Yes, I was told that some quartzite does etch. I was asking on the stone advise forum about one called Mont Blanc that was listed as quartzite by the stone yard and this is what I was told: Mont Blanc is not a granite. It was introduced as a quartzite which is harder than granite. But unfortunately it is not a quartzite. It is what we have come to refer to as a hybrid marble/quartz material. It will scratch and etch. It is suitable for kitchens as long as you treat it like a marble and install it honed. So although there are probably pure quartzite stones out there, there are also stones that may be somewhere in between. That means it is probably important to test the stone you are getting the make sure it is what you expect. I would be very upset if I got a "quartzite" instead of marble because marble was not practical for me and ended up with soemthing that would stain and etch anyway. Sue

We just remodeled our home and installed honed Calacatta marble countertops in the Kitchen. For the backsplash, I really have my heart set on matching 4x12 honed Calacatta marble subway tiles. Buying an extra slab and custom cutting the tiles from the same marble yard as the countertops is not an option. We have gone through multiple samples from various stores with no luck matching the veining (it's not even close) so far. Has anyone else tried to match their marble countertops to a marble backsplash? If so, where is the best place to start? How does it look? Is this a lost cause? Pictures of our Kitchen Reno can be found here

These are expensive finishes. It sounds like the house is higher-level build (luxury finishes are rarely put in entry-level homes). If the house is right, things can always be changed. In real estate, it is location, location, location. If they are worried this could be a 'look but don't touch house' then they are probably not ready to live with luxury finishes. And any floor scratches. Stone, concrete, porcelain, wood, paint, packed earth, carpet, etc. They all scratch. Gravity works with means the floors are the surface that are guaranteed to have SOMETHING touching every second of every day for the entire life of the house. It is a simple truth.

We have Corian ... it's around forty years old and looks pretty much the same as ever. It's not plasticky, but it certainly doesn't feel like the granite on our island either. It's a nice, smooth, non-porous surface and super easy to clean. We even had accidental sharpie bleed through, and it came off with SoftScrub; you'd never know it ever happened. There might be a few marks where the point of a knife hit, but I couldn't tell you were those are. You shouldn't cut on your countertop, anyways; it's terrible for your knives, but yes, there's always a chance the knife runs off the edge of the cutting board or something, so it is something to consider. Corian can be sanded or micro sanded to remove cut marks if they're not too deep; we've never had to. Our Corian is white with cream marbling (no names back then ... you just picked white, cream, or white/cream marbled), and it doesn't show dust; it will show crumbs and such. The polished black granite island shows everything, especially fingerprints. I don't mind seeing dust and crumbs, since we'd rather know they're there to be cleaned up, but the fingerprints are annoying. We have the same Corian in one bathroom (counter and sink) that looks great and cleans great there, too. The other bathroom has white Corian, it has a dent from where something fell, but other than that no issues with it either. I'd get Corian again. My sister's granite counters are classic cream and brown speckle, and they always look great despite toddlers and cats and whatever they knock over. They have to be cleaned constantly (toddlers, cats ...), but a quick wipedown is all it takes. If you get on just the right angle you might find some toddler prints, but the pattern seems to hide them.