Quartz countertops in New Jersey — full slabs, four brands, priced by level

Why quartz is the default

Quartz is about ninety percent ground natural quartz bound with resin and pigment, pressed and cured into a slab that is harder than granite on the Mohs scale, non-porous, and the same on the last slab as on the first. It does not need sealing, it does not stain from wine or oil, and it comes in the Calacatta, Carrara and Statuario looks that natural marble makes you work for. The trade-offs are heat — set a trivet under the pan; the resin can scorch — and sunlight, which can yellow older resins outdoors, which is where Dekton and porcelain come in.

The four brands on our floor

• Reliance Quartz — Reliance Surfaces' own line, cut from a Kenilworth, New Jersey slab yard twenty minutes from the Union showroom: more than a hundred colours, polished, honed, suede and leathered finishes, 2 cm and 3 cm slabs and a Super Jumbo format. The slabs you can go and see this afternoon.
• MSI Q Premium Natural Quartz — 125-plus colours, Mohs 7–8, a limited lifetime residential warranty, with the LumaLuxe and Q Studio collections made in South Carolina, from MSI's Edison, NJ distribution centre.
• Silestone by Cosentino — the HybriQ+ formulation with premium minerals and recycled glass and far less crystalline silica; near-zero porosity, 12, 20 and 30 mm slabs, Polished, Suede and Volcano finishes, a 25-year transferable warranty, collections such as Ethereal, Le Chic, Loft and Sunlit Days.
• Caesarstone — the quartz pioneer since 1987: Calacatta Nuvo, Empira White, Statuario Maximus, 2 cm and 3 cm and jumbo slabs, a lifetime residential warranty for the original owner, plus a 2025 porcelain collection and the silica-free ICON mineral surface.

Forty MSI quartz colours in stock, sold by the square foot

Calacatta Miraggio, Miraggio Gold, Laza, Leon, Ultra, Sierra, the Taj series, Arctic White, Fossil Gray and more are on our own racks in New Jersey. Because the slabs are ours, you pay for the square feet your kitchen needs rather than a whole slab, and you can see the actual material before deciding. See every stock colour.

Quartz kitchens we have installed

Calacatta-pattern quartz with mitred edges in the rift white oak kitchen; a Calacatta waterfall in the Chatham kitchen and the matte white slab kitchen; marble-pattern quartz as a full-height backsplash in Cranford; white quartz on the navy-island kitchen. Each project page names the stone.

Edges, thickness and backsplashes

3 cm is the standard for a counter with an eased or mitred edge; 2 cm with a laminated edge or a mitred waterfall for a lighter look. A quartz slab backsplash cut from the same slab as the counter is the cleanest wall there is and goes in with the counter rather than with the tile. We template after the cabinets are set and install about two weeks later; the backsplash tile, if any, follows the counter. Compare the materials in quartz vs quartzite vs granite vs porcelain.