I bought a pendant with both in and i'm curious to know their properties.
Granite. Easy to clean and lasts long. Just make sure you are there to look at the stone and make sure the individual pieces match. My family had to learn this the hard way. Our office has granite countertops and its made of two slabs. They are glued together right down the center of the cabinet set and are slightly different colors. xD
The both materials are nice. While granite has been used for many years, while quartz stone is recently popular for most homes. I do prefer quartz stone for its high benefits: 1. wide ranges of colors and patterns, for it is one kind of artificial engineered stone, the color can be customize as you want 2. high hardness, not easy tp scratch and crack 3. with non-porous surface, it is well resistant to stains, liquids, molds, bacteria and other damages. 4. Easy to maintain and care, quartz stone doesn't require a sealing. While you can just clean it with some soft cleaner and water in daily life to keep it new and good. 5. Heat resistant nice, but it is still recommended that do not place the hot cookers on the surface directly and just get one pad for it. 6. Healthy and eco-friendly for food preparations. 7. Maybe somewhat expensive than other stone, but it deserves. What you get depends on what you paid. So, quartz stone would be an ideal choice for most homes.
Quartz is the in thing I know but granite is the better deal. In my area it can be gotten for an installed price as low as $20 to $25 a sq. ft. and it needs no maintenance. It would be my choice even if it was higher than quartz. Been putting in my homes and remodels for 15 years and I've never had anyone complain about it. One piece of advice whatever you get: stay away from black and very dark colors. It's like black refrigerator in that you've got to clean it several times a day.
Both are quite nice. Quartz is fun because: it sparkles it doesn't need periodic sealing like granite does it will not stain is harder than granite so less likely to chip HOWEVER: even though quartz is a very hard material, it can cause marks when cutting on it although it is heat resistant, it is not recommended to put hot pots and pans directly on it as the adhesive material that binds the quartz together will change color with the heat Quartz is also much more expensive than granite (I have granite, by the way, and I love it) So... have you conisdered cement countertops? They work if your looking to have a zen kitchen but if you're going classy, you'll want to forget that....
