I've been using my quartzite for 2.5 years, still like it very much. It wears as well or better than anything else, including granite. No etching or staining. I clean it just like granite. Mine is polished. I haven't sealed it again yet, my installing thought it would be good for years and years without re-sealing. Using a silicon sealer is important.

While many people have quartzite and have had no staining or etching issues, a few people have had etching. No idea why some etch and others don't, best advice is to make sure you get a sealed sample and test it at home before you commit.

Good luck.

Thank you Sochi. I've seen pictures of your quartzite, it's beautiful! I'm glad to hear that it is still holding up very well! It's hard getting information on quartzite, but garden web has been very helpful.

I will remember the silicon sealer. What would be some good foods to test? Lemon, spaghetti sauce, tap water?

Thanks again

Lemon juice, tumeric, ketchup, oil, red wine, water, all good. I remember one man saying that his quartzite darkened with water. He resealed with a silicon sealer and his problem went away. Etching is tougher, but if lemon, ketchup, wine etc., don't etch it, it must be fine. Tumeric and red wine are the ultimate stain testers I think. There are a few older threads on what people used to test their stones, search for it on google if you have time. Lots of threads on quartzite and etching too.

We have had our Moon Night (sometimes called Super White) in for a little over a year now and love it. No regrets at all! It has never stained once and we are red wine drinkers and have three kids (3, 5, and 12) and do lots of entertaining (all our friends have 3 kids each so it's taking a beating for sure).

However after about a year of it being installed we did have some etching from some lime juice in our Beergaritas after a July 4th party and it had been left all night. But since our counters are honed you can hardly tell. It just looks a litte more matte than other areas. I think it might have etched because we didn't seal it at the 1 year mark. (I think you are supposed to do it a couple times a year?) I just clean it with a sponge and our dish soap. In the beginning I babied it a lot but not so much anymore.

If you look at the link below of our backsplash install, scroll towards the bottom, I posted a photo of the etching after someone asked some questions about it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Quartzite

Slush your counters with those beveled arabesque tiles are stunning! I've loved those tiles ever since I saw them in Bee's kitchen! And I must say, Beergaritas sound good.

The distributer that our home builder uses only has the Arabascato White quartzite Honed, but the Super White is polished. Sounds like Honed is a good idea for me, 2 boys 6, 8 yrs. I've never thought about honed vs. polished before. However, anything that hides stains/etching is good!

Thanks for the link. The etching pictures were very helpful! You are right, they are really hard to see!

I wish I could give more insight to our quartzite (Taj Mahal). It was suppose to be installed last week. Apparently our fabricator has never worked with quartzite before and is having a difficult time cutting it. He has had to order new blades after going through two already. He says he has never worked with something so hard before - and he's been doing granite for 30 years. As frustrating as it is for us (I want a kitchen - I am done using the bathroom as our only water source) I am hoping this "very hard" surface will be a good thing. Time will tell. Hopefully it goes in on Monday.

Oh no camp! That's horriable! But as you said, maybe it will be a good thing for every day use, very durable! I've seen pictures of Taj Mahal, it's very pretty. Can you tell I like the light/white quartzites?

Hopefully you don't have to pay extra for those blades...

camphappy - same thing happened to us with our quartzite. The fabricator was floored and annoyed that it cost him so many blades. It is hard stuff.

Our Azul do Mar quartzite has been in for 5 years. It looks like the ocean with a lot of blue and green but has some white areas. It is polished. Busy kitchen, lots of cooking, multiple cooks and plenty of exposure to lemon and lime juice (we have trees), vinegar, wine, tumeric, etc. It was sealed by the fabricator at installation..

Quartzite varies more widely than granite in porosity. From the testing I did on a sample before sealing, I think ours is very low porosity. I don't think it needed the initial sealing and we haven't resealed since.

Most of the time, we clean it with just a damp cloth. I'll clean up after raw meat with soapy water.

Sometimes I find someone has missed cleaning up a spot of something and it cleans easily with a damp towel. It doesn't etch. Our quartzite is as hardy and easy to care for as any kitchen surface could be.

We are deep into our 7th month of our finished kitchen with Super White quartzite countertops and it still looks fantastic. It is polished and, after sealing it initially, haven't done so again. I simply wipe with a damp cloth or with dish detergent/soapy water. Our counters go thru daily heavy use by myself, my 2 little kids who have left playdough, crayons, sticky foods and goo on it, sometimes for hours... and by my husband who tends to leave wine and coffee drops everywhere. Everything wipes and cleans up easy.

We are lucky to have no etching... but I would suggest trying to get your hand on a piece of sample to test out prior to committing to your slab. There have been many concerns lately about super whites etching.

Good luck! They make stunning countertops for sure!

We have Taj Mahal (Mother of Pearl) quartzite in our Philly kitchen. It's been over 2 years and is blemish free - no stains or etching.
You just need a fabricator who knows what they are doing and can deal with the hardness of the stone. We couldn't be happier with them!

Our Super White in our current kitchen has been more problematic. We haven't seen any staining yet (but it's not been in long), but there are etches. Fortunately the stone has enough going on that the etches are invisible unless you really look for them, but they are there. So far they don't bother me, but it will be interesting to see how they hold up after a year. They are stunningly gorgeous looking counters but I'm not sure I would do it again.

Cloud- your quartzite sounds really pretty! I don't think I have seen a blue one, sounds like it would be soothing to look at something like the ocean every day! I'm glad to hear it's holding up fantastically! Give me a lot of hope

Dragonfly- I've seen your previous threads about wanting marble, and then finding the one! Super White is beautiful. 7 months, with children, sounds great! I know all about the art projects left out, we are moving away from the playdough though. I'm glad you haven't had etching, you are right, it does seem like some of the SW is etching like crazy. Maybe it is a certain batch?

Hoboken- I didn't know that you had Taj Mahal in a different house! I just knew about your latest woes with this new kitchen. Hopefully things are getting better for you? That's awful about the new SW. Is yours polished or honed? Are you at the point of progress that you can share a picture? It's strange how one type of quartzite can be perfect, but another have some issues. That really is too bad. Thank you for your reply!

Our SW is polished. It's really not that bad - I highly doubt that anyone other than myself or my DH would notice it, but it does etch. From weird stuff too - I know Bee has a problem with water, we haven't had that problem, but have small marks from putting the bouncy seat on it. Who would have thunk?!

I'm not at picture sharing stage. The fundamentals are done, but the paint color is all wrong, the trim isn't done and there are some other touches which need to be sorted out.
We did get the terrible kitchen ceiling drywall job fixed and the awful patch is fixed but not yet painted. All the electric has been corrected, leaving us with a couple of cut out drywall areas which need to be patched.

The quotes just to paint are insane. I need to have a gardenweb painting party! ; )

At least we can use the kitchen now and shouldn't burn down from shoddy electric work. That's a distinct improvement!