Quartz, granite and backsplash, measured after the cabinets are set and levelled rather than before. That single piece of sequencing is what separates a worktop that fits from one that has to be recut.
A worktop is templated on the cabinets that will carry it, once they are set, scribed and levelled. Measure earlier, off the old units or off a drawing, and you have made a piece of stone to fit a kitchen that no longer exists or does not exist yet.
That is the most expensive mistake available in this trade, because stone cannot be stretched and a recut slab is a new slab. It is also entirely avoidable, and it is why we will not template early even when someone asks us to save a week.
Four things lock at template and are difficult to change afterwards: edge profile, seam placement, overhang and sink reveal. We walk through all four on site with you rather than sending a form, because each one is easier to picture standing in the room. See how templating works, quartz and granite.
Recent work
What to expect
A Leduc Worktop, Step by Step
Choose the material honestly
Quartz never needs sealing but marks under a hot pan. Granite takes the heat and wants sealing every year or two. How you cook decides this, not how it photographs.
See the actual slab
With natural stone especially. A small sample cannot show movement, veining or a darker band through one end, and what arrives is that specific slab.
Template on set cabinets
Edge profile, seam placement, overhang and sink reveal all agreed on site with the cabinets already levelled. Nothing is cut before this visit.
Fit, seam and seal
Installed, seams joined and polished, sink and tap cutouts finished, and granite sealed before handover with the water test shown to you.
Quartz or granite
They Fail in Different Ways
Quartz is engineered and non-porous, so it never needs sealing and does not stain. Its weakness is heat: the resin binding it softens, and a pan straight off the hob leaves a mark that does not come out. If you cook on gas and put pans down without thinking, that matters.
Granite is natural stone with nothing in it to soften, so heat is a non-issue. In exchange it is porous and wants sealing roughly every one to two years, a twenty minute job for a whole kitchen that people forget rather than find difficult.
Neither is better than the other. They are two different maintenance stories, and the honest way to choose between them is to think about how you actually cook rather than about which one looks best under showroom lighting. See quartz, granite and backsplash options.
Choosing
Stone and walls
Worktops and Walls in Leduc
Stone, backsplash and the cabinetry underneath that has to be right first.
Materials, sealing, templating and what locks when.
After the cabinets are set and levelled, never before. A template taken off the old units fits a kitchen that no longer exists, and stone cannot be stretched.
Quartz is non-porous and never sealed but marks under heat. Granite takes hot pans and wants sealing every one to two years. Neither is better; they fail differently.
Yes, roughly every one to two years, and it takes about twenty minutes for a whole kitchen. Pool some water for half an hour: if it beads the seal is fine.
Because natural stone varies and a small sample cannot show movement, veining or a colour band through one end. What arrives is that slab, not an average of the type.
Not always, since slabs have a maximum size. What we can do is choose where it lands and how the pattern runs across it, which is agreed at template.
Three to six inches is standard, four is most common, and full height costs considerably more. A frequent compromise is full height behind the hob only.
Yes, if the cabinets underneath are sound and level. We check that first, because a new stone top on tired boxes is money resting on a problem.
