Granite Countertops In NJ, PA & NY
Beautiful, High-Quality Material in Many Colors
Granite is a very durable countertop material that performs well both inside and outside the home. The dense composition of the granite minerals allows for a strong surface that is heat and scratch resistant. Chips may occur on the countertops, in particular along the edges, but repairs are often less visible due to the busier patterns that are normally found in these stones. As a porous natural stone, granite must be sealed to help it be stain resistant. Granite countertop pieces are joined together by seams, which will be visible. The degree to which a seam will be seen is based on the stone’s color and pattern, which help hide the seam.
Handcrafted from premium quality granite slabs, these stone countertops come alive with a burst of captivating colors, elevating any space into a beautiful and timeless haven.
Discover the enduring allure of granite, an investment that adds elegance and value to your home! Part of what makes granite so appealing is its affordability, providing a cost-effective alternative to marble countertops and other engineered stones.
With Alps Craftsman, you can explore an extensive selection of granite colors, ensuring you find the perfect match for your dream kitchen or bathroom. Count on our skilled professionals committed to delivering premium services, encompassing fabrication, installation, and expert design advice to help you find the perfect granite countertop that suits your requirements.
Benefits of Granite
- Least expensive natural stone available
- Some colors can be used outdoors
- Repairs are less visible than othercountertop materials
- Heat and scratch resistant
Considerations
- Must seal every 6-12 months for helpwith stain resistance
- Seams will be visible
- Porous material - small divots mightexist on surface
Benefits of Granite
- Least expensive natural stone available
- Some colors can be used outdoors
- Repairs are less visible than othercountertop materials
- Heat and scratch resistant
Considerations
- Must seal every 6-12 months for helpwith stain resistance
- Seams will be visible
- Porous material - small divots mightexist on surface
Granite Countertop FAQs
It is not recommended that a homeowner apply sealer to their countertops. While there are many instructional videos available online that show how this application can be done themselves, undoing incorrectly applied sealer is not an easy task. Countertops are a huge investment in a house and should be treated as such. Alps Craftsman provides a service to clean and re-seal countertops. Contact us today to schedule your appointment.
Alps Craftsman believes in letting the experts in each field do their own work. Some fabricators bring in their own materials and sell them directly to homeowners. While said companies may try and convince homeowners to buy slabs directly from the fabricator, that’s often not a good idea.
Customers are also welcome to select granite colors that are outside of our stock program. In this situation, the customer will visit our trusted suppliers to find the color(s) they love and want for their home. Based on the cabinet layout, design requirements, and other specifications, the Alps Craftsman team will determine how many slabs are needed for the project. Since these selections are custom, meaning they aren’t part of our stock program, whole slabs will need to be purchased in full. Said another way, if an additional slab is needed for a small countertop piece, that entire slab will need to be purchased as part of the job because we cannot guarantee that the rest of the slab will be used by another customer. In these situations, we often ask the customer if any other rooms in the house could use a new countertop so that more of the slab is being used. We’ve installed countertop material in some interesting locations, allowing for a fun, unexpected pop in the home!
After a job is sold by the design team, it moves to our operations department, where a project manager will oversee the completion of the job. These experts work with the customer to get all the finer details, like corner radius selection and the placement of holes that need to be drilled into the countertop. The project manager will also schedule the template and installation appointments. After the template is complete, we review all in-home measurements and findings against what we quoted. In certain circumstances, we revisit the quoted amount with the homeowner if the in-field dimensions do not match the quote or if in-field realities, such as access to the room, affect the original design. Any change orders are figured out before the job moves to fabrication. At the installation appointment, we place, secure, and seal the granite countertops.
Our design team at Alps Craftsman is happy to work with you to figure out how your countertops will be cut on the slab so it can be determined which slab sizes work best for your design. In some cases, picking a more expensive color in a larger slab size will actually make the job cheaper because you’ll be able to fit the countertops out of fewer slabs.
Which is Better – Granite or Quartz?
We get asked this question all the time and we always say, they both have their pros and cons. It’s really about how you operate in the room you’re designing. Our website has a lot of information about each material, but here’s the short version.
Granite
- Material Description: This is a rock from the earth that has been cut into slabs and polished to get a smooth finish.
- Heat Resistance: The composition of minerals inside it allows for it to be heat resistant, which is very attractive to individuals who are active cooks who like the flexibility of pulling a pan off the stove or cookie tray out of the oven and placing it directly on the countertop surface. Since granite is harvested from nature, small divots, fissures, or other elements can exist on the surface. After all, it’s a large rock that has been cut into countertops for your home.
- Strength: It’s very strong and durable in a home. Overall, granite is resistant to chipping, scratching, and etching, but that does not mean these occurrences could happen based on homeowner use. Chips are often repairable and blend in to the stone because of the busier movement in the material than that of quartz which is often one background color.
- Porosity and Sealant: Granite also has to be sealed periodically to help protect it from staining. Some customers very much dislike the need to re-seal granite even though it’s an easy service to perform. For them, they want a non-porous surface so they are only interested in quartz.
- Expense: Granite countertops vary greatly in price. Certain colors are quite inexpensive, allowing most customers to be able to afford natural stone countertops. As patterns and veining become more elaborate in a slab, the more expensive that material becomes. Coupled with more expensive slabs, fabrication costs can also increase with more expensive materials because the tools, skills, and time it takes to make the countertop also increase. All this said laminate countertops are still often cheaper than granite countertops.
Quartz
- Material Description: This is a man-made product created by mixing quartz from the earth with different pigments, chemicals, and resin to create a mixture that is then poured into large molds and baked at a very high temperature to harden. We like to say it’s like baking a cake where a bunch of ingredients are mixed to create the desired outcome. Manufacturers can create different looks and designs by adding different pigments, particles, or veins in the slabs as they’re being made.
- Porosity and Sealant: The process of making quartz slabs allows them to be non-porous. Many people think that because they don’t need to be sealed, that they won’t stain. That is not the case. Many quartz colors will stain if interact with certain substances for a prolonged period.
- Strength: Quartz is also a very hard surface, like granite, but is not free from chipping or scratching either. Like granite, quartz chips can be repaired, but they are often more visible because the chip fill won’t fully match the quartz color.
- Heat Resistance: Because of the resin used in the production of quartz slabs, the material is not heat resistant. For some customers, this fact is a non-starter for using quartz, and for others, it’s something they’re able to look past. Again, it all comes down to how you intend to use the room.
- Expense: The starting price for quartz countertops is higher than for granite countertops. In our stock program, there is about a $10 difference per square foot between the entry-level colors for each material type. So between the two, granite is the cheaper option. On the higher end, natural stones can be much higher than quartz, but there are also some very expensive quartz slabs.
Begin Your Granite Countertop Journey
Benefits of Granite
- Least expensive natural stone available
- Some colors can be used outdoors
- Repairs are less visible than othercountertop materials
- Heat and scratch resistant


Benefits of Granite
- Least expensive natural stone available
- Some colors can be used outdoors
- Repairs are less visible than othercountertop materials
- Heat and scratch resistant


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