I know others may disagree but I just don't feel like there are maintenance challenges with white marble. If sealed well it won't stain and it only needs to be re sealed every several years. It can etch, it's true, but if honed the etching (for me) is just not a big deal. And, honed white marble does not show fingerprints or smudges like a polished surface would. You said you liked the look of marble. Perhaps you may want to reconsider since you are not finding any granites that you really like.

I'd guess that the sodium vapor HID lighting in the showrooms was affecting the color perception. Look at a chunk in daylight to see the difference.

If you want a "pure as the driven snow" white... I'd look at ES (engineered stone) primarily Silestone or Caesarstone.

The reason why many "white" granites have a yellowish cast to them can be from lighting as Live Wire Oak suggested above, but also - 99% of all granites now days are resined. which means that a coat of epoxy resin is poured out over the slab before it is processed. The resin hardens, and the excess is ground off, and the slab polished. The resin coat that is left is kind of like the hard shell on an M&M - does that make sense?

Many times, the resin has a small amount of tint in it, or the resin itself will yellow over time due to the UV reactivity in the epoxy solids and the chemical make up of the glue.....

So if you want a yellow free WHITE stone countertop - I'd look at Silestone or Caesarstone

Then again, if you want a historically correct "look" - you could consider Danby Marble too !!!!!

hth

kevin

Ask to have a slab you are interested in moved near the loading dock and natural light. One stoneyard volunteered to do this for me.

I ended up going with an entirely different look, which I love, but did love the whites too.

Really liked Glacier White, a granite from Cosmos; see link. (It's under products, select a location, then the "G-L.") It did not have a yellowish cast. A second contender was Moon Night, which Slush on this forum just installed and it is also gorgeous. I believe Moon Night is a quartzite. Do a search for Slush and Moon Night and you should find her pix.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cosmos Granite

Yuck regarding the yellowing resin! I had no idea. I too notice a lot of the white-ish granites seem to have a lot of yellow in them. Never thought about bad showroom lighting. Great discussion, thanks!

I have white alaska and I don't think its yellow at all...Its actually more whitish gray if any hue exists at all. Have you seen that? I know what you are talking about though. I looked at Giallo Ornamental and when they sold my more whitey-looking slabs, all of the ones I could find were too yellowy so I went with White Alaska instead. Take a chunk of stone into the outdoors and into your house's lighting to see the true color!

If you're willing to look at quartz, I don't see any yellow hue to mine (Cambria Darlington). It is more of a cream up close, and it has lots of grey flecks, but does give you that "light" look from far away:

I've never seen a white-white granite, but I have seen many that are grayish or mix white & gray and don't read as yellow at all (I'm not a big fan of yellowish granites, myself). So I'd definitely check out the lighting issue, as previously suggested.

Thanks everyone! I'll definitely take the recommendation to look at the slabs in daylight. I was shocked to see the yellow tones as I was definitely expecting more grey tones.

Our budget is around $60/sq ft or less installed (including cutouts, sealant, etc), but it's been hard finding the granite we like. Is quartzite much more than that? We haven't even looked since granite (from my understanding) was the only thing in our budget.

Atomic:

I had the exact same concerns as you with yellow and even beigy-yellow tones in my granite. I purchased two slabs of River White and ironically, my counters are being installed tomorrow. I went to six different granite yards because I did not want any yellow or tan undertones in my granite. Some River White is much whiter, some is very/very gray so I really had to search for slabs I liked. Had I seen that beautiful white quartzite, I would have definitely considered that! I don't know what the price difference is though; River White is considered a medium priced granite here in NJ where I live. There is another poster named Alku who has a beautiful white granite; if you search her name and search white granites I am sure you will see what I am talking about. I also loved the look of white marble but was talked out of that choice but several fabricators who told me it would chip and stain.......don't know if that is true now after reading Sayde's post? I do know that a Carrera marble slab I saw the other day in my fabricator's yard was $200 sq/ft and my River White is $68 sq/ft. !!!! How I wish money was no option lol lol
Linda

Around here, quartzite's are EXPENSIVE! Everyone one I checked was $100/ sq ft and UP ....I love the mother of pearl/madre pearl...so beautiful! Just more than I can swing for a counter top.

"Look at a chunk in daylight to see the difference."

Judge the colors under the same lighting as you will have in the kitchen.

Even the back-splash color will affect the perceived color of the counter.

You may want to search back as there were several threads that talked about maintaining marble, etching, staining, etc. Also some marbles are more porous than others. I have Danby marble which, as marbles go, is very dense and non-porous. Still it was relatively easy to rehone it. I am careful but I do cook and have gotten raspberry juice and other nasty things on the marble. They wiped off without a trace. (Have not left any bad things on for any length of time, however.) There are a couple of very small etches -- hardly noticeable but there-- but in my house where everything is old and full of patina, I kind of enjoy the wabu sabi aesthetic. It just seems that marble and granite are such totally different looks -- one is really not "substitutable" for the other.

I love the quartzite - and yup, completely out of my budget. They're all about $100/sq ft and I can't justify it. Sigh.

I will keep looking...will update when we decide. Hope to order something by the end of the week. :)

On the plus side, I did buy my kitchen sink based on the recommendations on this board for Ticor. I got the TR1250. It was a bit pricey considering most other Ticor sinks were $100 less, but I really loved the look.

AtomicLush-Have you seen any River Valley? We went with it on our island and no yellow hue. There were 6 polished slabs at the yard and 3 or 4 leathered slabs and I didn't spy any yellow in any of them. Here's a few pics:

Mydreamhome- That's pretty! Very sparkly and looks wonderful with your kitchen :)

What room is that (in the background of last shot) with the beautiful curved window?

In So Cali a few places all labeled our Quartzite as Granite and ran less than $60 sq ft installed.

We just installed Honed Moon Night (Aka Super White) It's probably not as white as you are looking for though - more gray. We have not had any problems with it staining (and I left a red wine spill overnight), or any etching at all. I sealed it myself with the DuPoint from Lowes. It's everyone's favorite thing when they walk in our kitchen. No one out here has anything like it which makes me love it even more.

Well, we wanted quartz from the start. We quite accidentally stumbled upon Lowes' Allen & Roth quartz in Angel Ash. It's white with movement of some dark browns, but overwhelmingly white. It's gorgeous. We actually thought that it would have more tan/brownish (read: yellow) in it, but were surprised when it came. The browns in it have more of a gray cast. It's stunning. We could not be happier. A few people who would know better thought it was granite.
I do want to post pictures, but I need to learn more about how it works. In the meantime, though, I recommend this color. It's beautiful.
(I have white cabinets. I would like to do a beveled arabesque mural/subway tile backsplash...am trying to think if this will work!) :)

Update - So it's been MONTHS since my search and I *finally* found a lot of River White that is actually white and not yellow. (I knew it wasn't my eyes!) Unfortunately due to the season and low supply/demand, prices have gone up by 20-25% now! It's so incredibly frustrating. Basically the kitchen granite is going to cost nearly $1k more just because it's now November. I can wait until the spring when prices go back down, but then I'll be without a kitchen all winter. Should I suck it up and pay the increase? Or use "old stock" of granite that still had the summer price tag on it? Old stock is the stuff that was yellow.

Second update - granite going in on Thursday! I am so nervous...hopefully they do a good job. We decided to go with carrara marble for the bathroom vanity. Hopefully if all goes well, I will post pics when done.

It is natural stone. Good grief!

Did you ever complete the project? I recently went through a similar ordeal, and I regret the granite choice. I did not see the yellow until it was installed, unfortunately. I purchased something called Glacier White, which as best I can tell is a relative of Alaskan White or Arctic White...who knows, some places name things differently. In any event please post pics when you have a chance, I hope it all worked out for you!

mark617,

Do you have any photos of your installed Glacier White counter? We also selected Glacier White...it will be installed on Thursday. We have bright white cabinets so I sure hope ours doesn't look yellowish! Our slabs didn't appear to have any yellow undertones in the two locations we've seen them (slab yard and also once they were transported to the fabricator) but now you have me worried!

Sure, I will post a photo here shortly. Unless we purchased from the same place, I doubt you have yellow tones...it seems mine is more Alaskan White Premium than Glacier, based on my Google images search.

Lisa G, here is one photo where the yellow is apparent. I simply did not notice it as much when looking at the slab in its entirety.

Oh, wow, we definitely have different stones! I agree that I think yours is Alaska White vs Glacier White. Here is the island piece of one of my slabs:

For what it's worth, your stone reads more creamy beige in that section rather than yellow. :) I love the variation you have.

Very Nice, Lisa!!!!! Yes, yours is definitely what I saw when I searched on Google images for Glacier White.

To be fair, I should have noticed the yellow when I selected the granite, but it was not until the templates got cut that it jumped out at me. I did not have many options for template placement with the 2 slabs given my counters layouts, was kind of like putting together a puzzle. I am hoping the dark wood floors and aged bronze hardware I am adding will help to mute some of the yellow areas. Good luck with yours, it looks great!!!

Thanks for the kind words, and I think you are right, probably more
cream than yellow. There are some really cool crystals in the stone,
which is why I purchased it.

My granite looked much whiter at the warehouse than in my home. Can wall and ceiling colors reflect into the granite?

Another picture

(not a pro) @44cody44: before you look into changing paint colors, try some new light bulbs because your bulb type can affect colors. It might take a few tries because there are so many different kinds.