Creating home designs that incorporate the look of natural stone is becoming highly popular. Stone is a versatile material that can fit in with many different styles of home decor, and it’s sophisticated look adds character to any type of living space. One incredibly popular stone is granite. It is known for being highly durable and is actually being chosen over marble to create outdoor monuments more and more often.
Home builders and re-modelers in the Phoenix construction industry use granite for everything from kitchen counters to commercial flooring. It’s distinct “grained” look and finished appearance is appealing to homeowners as well as commercial builders.
As popular as granite is, it is steadily being replaced by man-made or engineered stone products that are gaining popularity at a rapid pace. So which will win out? It might be too early to tell, but there are many pluses to using engineered stone that make it desirable for Phoenix contractors, as well as contractors in other cities.
Less maintenance. Engineered stone is composed of the hardest on-precious stone, natural quartz. Since this man-made stone is non-porous it requires much less maintenance than granite which needs to be sealed periodically. Engineered stone is also more stain, bacteria, and heat resistant than granite.
More durable. It’s strange to think that there is a “stone” more durable than granite, but because engineered stone is more than 90% solid quartz it is tougher (and a bit heavier) than granite which is only composed of about 40%-60% quartz. Phoenix construction contractors prefer to work with engineered stone because it is easier to work with than granite being much less likely to chip or crack during construction. Engineered stone will also last longer than granite, which is why homeowners are choosing to build with it more often.
There are many different styles of engineered stone to choose from. Many of the styles capture the radiant, polished look of quartz and limestone and have different edging styles. One downside to using engineered stone is that it has less variety when it comes to the mock-granite look. It just doesn’t offer the color variation and distinct look of granite. But who knows, maybe one day it’ll beat out granite in this area too.