We installed quartzite on an island in our kitchen 2 years ago. It is beautiful and is the showcase of out kitchen and living room area. Unfortunately, we have issues where there appears to have been moisture that has caused discoloring. This is only where the stone was cut or drilled into - this soap dispenser and to a lesser extent at the seams.

Is there anything that can be done to repair this or at least stop it from spreading any further. This has less than 2 years of use on it so really disappointing that we are already having these issues.

In the picture I am referring to the dark ring around the soap dispenser

did you seal it?

does it dry out if left for a few days?

I had quartzite installed last weekend. Go to Houzz.com, type in quartzite countertops and go to the discussion section. You will find more information than you can digest.

After a ton of reading, I learned while quartzite is extremely hard, the porosity varies based on the stone. The more crystalline quartzite (Taj Majal, sea pearl, etc…) are really not porous at all and virtually maintenance free. Many of the whiter quartzites are more porous and require sealing every 6-12 months, or really when they start absorbing water like yours.

If that's really a stain, and not just water being absorbed, you can put some poultice mixture on it to remove the stain, let it dry, and reseal.

After researching all the dealers, Tenax Proseal is the leader in the clubhouse when it comes to quartzite.

Oh, a lot of grey/white stone sold as quartzite is marble. There are tests you can perform to determine what you have (lemon test), again go read on Houzz.

Good luck!

Were you quartzite all the way or did you consider quart?

We are in the process of deciding what we want. Wife is leaning towards quartzite but quartz seems to be a tad cheaper and there are a few out there that do a decent-ish job of mimicking natural stone. She would do marble if she could but we had it in our bathroom at last house and it was a huge PITA.

We want a whiter look but that seems tougher to find in quartzite without paying too dollar (4-5K per slab and we need 3).

We originally were looking at quartz, but once I read about the lack of heat tolerance, I did more research and ended up going with quartzite. We cook a lot, my wife uses countertop slow cooker in the winter a lot, I was used to setting hot pans on the granite in a pinch…. Also had my wife's flat iron leave a burn mark in our bathroom.

I think you can actually get a more uniform look, per slab, and for a sure a whiter white, with quartzite. Probably couldn't go wrong with either, but we ended up with quartzite for the reasons outlined above

We went with Mont Blanc, it's quarried in Brazil. There is some Mont Blanc marketed as being from Italy that appears to be marble, so just buyer beware. If it were just me, I would've found the whitest crystalline Taj Majal I could find, but my wife didn't like the look.

Cost wise it was in line with what you mentioned, including fabrication/installation.

Appreciate the response. You saying 4-5K installed has me scratching my head. I am struggling to get a good sense of what this is going to cost. Granted wife liked some Calcutta Lux which apparently is "premium" so she is telling me. But can't imagine it being nearly double what you seem to have paid.



The heat thing is a big factor. Not that we can't change habits but I do tend to set hot pans directly on our current, ugly granite. Def like the idea of a low maintenance material especially in kitchen. Don't want to spend the next decade or two of my life being overly careful in my kitchen.

The counter top installer should be able to give you an estimate based on linear feet edge, and total square foot install.

We went with a quartzite-hybrid of some sort. I wanted to go with the Taj Mahal (top photo) that was < $2000 and my wife wanted the "mumtaz quartzite" that was 2x. At least it was a super slab and we only needed 1.

Let me rephrase that, it was $4-5k per slab, including fabrication/installation… we needed 2 slabs.

For comparison sake, total cost of quartz being installed was $4k total.

We'd also received quotes as low as $3,250 per slab of quartzite, really just depending on the particular slabs.

We are getting some pretty wild ranges and even about a $2K difference on the exact same slab at the same warehouse. We are only working with fabricators. No contractors.

Ballpark the fabrication costs are coming in between $6K and $9K (includes a bit of demo, of a raise part of our current counter and also we are taking the slab up the wall as our backsplash).

Couple slabs from a recent quote (material only):

1) Daltile Calcatta Quartzite 3CM = $3,941 per slab

2) IMC Quartz Blanco Crystal 3CM = $3,572 per slab

3) IMC Selection Calcatta Lux = $5,200 per slab

We can maybe sneak by with 2 jumbo slabs but likely will need 3 slabs. So total cost could range from $17K to $19K.

If I had to guess...in total...ballpark is going to be about 100 square feet including the backsplash....

Edit to add picture of kitchen:

So the $3,941 Calcatta Quartzite....we got a bit today which priced at $2,567.

Crazy how these fabricators play games with numbers.

BigNastyNate said:

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I had quartzite installed last weekend. Go to Houzz.com, type in quartzite countertops and go to the discussion section. You will find more information than you can digest.

After a ton of reading, I learned while quartzite is extremely hard, the porosity varies based on the stone. The more crystalline quartzite (Taj Majal, sea pearl, etc…) are really not porous at all and virtually maintenance free. Many of the whiter quartzites are more porous and require sealing every 6-12 months, or really when they start absorbing water like yours.

If that's really a stain, and not just water being absorbed, you can put some poultice mixture on it to remove the stain, let it dry, and reseal.

After researching all the dealers, Tenax Proseal is the leader in the clubhouse when it comes to quartzite.

Oh, a lot of grey/white stone sold as quartzite is marble. There are tests you can perform to determine what you have (lemon test), again go read on Houzz.

Good luck!

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Also might make sense to pull the soap dispenser and put the poultice paste on the edges of the cut hole to pull the stain out the way it most likely went in. Those edges probably didnt get sealed when the hole was cut and if the soap dispenser isnt siliconed to the top, water, soap, etc are likely seeping down into the hole and soaking in through the side walls of the hole.

If yall are in houston my wife does design work and is able to get discount st one of the largest quartz showrooms in town, and could probably get a discount st others. Of course she has design fees if she's helping you out, but may be an option worth exploring. I won't post her info publicly but would be happy to PM it.