Trying to find an alternative to Super White Dolomite!

6 years ago

I LOVE the look of Super White countertops but my builder won't let me put it in the kitchen because he says it will etch and stain similar to marble. What other options do I have to achieve the same look? My cabinets are white, paint is light gray, backsplash will most likely be bianco carrara tile pieces. I am looking for something with grays and white, no brown but also has the "look" of a marble or faux marble. Any ideas? Thanks!

Featured Answer

ms tfd

5 years ago

I love my SuperWhite dolomite. Not true that it will stain easily as marble. If sealed properly, liquid will always bead. Acid etching is another story. While a good stone guy or gal can usually polish it out, you do have to be careful about citrus, vinegar, etc., left standing on your counter. Mine is 4 years old and looks as pretty as the day it was installed. Like anything else, just depends how much care you can take.

Quartz is great for the above stated reasons and is a lot better than it used to be, but still cannot perfectly mimic the depth of granite, marble or dolomite. My shower walls are quartz, with a real soapstone base and its very easy to keep clean. Hope you were able to get what you wanted for your kitchen.

My SuperWhite still shines:

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Comments (9)

javiwa
6 years ago
Kudos to your builder for giving you sound advice. Just do a search for "Super White" in the GardenWeb/Houzz Kitchens forum, and you'll see a ton of info re: SW.

Look into Macaubus White quartzite (and its crosscut counterpart Calacatta, which we had installed).

The background reads a very light grey. Be sure to bring a sample into your kitchen to view the stone in your lighting (vs judging a stone under warehouse fluorescents or sunlight). Good luck with your kitchen.
mark_rachel
6 years ago
You should be able to install whatever you want.
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Most definitely pause. It's marble often enough that I wouldn't dream of proceeding without checking it out further. Good catch nebster! Thanks, Karin. Being married to a geologist, but nevertheless not knowing anything about rocks, I appreciate your contributions to the forums here over the many years. I have spoken with the gal at the slabyard, and they say they've sold tons of these slabs over the last few years and have never had any complaints, so she felt like they would have heard if people were getting etching and marble performance instead of the expected granite/quartzite imperviousness. That sounds pretty rational, but better safe than sorry! What surprises me is that the arabescato is so consistently visually similar with itself. (Especially versus all the other "whites" that are out there.) So I am surprised that a slab would ever look like this and be of a totally different composition. Unless it turns out this stuff is always marble; that would fit with my simple mental model of the world. :)
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Mamabear, I'll gladly be your enabler. I fell in love with Super White here on GW. When we went to look at slabs at the fabricator our builder used, I didn't hold out much hope that I would find any slabs so never mentioned Super White to DH. As we were walking through the yard, DH was ahead of me. I found him stopped in front of a lot of SW. I couldn't have asked for a better reaction from him. We tagged 3 slabs and took loads of pictures. I committed the GW sin of not obtaining a sample so no testing was done. I was just excited to have found this amazing stone and that DH was totally on board with it. Much drama occured after templating that I won't go into, but ultimately, we ended up with gorgeous countertops in our kitchen, master bath and half bath. We had the fabricator apply a sealer that supposedly would protect it for 10 years. One year after moving into our new home, I have experienced no staining or etching. I'm not an obsessive housekeeper, nor is DH who is home during the day while I work. I do have some small pieces now that I could test, but I've chosen not to. Don't want to jinx my good fortune. Good luck with your decision. I'm certainly happy with mine.
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alextkantor
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks! I'll take a look at those quartzite options. And yes, I thought I would be able to pick whatever I wanted but it has to do with builders warranty and they don't want to warranty a marble if it gets ruined.
DrB477
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I'm sure if you forced the issue you could install what you want and forgo the warranty, not that I would advise you do that. My understanding is that most of what is labeled Super White behaves like marble because it IS marble.

Alternatively, there's now a ton of marble-ish quartz patterns made by many companies, none of them are going to be a dead ringer for super white but they are still very nice in their own right.

I personally used both LG Viatera Muse and Aura in my house. Aura in particular I think gives some of the feel of super white with lots going in in various shades of white and grey which is why I liked it. Karis also is nice and seems to be very similar to Muse with more veining.

More pics here

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/pittsburgh-kitchen-mudroom-closet-addition-reveal-dsvw-vd~4948003?n=40[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/pittsburgh-kitchen-mudroom-closet-addition-reveal-dsvw-vd~4948003?n=40)
alextkantor
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you for your response. I'll check out some quartz options too.
nanj
6 years ago
Polarstone Quartz is man-made and does an amazing job of replicating marble. I've seen a large selection of their slabs and they are beautiful.

This is a link to a slab yard near us:

https://www.agmimports.com/polar-stone-quartz-collection
PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
6 years ago
"You should be able to install whatever you want."

No, you shouldn't. There is more to consider than just the whims of a customer. I'll bet this builder has eaten a top after having warned a customer that their selection was unsuitable, despite having them sign a waiver.

Waivers don't defend you on the internet against your own customer's stupidity. Customers don't want to hear it, but the best contractor/builder you can get is one who isn't afraid to tell you "No.".
MotherOfGiants
6 years ago
I second the quartz recommendation. In the past few years there have been some amazing patterns coming on the market. It's best if you can see a slab, or at least a very large sample, because the variation -- which makes it more realistic and beautiful -- can also make small samples useless or even misleading.

Trying to find an alternative to Super White Dolomite!

ms tfd

Comments (9)

javiwa

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Trying to find an alternative to Super White Dolomite!

ms tfd

Comments (9)

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mark_rachel

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