Choosing a stone countertop for your bathroom can be fun and innovative, but you want some pointers on how to go about doing it so you get the best quality product to transform your bathroom. So, how do you do it without driving yourself crazy with indecision, worry, and your budget?
There are some things you need to take into account when you shop for the right stone product for your bathroom countertop. Those things or factors include:
- Budget
- Durability
- Aesthetics
- Cleaning
- Maintenance
- Resale Value
Whether you’re remodeling a bathroom space for yourself or for an increased value in a home for sale project, here are some guidelines as to the type of stone to use for bathroom countertops.
Granite Countertops
You can consider granite a top choice for bathroom countertops. It’s consistently popular, durable, and resistant to scratches and dents. In addition, granite is stain resistant and has anti-microbial attributes. It’s also less expensive than marble and requires less upkeep. It ranges in price from $75 to $200 plus per square foot, but that will depend on the size, thickness, and origin of the granite.
Because of its porosity, maintenance may involve an initial sealing and intermittent resealing and cleaning with recommended products or do-it-yourself formulations.
If you have a genuine interest in granite for your bathroom countertops, you’ll want to look for granite companies nearby you so you can compare prices on granite and other stone selections.
Homeowners choose granite because of the variety in its fleck patterning and veining of colors and its ability to bring a look of quiet elegance to a kitchen area. Best of all, granite countertops in your bathroom are going to increase the value of your home mostly because other people love the durability and look of granite and want it in their own bathrooms.
Quartz Countertops
Quartz is quite the rival with granite in most any decorating scheme. Though quartz is an engineered or man-made stone, it carries many design choices compared to natural stone, and it increases the value of your home as granite does. It’s made in combination with crushed quartz and minerals mixed with resin binders. Resins close the pores of this stone, helping to make quartz stain resistant.
The way quartz looks, it can have fine veining and other color patterns that work well in bathroom spaces. There are also solid color choices and even patterns with speckles that give the look of natural stone.
The benefit of the quartz appearance is that you can have the look of natural stone without the upkeep hassle. With the use of quartz on smaller surfaces, there will be seams that are more noticeable compared with granite. You can enlarge a space when you use white quartz for countertops as it brightens the area and brings an open look to it. You’ll always want to see samples before you commit to choosing quartz, or any other stone.
Quartz is resistant to staining, scratching chipping, and cracking, which makes it a good choice for any bathroom space. It’s also easy to clean as it doesn’t really require any type of special cleaning product.
Marble Countertops
Marble is a luxurious and natural stone. The veining and color consistency in marble are more pronounced compared to granite and quartz. It’s available in different styles and finishes and takes to staining for an exclusive look. It can be a costly stone and runs between $100-200 per square foot, and that’s because of its true elegance and quarrying location in the world. Costs can fluctuate because of a demand for the stone, its availability, the choice in a marble slab, and its thickness.
When marble is for smaller surface areas, the seams are inconspicuous compared to the same areas where quartz would go.
Despite its elegance, marble countertops are subject to etching and dents because of the softness of the stone. It also has low resistance to stains and for protection against stains and enhancement of antibacterial attributes, you’ll need to seal marble bathroom countertops at least every three to six months and definitely yearly.
If you like the beauty and elegance of marble, but don’t want the cleaning and maintenance that goes with it, look into cultured marble, as it has greater strength and durability and the luxuriousness of real marble.
Marble is another stone, like granite and quartz, that increases the value of a home by a good percentage and is an excellent choice for your bathroom space.
Porcelain Countertops
Porcelain has been popular outside of the United States but is just now gaining ground here. It’s a less expensive alternative to granite, quartz, and marble bathroom countertops.
It’s not only resistant to heat and scratches, which is important with bathroom countertops, and it has a good level of resistance to stains and water. Porcelain is very strong compared to granite so worries with chipping and scratches are limited. It also withstands high heat well, so you don’t have to worry about damaging its surface like you would with quartz.
Porcelain is available in different styles that include smooth one color looks that are comparable to marble. It also provides a comfortable warmth to a bathroom space.
Porcelain tiles can be fragile as can the grout lines with fading and other issues, so it’s best to hire professionals to install the tiles for you. Sealing porcelain countertops is recommended to reduce color fading with grout lines, which should be done yearly.
Another feature of porcelain is you can use just about anything to clean bathroom countertops. It doesn’t etch like marble even with the use of stronger chemically based cleaners. Porcelain may not be as high-end as the other stone countertop selections but it is definitely in the running for a top contender with its durability and low maintenance and its overall lower price, plus it adds to the value of your home as it doesn’t show wear and has a similar look to marble.
If you have further questions concerning the right stone to use for countertops in your bathroom, or you just want to know more about the features of each one or look at samples, call Marble Concepts at 215-396-7393. They’ll be happy to answer questions you may have and help you with deciding on the right stone for your bathroom.
