Hi all, looking for some advise. We recently had our kitchen redone and it looks beautiful. We went with what the stoneyard called calacatta ("quartzite")... but it seems a lot of this stone is marketed under super white. I know there is a lot of discussion on this forum about what this stone actually is. Aside from all of the issues, it is truly beautiful and i will add pictures later. Here is my issue- i had a marble slab with rubber feet on the counter, and from moving it, the rubber feet left drag marks on the countertop which do not come out WITH ANYTHING. So thats issue one, why rubber feet marked my super shiny top. I dont think my fabricator knows much about this stone, because he came back to seal after the backsplash work was done and then said sealing for this stone wasnt necessary. But he did use a tanez color enhancer sealer on one portion of the counter that was looking dullish (different areas of the stone have different "shine" levels, i think this is just inherent in this particular slab). Anyway, this sealer didnt do antything to affect color on this portion of the stone. However, when used on a small portion of the very highly polished island, it left an etch mark. It didnt change the color, but when directional light hits it, you see that "shadow" which we could not remove even right after! So issue number two, why the heck did sealer seemingly etch my top? Or is it because he rubbed it into that particular spot? Or is it because it was only in one apot, and aince it ia a color enhancer as well, it should have been applied to the entire piece to avoid that blotch. Issue three is that the surface althought incredibly shiny, with directional light looks like it has greasy smudges or fingerprints all over it. Again, these dont rub out. Issue four, i did the water drop test and it did darken in one spot after a few minutes but then evaporated dry. In another spot- a less shiny area which looks almost honed, it left a slight mark. Oh and then he said the craziest thing- dont clean this with anything except windex (BLASPHEMY!!) OR some soft scrub or barkeepers. And then, im not sure, to cover his ass, he said this is partly a mandmade stone made from fragments, compressed, and glued together under pressure, which ive never heard of. I think pictures will help and ill add tomm as it is 1 am and this is keeping me up. Im sitting there like... what the heck, and obviously looking for a way to clean this up that does not involve them, they dont seem like he brightest. Any of you super white / calacatta quartzite owners have these issues? How do you clean your counters? Should i get a professional restoring sealing company who specializes in that to come look at it and see what can be done? Im scared to use my kitchen now!!Any suggestions would be truly helpful!!! Or if there are any professionals that can steer me in the right direction i would highly appreciate it!!!

Has anyone seen Mont Blanc quartzite used in a kitchen? I saw some slabs and they were quite lovely, but the veins were a bit more linear than I would like. (Yes, I am extremely fussy!) Taj Mahal quartzite varies immensely in tome and colour. It is difficult to find a very light one with delicate markings The thing that concern's me about marble in a kitchen vs in a bathroom, is that unless some people have strange habits, acidic liquids such as lemon, vinegar, tomato sauce, pickles or red wine usually don't end up on bathroom counter tops, but any of those will etch marble very quickly.

Thank you Joseph! I already have a sealer (brought it with me from the previous house with the coffee bar and granite kitchen counters) but it’s reassuring to hear from an expert that my gut was right - it needs more sealer. I take it I should continue to seal until it passes the water test?

Then there is this article - that had me leaning toward quartzite ... http://usenaturalstone.org/definitive-guide-quartzite/ The Houzz article above has me leaning towards Quartz. : ) I am of the opinion that that are good features in both. Quartzite can take heat and you cannot set a hot pot on Quartz. Quartz does not stain as bad as Quartzite since Quartzite is a natural stone. Quartzite has to be sealed. I don't think Quartz does. I am thinking it is a toss up The one thing I am worried about is the part about the citrus and etching Quartz I have read a lot about. I use lemons a lot and we all cook around our island so I don't have full control of watching it all the time. . I would love to hear opinions from folks who have either. Have you had any issues with either choice?