Cambria Stone Offers a Wine and Cheese Party Hosted in Your Home!

Cambria makes lovely quartz slabs. The colors that Cambria has developed are some of the most realistic we have seen. The surfaces of their engineered stone slabs are not porous, and therefore will not stain, nor do these countertops ever need to be sealed.

And now whats even lovelier is the wine and cheese party that our Cambria representive will host when you choose Cambria Stone slabs in your kitchen! Invite your friends into your stunning kitchen for a glass of wine, a bite to eat, and some laughs when you choose any of the following colors:

Berkeley, by Cambria

(Psst: this is by no means a complete list! It's just some of our favorites. For every single Cambria color that comes with a complementary wine and cheese party, visit Natural Stone Source's Cambria Stone page...)

Minerva, by Cambria

This slab is sparkly and pleasing with both modern and classic cabinetry.

Windmere, by Cambria

Windmere is a slab that is very popular among our clients...

Canterbury, by Cambria

The Canterbury slab carries an ode to the garnets found in natural granite slabs, such as New Venetian Gold and Oro Brasil, bringing along the golden coloring as well.

Give us a call at Natural Stone Source, 805-540-7171 for pricing. Or come in and visit us in our glorious showroom at 425 N. Frontage Rd., Nipomo CA 93444

Can Granite Countertops Burn?

Taking good care of your pretty granite countertops helps determine your actions in the kitchen. To preserve the look of the stone, home owners are sometimes afraid to set a hot pot or hot pan onto the surface of a granite counter for fear it will burn the stone, but this worry is unfounded. Granite is formed under intense heat, and can withstand a good deal of heat long after it is in your home.

In the shop, when granite slabs are being fabricated and formed into your counters, the blade cuts best if combined with running water. However, once the cut, the glue can only adhere to completely dry stone. In order to speed up the drying process, a flame torch is commonly turned onto the stone in order to dry every drop of water from the granite.

If a flame thrower does not injure the natural beauty of your stone, a hot pan can't really do any damage either!

The only situation that a flame torch might not be used to dry the water from a slab is when the slab is an engineered stone, also known as quartz. Companies that produce quartz slabs are Caesarstone, LG, Silestone, Cambria, Dal, etc. These slab surfaces are a combination of real granite and polymer glues, and the glues are the substances susceptible to burns. Because of this, quartz companies such as Cambria recommend a hot pad be placed between countertop and hot pans and crockpots.

The last instance where we have seen heat impact granite involved a black stone countertop that was exposed to direct California sun. A single slab of absolute black granite countertop covered the cabinets inside the kitchen, continued underneath a large window, and formed an outdoor bartop as well. The difference in temperature between the controlled household air and the open outdoors air, combined with a black surface absorbing the daily sun, caused the countertop to crack in many places. This situation was isolated, however, and does not represent a common occurrence in kitchens.

For a look at the stone we carry, please visit us at www.nssgranite.com

Durable Engineered Stone

What's the most durable surface in the world? A countertop made of diamonds probably. The next best surface material might be quartzite, but just beneath that is a man made substance called engineered stone.

Companies such as Caesarstone, LG, Silestone, and Cambria Stone are adept at producing an incredibly hard and impermeable surface that the industry generalizes as "engineered stone". This countertop material is made of real stone that is ground down and combined in pleasing and predictable color palettes with a polymer that binds it together.

The lure of engineered stone is it's durability, combined with the fact that every slab can look the same, allowing for great seam matching and easy color schemes for decorating. Many engineered stones are resistant to bacteria, and come sealed forever so that re-sealing is not an issue. The wide variety of colors, including bright hues of green from Caesarstone, as well as realistic simulated granite patterns from Cambria Stone, make the concept even more attractive.

In the fabrication shops, fabricators will attest for the solid nature of engineered stone. When being fabricated, these materials rarely break in unpredictable ways like granite can. Granite and marble, being formed by nature, sometimes have fissures between crystals that can come apart when under the extreme pressures of fabrication. Engineered stone stays together under conditions that would often see a natural stone break.

The only drawback to engineered stone slabs is the one attribute that also attracts homeowners: it's predictable colors and patterns. A slab of granite is like a work of art, often beautiful enough to frame and place as a wall decoration with it's strata and movement. Granite's spontaneous colors and wandering patterns won't be found in engineered stone, but for many designs that works out well.

Find engineered stone as well as natural stone at www.nssgranite.com or visit us in person at 425 N. Frontage Rd. in Nipomo California, 93444.