Natural vs Quartz vs Porcelain Stone

Most stone materials can be classified into three main groups:

1. Natural Stone. This means that large blocks of raw stone are cut from a mountain or quarry, processed into slabs and sold to stone fabricators as natural marble, granite or quartzite slabs.

2. Quartz/Engineered Stone. For engineered surfaces, the same natural materials such as quartz are processed by compressing the material into a denser and less porous slab improving the durability and consistency of the slabs.

3. Porcelain Stoneware. To produce porcelain involves an even more technologically advanced production process as raw clays and materials are compressed then subjected to a firing process at over 1100 °C. Although the process is more advanced, the resulting surface is incredibly resistant to wear, mechanical stress and thermal stress.

Although the beauty from natural stone is obvious, natural stone, or granite stone, always contains large variation in aesthetics. This is because each slab of natural stone is individually cut from granite quarry, making each granite slab, naturally unique. Other factors that reduce the consistency of natural stone is the quarry location, the climate and conditions that the stone has been formed. Even natural stone mined in the same location can vary hugely from batch to batch due to the previously mentioned conditions. The downside of this is the limitation to guarentee a consistent surface. On the flip-side, a natural stone benchtop will be different, and completely unique however we recommend you viewing the natural slab before confirming.

With quartz engineered stone, the quartz stone is extracted from mines, and then ground to a pure quartz stone. This stone is then pressed with resins and colourants to form a consistent, non-pourous and very durable surface. Quartz engineered stone is much more consistent aesthetically than natural granite, and as technology and experience advances, quality quartz stone manufacturers have been able to replicate the beautiful marble aesthetic found in granite but by using the crushed quartz and resin materials. The beauty of quartz is that it is full-bodied so the quartz colour and marble veining is carried through the entire 20mm or 30mm thickness of the quartz engineered stone slab.

Finally, porcelain stone is possibly the most aesthetically consistent out of all granite and quartz stones. This is becuase the stone pattern is printed subliminally on the surface of the porcelain slab. This has allowed manufacturers to design the slab themselves, and then print each slab with absolute precision and exactness. As it is subliminally printed, the pattern is printed down into the surface, however the marble veining in porcelains are not full-bodied, so do not go through the entire thickness of the slab. This can be counter-acted by choosing a very thin 12mm benchtop style, or by creating a thick 30 - 40mm benchtop thickness by mitring the edge. 

Customisation

Your natural stone slab will be unique…just like a fingerprint, so there’ll always be an element of surprise with your natural stone slab. However, the engineered stone and porcelain ranges today can provide you nearly the same uniqueness. With widespread colour options available the end-user is also given guaranteed colour consistency as well as opportunities to customise your texture, finish, thickness and composition.

With some porcelains, the surfaces are subliminally printed onto for even greater customisation. In fact, Florim, a porcelain manufacturer produces a Marble Collection where the beautiful marble veining is created from the processing of natural materials.