Before you buy Cambria Quartz - What You Need to Know

so if you've been considering a kitchen remodel project at home and you've been looking at new countertops you've probably been considering granite or quartz slabs and if you've been looking at quartz been on house on HGTV you've probably seen this slab right here which is the britannica from Cambria one of my absolute favorites I'm gonna go through everything that you guys need to know before making a purchase of this or any other quartz countertop my name is Robert and I'm here to be your guide to all things remodeling today's focus just like this video says is quartz countertops and more specifically Cambria and high movement quartz countertops these are absolutely beautiful and if you've spent any time looking at remodeling magazines or websites you've absolutely seen this type of product the marble the white is in but there's some things to know before you purchase this product guys I've spent almost two decades doing remodeling and I'm a huge huge fan of the quartz countertops I have quartz countertops in my own home and that's probably eight out of ten of the installations that our business does is some type of quartz by far the leader in quartz is Cambria and although I'm a huge fan I do want to make it very clear I'm not endorsing their product because I'm being paid or any type of partnership with them I'm strictly talking about this product because we believe in it here very much at our company but it is incredibly important that you know what it is that you're getting with this product and that you have some very candid discussions with your fabricator and the company to make sure that you get the results that you want out of this product the quartz countertops have been a great option for people that have been trying to get this marble look that we generally were limited to actual marble before and marble is is overall one of the worst options in a slab countertop for people who have active households and actually utilize their kitchen for a lot of cooking and a lot of entertaining because marble is a very soft and very porous natural stone so generally when we would look at slab countertops before quartz was really an option we were typically sticking to Granite's if we wanted to have a very hard and non-porous stone but with that being said even granite is porous enter quartz countertops we have a product that is virtually non-porous and there are some significant differences from one brand to the next in terms of what type of performance qualities that we can have for instance Cambria countertops which are made right here in the United States are 100% non-porous to the point that they're national safety food Council certified we can use these in commercial kitchens there is no product that I believe in more so than this in terms of its resistance to staining as far as an antibacterial component to it it's just a great countertop and by far the most popular selections in Cambria countertops are their heavy veining lots of movement looks generally in a white base with some type of gray blue veining going through them this one that we're looking at right here is the Britannica which is dominated a lot of the magazine's in the media surrounding kitchen and bath countertops it's just a gorgeous stone you've probably seen this many many times in pictures of kitchens over the last few years a lot of times paired with bright white cabinets or white cabinets with a navy blue island it's just a stunning classy timeless look so one of the really important things that comes up in conversation a lot when I'm working with clients on selecting quartz countertops granite countertops any of our slabs is the fact that these are set at predetermined dimensions so for instance this Cambria stone here is 65 inches wide by 132 inches long when we go in and we're measuring kitchen countertops we're basically taking our length times our width and determining what the dimensions of those tops are if we add up all of those dimensions we may very often have 8090 square feet for an entire kitchen yet we're looking at potentially 130 square feet of actual material space and in some cases even that doesn't prove to be enough to actually do all of the tops when we factor in things like a big island we have to remember that when we're looking at how we utilize these for our countertop it's kind of like if we took and we were making cookies we roll out our cookie dough and then we're taking our cookie cutter and dropping it in and getting our individual pieces out of that well what happens with that we have a lot of the dough around the the sides that basically is left over after we've made our cutouts it's the same thing with our counter tops we have to take and actually remove the pieces from the slab and we're gonna have pieces that are leftover around the perimeter so when we lay this out we want to make sure that we have a clear understanding of how that material is going to be used with these particular stones here because there's such a high degree of movement our potential for waste in the process is even greater because we have a direction to this stone so I can't just take and start moving the stone direction and putting seams in my countertop where I've got distinctly different movements going on in on ideal places that's a conversation you must have with whoever you're buying your Cambria or any other quartz countertop through any high movement granite you need to make sure that you understand what that veining is going to look like laid out on your counter and what the plan is for how that seeming is going to be done you don't want to leave that up to the fabricator to just make their decision on without really giving you a clear opportunity to know what that's going to look like especially when it comes to our seams if you've seen a lot of kitchens with waterfall edges you can really see the difference in how these are laid out by somebody that understands making sure that movement is continuous from our edge details to our seams on the actual countertops so let's go ahead and take a look at a couple of kitchens that have been completed here recently with what would be a good seeming job where our seam is is very thoughtfully processed and we're using the material to make sure that it flows well and then I'm going to show you a picture of a job that was not done correctly obviously not by our company but to give you an instance of what kind of conversations you need to have with your fabric to achieve a very desirable result or potentially a very undesirable result and sometimes there's not necessarily a right or wrong option but it may mean that for you to get the results that you want you're buying an entirely separate slab just specifically to accommodate to that movement so let's go ahead and take a look at those pictures guys so here we have a picture of a kitchen that we just recently finished with the Brittanica stone from Cambria and you'll notice here on this island we have this waterfall edge so what I'm talking about when we're laying out the slabs and planning how it's going to actually be utilized once we put it on the countertop we want to make sure that we're following the veining of these slab materials and this is an instance here where this is not a huge kitchen but for us to do this properly with the waterfall edge this was a three slab job we basically have a couple almost entirely dedicated to just this island and then we have the perimeter countertops that we've got with the additional slab but notice as we're falling over the edge here we've got that veining going all the way down from the top there is a seam right there in that corner but you don't even actually see it in person that was one of the things our client commented on and then if you also look at the back portion of the countertop we see the veins are running down the laminated edge of that four centimeter edge so again in utilizing this we've got a very carefully planned so that we're not disrupting the flow of this stones movement here's another picture of that where again you can see that we've got the veining running straight down the side again on the corner of this seam you don't see any actual joint there it's it's basically just a nice clean corner running all the way down the side now let's go ahead and contrast that with this picture here of a countertop that I found online it appears to be similar to the Britannica courts with a marble veining let you'll notice right away we have a very distinct disruption in the flow of this veining they've put the seam right here at this corner it actually looks like they have a angled seam and then it kind of comes back towards the wall creating actually two different lines here that we're seeing where that seam is placed as opposed to that seam actually running straight from the corner all the way to the back or the entire seam running diagonally to the other corner it's it's actually running two different directions here we've got like an inch in and then it goes towards the back now with this type of look here there may be certain circumstances that this is the best that can be done if we're you know trying to make the job work with only two slabs or only one slab and you know you're not wanting to purchase an entirely additional slab so that the layout is the most ideal it's just from one kitchen to the next the dimensions work differently the particular slabs you may not have the ability for every single top to be seamless what I'm trying to point out is that when you're spending several thousands of dollars you want to make sure that you have this conversation with the company that's putting it in for you because they may not make that decision for you they may prioritize your budget over the end results because a lot of these companies are going to have your best interests at heart they're wanting to earn your business but they may be afraid to tell you you're gonna have to spend more money to get the right look and so in a hurry to try and earn your business and get the job they may be afraid basically to tell you hey you need another slab to make this the way that you're gonna want it you know long term even if you got to pay a little bit more for upfront you're gonna thank us later not every company is going to do that some of them are gonna say oh this is you know beautiful slab and then they lay it out like this and wonder why you're disappointed because that conversation was never had now here's another example of a slab where we've got much much less pattern but we can see there's still a very poor seam job here this darker seam really there shouldn't be any reason for this this seam should be not necessarily invisible no seams are invisible but it shouldn't be such a dark drastic line across the countertop that's just a miss cut and a good fabricator it can do far far better than this so these are the the types of concerns that you should be addressing with your company before purchasing any stone before deciding on what level of movement what color you want to make sure that you have confidence that when it's put in it's going to be put in correctly and you know nobody's perfect there's going to be mistakes made but you want to make sure that your company is gonna be able to stand behind it now here's just another example this is a granite countertop but again you'll see the seam not only is the movement not lining up but we actually have the stone visibly running in two different directions in this particular instance most of our clients would not be thrilled with this outcome and again that's why we have these conversations that's why I'm encouraging you to have these conversations because kitchen countertops are a major focal point of any kitchen remodel you're going to be spending a tremendous amount of money to put these in compared to you know a lot of the other little projects that we can do around the house this isn't you know not a small expense and we want to make sure that we get the desired results so when I'm pointing these things out it's it's not because there's always a clear cut and dry answer but it's because this is a conversation that needs to be had and you want to make sure that your fabricator is taking these things into account and appreciates the final results to the same degree that you're going to so guys as you could see from those pictures when we're dealing with high movement slabs it really becomes important to know how we're gonna utilize that material and how it's going to be laid out now by contrast here's another product from the Cambria line that's got much less movement to it a product like this that's more solid in color we want to make sure we're still having those seams put in correctly because you could still have a bad seam on this product but when we don't have any specific movement to it there's no specific direction we have a little bit more freedom as to how we utilize this material definitely something to make sure that you keeping the back of your mind you have a conversation with whoever it is that you're partnering with on putting in your countertops so that you know how you're affected going from one slab to another now another key thing to consider when you're looking at your quartz countertops or even your granite countertops is the fact that you're gonna probably have two options in terms of the thickness of the material that you're looking at if you go in you're dealing with somebody on countertops you're gonna probably have a conversation about that thickness being available in two centimeters stone or three centimeters stone what I'm holding here that you can see this is a two centimeter stone now when we install this we typically see that the edge detail becomes double this thickness because we laminate the edge basically that means that we're taking this piece and we're seaming on another piece along the edges that hides the plywood sub tech we put underneath this so when we're installing it we have our cabinet base then we have generally about a 3/4 inch plywood sub tech that sits on top of the cabinets that we then put our two centimetres stone on top of and that helps reinforce it that four centimeter laminated edge then goes along the edges of the countertop and hides any slight imperfections or inconsistencies in the cabinet boxes which in construction we always have a little bit of inconsistencies whether it be the the squareness of the rooms the evenness of a floor or even the exact precise measurements and dimensions of cabinets and products like that so that four centimeter stone helps to hide any of those gives us a nice clean finish by contrast we also can get these stones in a three centimeter thick where the actual stone is thicker than this but generally when you see those they will be directly on the cabinet you will not have a plywood subject and oftentimes you don't have a laminated edge so three centimeter two centimeter is there one that's better than another no not necessarily we overwhelmingly do more with the two centimeter and then that thicker four centimeter laminated that edge most popular finish right now is just a squared off edge it's got a little bit more of a modern finish to it now 15 years ago when we were doing a lot more granite we were doing a lot of that rounded bullnose we had some that were more of a decorative we called it an OG edge or even more of that natural chiseled edge that really kind of married the natural stone look with a rough rustic finish that also felt natural but again right now overwhelmingly we're just doing squared edges for a very clean modern tailored look Cambria countertops in my opinion are probably the absolute premier quartz countertop option that we can get it's a beautiful product there's no other brand that I've seen that even comes close to replicating the type of depth and movement that the Cambria line is able to achieve and as I mentioned the quality is second to none it's made right here in the United States it's national safety food Council certified it comes with a lifetime warranty that's even transferable to a new owner so it is just got all of the things that we could be looking for in terms of a countertop but it's really important that we are partnering with somebody who understands how to properly utilize this material when it comes to putting it in the kitchen when you're dealing with a product that is much more expensive than the vast majority of the other options out there and like I said for good reason but when we're spending that kind of money on the material we want to make sure that we're partnering with somebody that's really capable and qualified to be dealing with it there's nothing more frustrating than spending money on the product to really get what we want and then putting it in the hands of somebody that's not going to make the absolutely most of it so if this information was helpful for you make sure that you hit that thumbs up button for me subscribe to the channel to see more information on remodeling related topics and comment down below with anything that you'd like to see information on let me know maybe what's your favorite Cambria colors are that you've seen if you've been out looking at Cambria I'll probably my personal favorite right now is this Portrush which has just got beautiful blue veining through it and little gold specks so for all those people that have been doing the white cabinets with navy blue island cabinetry maybe with the gold hardware this was custom tailored to fit that look absolutely gorgeous piece again guys my name is Robert I'm here to help with all your remodeling questions so definitely comment down below and let me know what else you guys need some help with would like to hear about and until next time good luck with those projects

Channel: Remodel With Robert

Views: 205,991

Rating: 4.9215169 out of 5

Keywords: Cambria Quartz Counter tops, countertops, Quartz versus granite, quartz countertops, Marble countertops, kitchen remodel, kitchen countertops, kitchen and bath, counter tops

Id: L93TWqaLrdw

Length: 18min 35sec (1115 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 10 2020