Choosing Beautiful Granite Kitchen Countertops in Minneapolis?

by | Jan 20, 2014 | Home Improvement

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When you are considering kitchen countertops in Minneapolis, you will quite possibly be amazed at the plethora of excellent choices available to you today. The most popular countertops today are those crafted from granite, marble, and quartz. Companies such as Granite Unlimited personally fabricate and install new granite, marble, and quartz counters in homes all over the Minneapolis area. Granite is a particularly popular countertop material today because of its intense beauty and durability, but many people don’t know about the components of this stunning and functional counter material. The granite countertop is comprised of three basic minerals.

Feldspar is the mineral component of granite that gives the white grain to the rock. Generally, the quantity of feldspar in the granite will outweigh the amounts of the other two mineral components. This will often be reflected in the noticeable predominance of white grains in the granite rock.

Black Mica, formally referred to as biotite, is the mineral component of granite that adds the black flakes. Black mica and the final mineral component of granite, quartz, exist in roughly equal portions in granite as a whole. Quartz is normally a greyish white and has a very shiny appearance similar to that of diamonds. Quartz is the mineral component of granite that allows for those stunning diamond like light refractions.

Two other popular options in kitchen countertops in Minneapolis are marble and quartz. Marble looks so much like granite, it is not unusual to confuse them with one another. However, marble is a very different material as it is made from limestone, primarily the mineral Calcite. Marble is quite a bit softer than granite so does not feature quite the same durability. Quartz counters are are prized for their remarkable durability and for their attractive appearance. Generally, quartz counters are lighter in color than granite counters are since the quartz material that forms the predominance of the counter is a grey, milky white, or lighter color. Some quartz counters are dyed to lend a darker appearance to the material, more similar to granite, but overall they will tend to be white or off white in color when natural quartz.

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