blue, which looked grey from afar, but carried little hints of blue up close with hints of sparkle.

Granite by Stonemark

Our decision came down to a no brainer when we factored in the price. With granite starting at $57 vs. quartz at $61, why not pick the real natural stone and not the composite? Believe me, making this decision was so much easier than picking tiles!