Should your stone countertop shine brightly polished or do you prefer a softer touch? When it comes to the surface, you have the choice: a polished natural stone kitchen countertop feels smooth and cool. Finely roughened stone surfaces, such as satin or flamed and brushed, are soft and have a fine shine.

The whole color variety of the stone is shown to its best advantage. Polished natural stone countertops are particularly easy to clean. In addition, their cool surface is the ideal base for cakes and pastries.

The surface is treated with stainless steel brushes, giving it a matt, slightly rough, non-reflecting structure.

Here the surface of the countertop appears even more original and rough than with satinized stone. With this surface treatment, the surface is mechanically burst or cracked by several burners and finished with stainless steel brushes. The extremely high water pressure prevents oversized components from breaking off in stones that cannot tolerate the extreme heat of the burners. The result is however identical.

Quartz countertops feel less cool to the touch than those made of natural stone. Here, too, a smoothly polished surface brings out the light-reflecting additives or color pigments in a particularly expressive way. A softer and matt surface is offered by surface finishes in Antique. These are comparable to the "flamed and brushed" surface of natural stone, except that here, in principle, water jetting is used. Leather Touch is another surface finish comparable to the satin surface of natural stone, except that the brushes are softer.

Quartz is one of the hardest machine-made materials. In contrast to granite or natural stone, a polished countertop made of Quartz is non-porous and therefore even less sensitive than its natural material counterparts. A Quartz countertop is mostly made of natural material: depending on the type, the Quartz countertop contains up to 95% natural quartz, which is fused with approx. 5% polymer resin. Color pigments are added to achieve the desired look. Other light-reflecting components, such as metal, mirror or glass splinters, can also be added. Due to the machine processing, the coloring is even and harmonious - unlike the unique countertops made of natural stone - according to the added components. And it leaves plenty of room for creative design in your kitchen: Natural colors, strong colors and finest structures are possible.

Quartz has many of the positive properties of natural stone countertops. In addition, it offers even more plus points:

A Quartz countertop is less porous due to its mechanical production process. In terms of hardness, it can easily compete with a countertop made of granite, and sometimes its surface is even harder. Above all, the particularly stable structure of Quartz countertops ensures that the material can also be manufactured much thinner than natural stone. This makes the worktops appear lighter and more airy. However, this also applies here: Point loads can lead to breakage due to the material, especially in the area of sink and stove cut-outs.

The pore-free polished surface is absolutely insensitive to moisture: water, grease and other liquids do not stand a chance. The same applies to heat. However, even Quartz is only partially heat-resistant. It is therefore essential to choose a different base for your hot pots and pans, as they can cause cracks in Quartz countertops.