Materials
Quartz vs granite countertops: which should you pick?
The question every kitchen client asks
Somewhere between the layout meeting and the cabinet order, every kitchen remodel arrives at the slab decision. Quartz and granite have both earned their place, and the marketing around each is thick enough that homeowners arrive with strong opinions built on half-facts. Here is the comparison the way we give it across the kitchen table, including where each one honestly wins.
What they actually are
Granite is quarried stone, cut from the earth and polished: every slab is unique, and its pattern runs all the way through. Quartz is engineered: roughly 90 percent ground natural quartz bound in resin with pigments, manufactured into slabs with controlled, repeatable patterns. The resin is the key to most of the practical differences below, for better and worse.
Side by side
| Trait | Quartz | Granite |
|---|---|---|
| Stain resistance | Excellent; non-porous, nothing soaks in | Good when sealed; porous stone can stain if sealing lapses |
| Sealing | Never | Typically every 1 to 3 years, a quick DIY wipe-on |
| Heat | Resin can scorch under a hot pan; use trivets | Handles hot cookware with ease |
| Pattern | Consistent, controllable, easy to match at seams | One of one; dramatic movement, visible seam transitions |
| UV and sun | Can discolor in strong direct sun over time | Stable; the safer pick for sun-flooded rooms |
| Repairability | Chips are resin-repairable; deep burns are not | Chips and even cracks can often be stone-repaired |
| Feel and look | Modern, uniform, wide color range including marble looks | Natural, unrepeatable, mineral depth |
Where quartz wins
Busy households that treat the counter as a workbench and never want to think about sealing, staining, or whether the red wine sat too long. Design plans that need the island and the perimeter to match exactly, or that want the marble look without marble's fragility. Tight seam-matching in long runs. If the brief is "low maintenance and consistent," the answer is quartz.
Where granite wins
Cooks who slide pans off the burner onto the counter without thinking. Rooms with strong, all-day direct sunlight. Anyone who wants the counter to be the one-of-a-kind element in the room; no two granite slabs repeat, which is why we send clients to the fabricator's yard to pick their actual slab, not a sample chip. And in older Vancouver homes with character, natural stone often simply belongs.
The cost conversation
Entry-level granite and entry-level quartz overlap heavily in installed price, and both climb steeply with exotic patterns and premium brands; the honest answer is that your fabricator quote, on your chosen slab, with your edge profile and sink cutouts, is the only number that means anything. Two Washington-specific notes: the installed counter carries Washington sales tax like the rest of the contract, which our sales tax explainer covers, and the counter is one line in a larger budget, which our kitchen cost guide puts in context with sourced ranges.
Our verdict
If you will not commit to the trivet habit, buy granite. If you will not commit to the sealing habit, buy quartz. If neither habit scares you, pick with your eyes: both are durable enough that in a kitchen we build, the slab will not be the thing that ages first.
Countertop questions
Which is more durable, quartz or granite?
Both outlast the kitchen around them when treated reasonably. Granite is harder against heat: a hot pan straight off the burner is a risk to quartz resin but rarely to granite. Quartz is more forgiving on stains and never needs sealing because it is non-porous. For most households the practical durability difference is small; habits matter more than the slab.
Does granite really need to be sealed every year?
Most granite benefits from periodic resealing, commonly every one to three years depending on the stone's porosity and the sealer used. It is a ten-minute wipe-on job, not a project. Quartz needs no sealing at all, which is the main maintenance difference between the two.
Is quartz or granite better for resale?
Neither has a meaningful resale edge over the other; buyers respond to a cohesive, current kitchen more than to the slab brand. What is documented is that kitchen updates in general pay back unusually well in this region: a midrange minor kitchen remodel recouped 129.1 percent of its cost in the Pacific region in the 2025 Cost vs. Value report (© 2025 Zonda Media, www.costvsvalue.com).
Free in-home estimates
Ready to plan your remodel?
Tell us about your project. The licensed contractor visits, measures, and gives you a written scope and price. No obligation.
- Written pricing
- Permits handled
- Warranty in writing