If you have to seal and treat an engineered product carefully ... why not just get the real thing and go with Soapstone? There are also some dark honed granites that are more forgiving.

Strength? I'm actually losing track of why Quartz is a good choice at all.

We have a leathered granite counter in the colors you like, in our laundry room. That room is my husband‘s domain (it’s the entrance from the garage), and I can tell you it’s had everything thrown at it...all kinds of liquids, some chemicals, and many things accidentally dropped on it, like tomato paste, when the can exploded (the laundry is also our second pantry.). The counter cleaned up easily, leaving no smudges, no stains.

Why choose a material (quartz) that has a chance of being ruined if it’s leathered, when you can have the look you want in risk free stone, as most darker granites are? Btw, we have a very hard variety of soapstone in our kitchen.

Here’s a pic of the laundry room stone. Click to enlarge.

I thought granite was far more susceptible to stains from liquid than quartz?

Most dark granites won’t stain. Leathered granites probably should be sealed (ours was). After sealing, no worries.

We put soapstone in the kitchen because it is impervious. It cannot stain or etch. It never needs sealing. In fact, soapstone shouldn’t be sealed. Not even if it’s leathered.

Btw, I have white quartz in my shower niche. The shelves are stained from the wet bottoms of the shampoo and conditioner bottles. Through the years on this forum, there have been many reports of quartz counters staining. Do a search.

We have Granite, Dolomite, Quartzite and quartz in our home. The only one we have had any problem with is the Ultra white quartz. It doesn't stain with food or anything like that but it stained

when water from a glass was left sitting overnight. We do have hard water.

I thought you might enjoy this thread.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5998994/countertops-are-the-worst

Ask your fabricator for a large remnant, plop it on your countertops for a month, and see how it behaves for you. There are mixed messages out there regarding matte finishes on estone. Hit the remnant with some Tenax Quartz Toner, please.

"It cannot stain or etch."

Spill some toilet bowl cleaner with hydrochloric acid in it on soapstone, set the bottle on top overnight, and get back to us please.

It may not stain or etch, but you can get vacuum pod marks from your fabricator on soapstone; we just had some posted here recently. Don't know if they got 'em out or not.

IMO polished granite is close to bullet proof and IMO way ahead of quartz in actul use in a home.

Joseph,

This is the first confirmation I have seen that toilet cleaner will etch soapstone. Is there anything I can do to restore the small patch where it spilled? Thank you!

Not all granites are created equal and it is true that some stain more easily than others, but IME they are much more bulletproof than quartz overall, especially when properly sealed (and this is NOT the big deal chore that some people believe it to be). Quartz' popularity is all due to HGTV and marketing buzz in my opinion.

I have a box of soapstone samples right now—I could try the toilet cleaner for fun and worry free. Might be interesting. I’m a lot of fun at parties, I swear. 😂

Since you like the look of dark counters, I would do soapstone or absolute black or jet mist granite. A lot less worry than quartz and better durability.

Countertop person here.

If it is a NATURAL stone, yes, you may have staining issues. If the brand of quartz (engineered stone) claims there is no additional maintenance involved with a finish other than polished, than you are fine. But make sure that it written somewhere and not just a sales rep telling you that. Cambria claims there is no additional maintenance for their matte finish. NEVER seal a quartz countertop. It is useless. Sealer is made to get into the tiny pores of a natural stone to give you additional time before the stone starts pulling in the liquid. It is not a guarantee against staining though and just gives you extra time. Quartz is essentially non-porous and harsh chemicals not approved by the brand manufacturer may discolor your countertop.

General rule: There is NO perfect material for countertops that will not stain, scratch or chip. It does not exist. Quartz is more resistant to staining but you an still do it. Polished or other finish doesn't matter. You can still scratch both engineered and natural stone and both can still chip. Quartz is just generally harder chip but it's not impossible.

Also - when talking about hardness of stone. We have remnants in the back and for 14 years, I have been knocking off corners of those remnants for customers so they have a tiny sample to take home if needed (I do this with a hammer). I can EASILY break off any granite. Sometimes, I do have to ask one of the guys to help me knock a corner off of a quartz remnant. It is a lot harder to do.

Brands matter when it comes to quartz quality- they are not all made the same way.

Not all granite is porous -- the darks tend to be pretty much non-absorbent, some granites don't need sealing at all. But yea - no perfect material, comes down to what you need and how you use the surface/what you expose it to and the look you want.

It is porous. It's a rock. Lighter granite is more porous than darker granite and it is harder to stain a darker granite for that fact but it is porous. If you take a dark granite sample and wet one side, it will look darker than the other sides because the water soaks into the stone.

We use water when cutting and fabricating the material. Once it gets put on an A frame still wet, it takes a long time to dry after being in water for so long. You can see the top of the pieces drying first because the water runs down the pieces when sitting up on the frames- the top starts looking lighter than the bottom. If the material was not porous, it wouldn't take a couple hours to completely dry and would dry quickly such as a quartz. (I am not claiming all quartz is essentially nonporous either- depends on brand of quartz and what the manufacturers but into the material).

for anyone deciding on a quartz- almost all brands offer a warranty for the product. I encourage you to ask your fabricator about it but if you know the brand, you can simply go to the brands website, read what the warranty does cover and read their care and maintenance informational. If you choose to go with that brand, register for the warranty after your installation. The registration link should be on their website as well.