If cultured marble is still as I remember it, I wouldn’t do it. Maybe consider granite? Presumably these are fairly small vanities— you may be able to get the stone in remnants at the stone yard. You could also look at all in one type vanities— Duravit has some really interesting ones.

Remnants of anything granite, marble marble, or quartz, over cultured marble. Or buy a half a slab of Hanstone for them all.

I had cultured marble in my bathrooms before I renovated and it is hideous. Unless they have greatly improved what it looks like. I can't imagine any upscale home actually installing cultured marble - my cultured marble bathroom was used in a bathroom that was originally built as rental units and then converted to condos. To call the finishes and fixtures "builder grade" would be a high compliment as they were all the cheapest of the cheap and I assume the cultured marble was the lowest cost material they could install in a bathroom since you can't use formica in a bathroom.

The cost of the material for the counters in a bathroom is really insignificant. You are going to be paying for the fabrication and installation cost. When I remodeled I found that the incremental cost of materials was relatively insignificant as compared to the total cost and the cost for labor - or course within reason but there are moderately priced solid surfaces that wouldn't be viewed as a complete negative the way cultured marble would be.

As @rainyseason posted there are alternatives to quartz if you are looking for less expensive alternatives. Go to a stone yard and look at remnants and there are attractive solid surface counter materials which are less expensive.

Not seeng a lot of use has nothing to do with keeping resale in mind in an "upscale home".

Many stock vanities (we got ours from home depot) come with real marble counters. There is not necessarily a need to have a custom counter made. You can also consider a pedestal or wall-mounted sink (no counter) for a bathroom that does not get a lot of use.

IMO it depends on the cultured marble but IMO I would a vanity with a real stone counter every time.

Thank you all!

I will go see the cultured marble ( i am planning all white in both cases) as @anj_p suggested but am leaning towards plain white quartz now given the other strong opinions. I have a lovely porcelain tile selected, so want a no-pattern countertop in plain white to avoid 2 patterns. That's why I eliminated marble and granite. It's a 60 inch countertop in a jack and jill, with 2 sinks and the quotes were a surprise. Ive gotten marble for much less than the quartz quote.

"How it will hold up over time is something I don't know, but for now I'm happy with the result."

Wait until daughter sets her curling iron down.

Since @Joseph Corlett, LLC has joined the thread perhaps he can advise on Corian since you want pure white counters. He is a big fan of Corian for a shower so I assume it would be fine as a counter in a bathroom.

Perhaps it's nuances but I think Corian is viewed as more "upscale" than cultured marble. I am basing this since OP's original post stated that it was an upscale home and she was looking towards resale which factor in.

I'd rather have her ruin cultured marble than quartz. One of the reasons I chose it. I don't think quartz would fare well under a hot curling iron either.

IMO a teen girl's bathroom (and possibly nowadays, a boy's bath) is no place for anything but granite...because; "temporary" hair coloring, body scents containing alcohol, electric styling tools, etc.. OR, get whatever you wish and plan to replace it before selling.

Just to clarify so people don't misunderstand the 'upscale' characterization. I added that only because I know one needs to remodel in line with the neighborhood, and my question was in that context.

As to why I need to be thoughtful about it - we are retired now, and have to be more careful with money, so I'm trying to remodel to the right standards for all the little-used rooms, and splurging more in the rooms we will use everyday ie: the kitchen and primary bathroom.

Corian or other similar solid surface (there are several brands comparable to Corian) would be a much better alternative to cultured marble, and less expensive than quartz.

We are using quartz for a bathroom remodel and it just arrived yesterday--so while I can't speak to its durability, it looks beautiful. We were deciding between quartz and engineered marble and went with the quartz largely because of some of the horror stories I read about marble etching and staining in bathrooms--not a good fit for our household. I ended up getting the counter from a big box store, despite some misgivings about buying online, because our local fabricators were so pricey. It direct-shipped from the fabricator (who also sells to consumers directly) and came well packaged, with no damage. No regrets so far--looks great, and we're mixing it with actual Carrara marble on our shower curbs (similarly, it was too pricey to get quartz for that, especially if we weren't also doing the vanity top, and the marble was the best match for our tile that a local stoneyard had in their remnants stock). I fully expected them not to match and had written that off as worth it for the cost savings--they're not adjacent--but it turns out they actually look very nice together, with more or less the same white.

If you can come up with a design that uses stock vanity sizes, you can get a range of pre-fabricated quartz options, including a pure white color. That could be a good compromise if you want quartz without the price tag. It's also low enough cost that if you want to replace it later, it won't break the bank. (We could buy three of our countertop for the lowest quartz quote we got, and six for the highest--and the pre-fab top came with the sink, too!)

If you are buying stone/granite slabs for other counters in the house, I'd see if you will have enough from them for this bathroom. IMO, that could be less expensive since you'd just pay for the fabrication. You will conserve the material.  

I would not consider cultured marble for my upscale area. 

I am building a guesthouse now that uses Corian for all counters, bathroom sinkes, backsplashes, showers, wet areas, etc

I have reservations about Corian given my area. However, it fits the modern aesthetic of the guesthouse's interior.  It was selecred by the architect.

Artemis, i didn't realize the big box stores did made to order countertops.

I'll certainly try that for a better price on quartz and check their corian too, as Kelley and others have suggested. Thanks so much, everyone!

You live in McLean in an upscale neighborhood. People expect to see upscale materials used. There are plenty of warehouses in NOVA, where you can find remnants to keep your cost down. They will also be cheaper than the big box stores.

Gorsh no one told me cultured marble is junky and will be damaged in a bathroom used by teens. My three teens never got the memo either back in 2001 and the cultured marble counter in the secondary bathroom is still going strong.

But I agree "one needs to remodel in line with the neighborhood,"

@paltmaie Ours was a stock size (increments of 3" or so)--the big boxes (or at least the orange one--we don't have the other nearby!) do also do custom quartz counters, but at least in our area, they had a job minimum of $2K. Our job wasn't (hopefully! ) going to be anywhere near that, so we didn't price them further. But if you can use a standard sized top (our vanity is 42" wide with a single sink, for instance) then you can order a prefabricated option. I think they go up to 72" or so.

FWIW, I also looked at Corian, but our local fabricators wanted to sell us a whole slab of that too so it ended up being comparably priced to quartz. I was surprised by how few places had/were willing to work with remnants.

Corian can suffer heat damage, but it's usually fixable, unlike engineered stone or cultured marble. Darker and more dense granite would be a good choice, but you could get a make-up or other stain in the whiter colors. She's not staining Corian.

That's for all the great input! @artemis, I am thrilled I can use the Home Depot off-the shelf quartz countertop for my smaller vanity - and it's so well priced! The 60" vanity is tougher - it's in an alcove, so I'll have to see whether an off-the-shelf vanity top can fit, since they are 1" wider, at 61"

The paradox of neighborhoods like McLean is that there will be a certain segment of buyers for whom nothing is quite right and they have the means and desire to remodel almost any home they move into. My friend lives in a similar very upscale neighborhood and regularly watched new kitchens being replaced every few years when the home changed hands.

Of course there will always be a segment of the population that does want a home with finishes that reflect the upscale nature of the neighborhood. Hell there are people who are buying their relatively inexpensive starter homes that expect high end finishes on a beer budget.

You don't state why you are remodeling. Do you even need to remodel the secondary bathrooms? I know this is heretical but if they are almost never used what does it matter what they look like. Are they functional? Unless you are enjoying the end results or this is for some other reason, you are not going to get a return on investment anyway. By the time you have to sell, the primary bathroom is going to be older anyway even if it was rarely used.

Thanks, Helen - I'm remodeling the secondary bathrooms because they (and the rest of the house) haven't been touched since the day the house was built in 1988, except to do a couple of hack jobs that are badly executed and would have been better not done. The bathrooms are pretty awful, in short. We do want our house to be both functional and not an eyesore in any respect, which the bathrooms are now.

The home price did reflect the state of the house, of course. We were fortunate not to have a bidding war situation since the sellers were anxious to sell without prepping the house at all and so accepted a fair offer before the house officially went on the market.

So I guess you could say I'm doing it for myself because I'm house-proud and don't want tired grungy bathrooms, but am trying to be economical at the same time.

Context is everything in terms of understanding what someone is attempting to accomplish with a remodel.

I understand why one would want to remodel *functional* but ugly bathrooms and kitchens. Mine were the original 1965 and were functional as the toilets, sinks and showers worked and there was hot water - but ugly. Same as my kitchens with harvest gold formica - yes the counters weren't cracked but they were offensively ugly.

Joseph Corlett— Is Corian damaged by hard water?

Generally no, however, I've seen some brands of solid surface that required a through abrasion and refinish to restore. Hard water can destroy granite and engineered stone.

Thank you!

I got more quotes for the plain white quartz and finally got a reasonable one! Thank you all.

Congrats, Paltmaie! I have to say seeing cultured marble is a big turn-off to me when I look at houses. I'd take a tiled counter over it.

We are doing a cultured marble tub/shower in our hall bath and a cultured marble roll-in shower in the master. I truly hate cleaning grout, the marble looks fine, and NO GROUT! We live in an area with soft water, so I’m not worried sbout it etching. We went with a grey and white linear pattern - vertical in the shower, horizontal in the tub.

Sadly cultured marble dates your home I understand your dislike of cleaning grout. Consider XL tiles to minimize grout lies or granite slabs to line your shoewer. That will ease your cleaning and increase you home's value.