Quartz worktops in Guildford

How quartz worktops are made

A quartz worktop starts as ground natural quartz. The manufacturer mixes it with a polymer resin and pigment, presses the mix into a slab under vacuum and cures it. The result behaves like stone but is designed in a factory, which is why a colour you pick from a sample is the colour you get, and why two slabs of the same design sit happily side by side at a join.

Resin fills every gap between the grains. Nothing can soak in, so a sealer is never needed.

Who quartz suits best

Quartz is at its best in a kitchen that gets used hard and cleaned quickly: families, busy cooks, landlords and anyone who does not want to think about their worktop. It handles plain colours, concrete looks and soft veined patterns that are hard to find in quarried stone, and it takes undermount sinks and routed drainers neatly.

The one place we steer people away from it is full, all-day sun. A south-facing garden room or an outdoor kitchen can yellow some resins over the years, and porcelain is the safer choice there.

Quartz and hot pans

The resin that makes quartz so easy to live with is also its weak spot. A pan lifted straight off a hot ring, or a roasting tin out of the oven, can leave a pale scorch or, at worst, a crack from the sudden heat. Keep a trivet or board within reach of the hob and quartz will look the same in ten years as it does on day one.

Silica, and the low-silica options

Standard engineered quartz contains a lot of crystalline silica. The danger is to whoever cuts it: fine dust breathed in during cutting can cause serious lung disease. A finished worktop in your kitchen gives off no dust and carries no such risk. The Health and Safety Executive told the industry in May 2026 that cutting engineered stone dry is unacceptable, with water suppression a legal requirement, and began a round of inspections.

A growing number of brands offer reduced-silica or silica-free quartz. Mention it when you ask us to price the job if that is what you want. Our guide to silica in quartz has the background.

Picking a thickness and edge

Quartz usually comes in 20 mm or 30 mm. The thinner slab suits a slimline, modern kitchen; the thicker one looks more substantial on a large run or an island. For a chunky front edge without the extra weight, a mitred edge bonds a strip under the front so a 20 mm slab looks 40 mm or deeper. A small pencil-round or chamfered edge is the most forgiving if the worktop gets knocked.