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Nothing lasts forever. Not even quartz countertops. But perhaps you’re not looking for forever. Maybe you just want to know whether the quartz countertops you’re installing will look good if you decide to sell your house in a few years. Or perhaps when you pass it on to your children in a few decades, or perhaps when they pass it on to your grandchildren. Will quartz countertops still be in good shape then?
For the first question, the answer is definitely “yes.” For the other questions, we have to do a little investigation to find out just how long quartz countertops last.
One of the first places to look when considering the lifespan of a product is its warranty. Companies issue warranties precisely to provide assurance to buyers that their products will last long enough to justify investment.
However, warranties are a risk for any company. A warranty is a promise to buyers that the manufacturer will provide remedies often up to and including full replacement of the product. To minimize risk, manufacturers will try to make their warranties close to the minimum they expect their product to last. The more expensive the product, the more likely a warranty is an underestimate of the product’s likely lifespan.
Since quartz countertops are relatively expensive, we can expect that warranties are close to the minimum you can expect them to last.
For most quartz countertops, warranties range from 10-15 years. Therefore, you should expect that your quartz countertops are likely to last at least 10-15 years, as long as you care for them properly.
Quartz Kitchen Countertop
However, we can attempt to get a better estimate on the likely lifetime of quartz countertops by looking at the experience of people who have seen how they perform in homes. InterNACHI, the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors represents home inspectors from around the world, who go into homes and look at how they are holding up as they pass from one owner to another. This gives them a good perspective on the real-world durability of home components.
For the most part, these lifespan estimates for components seem good. (Exception: they estimate an external screen door should last 30 years. Ever seen a screen door that’s 30 years old, especially on a house where children lived? But we digress . . .)
Unfortunately, InterNACHI’s current chart doesn’t have estimates for the lifespan of engineered quartz materials. Perhaps these hadn’t been available for long enough for InterNACHI to have a confident estimate. That doesn’t mean, however, that we can’t utilize their estimates to make our own estimate for engineered quartz.
An engineered quartz countertop is made up of natural stone components held together with a resin. InterNACHI has lifetime estimates for countertops made of each component. Utilizing a weighted average of these components might give us an interesting idea about the potential lifespan of a quartz countertop.
Looking at the data for quartz countertops in our resource library, it seems that quartz countertops range from 7% to 15% resin, with a small amount of other materials and the bulk being natural stone. For the purposes of this estimate, let’s say they’re 90% stone and 10% resin. Stone countertops are estimated to last 100 years and resin countertops 10 years, so a weighted average would come out to 91 years.
While this is by no means a rigorous scientific estimate, it does tell us the odds are good that the quartz countertops you install today will still be in place and functional if and when your grandchildren inherit the home, so long as you and your children care for them properly.
With such a long potential lifespan, you want to make sure that you make the right decision on your quartz countertop. That’s where The Stone Collection’s unique experience comes into play.
There’s no appointment necessary for you to come in and wander our expansive gallery style warehouses in Denver, Dallas, Fort Worth, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City. You can wander by yourself, or get help from a stone specialist. The stone specialist can help you narrow your selection down by anything from color to origin to durability and more. Then, if you find something you love, we can reserve it for you, up to 14 days at no charge while you coordinate with your installer.
Want to learn more about the quality natural and engineered countertops we offer? Feel free to contact us online or show up at a gallery to see for yourself.