Marble & Quartzite Countertops in Des Plaines, IL

No. Same shop, same crew, same published price in every town we serve — the 6 miles between Des Plaines and 2260 Elmhurst Rd is our cost of doing business, not a line on your quote. What changes your number is square footage, edge profile, cutouts and how much tear-out there is, and none of those are about your ZIP code.

Be honest about your temperament. Etching — the dull mark acids leave in the polish — is chemistry, not a maintenance lapse, and sealing cannot prevent it; a lemon wedge or wine ring will mark even a well-sealed marble top. Owners who thrive with marble accept it will develop a patina and often say they stop noticing marks within a year. If one etch would bother you for years, get a marble-look quartz or a true quartzite instead; you keep 90% of the look with none of the anxiety.

Marble is neither the disaster critics claim nor the effortless luxury magazines suggest: acids like lemon juice, wine, and tomato sauce will etch dull marks into the surface within minutes, and no sealer prevents etching — sealers slow stains, not acid. In a year-of-ownership account published by the Natural Stone Institute consumer site, a hard-used marble kitchen picked up etch marks but zero stains, and the owners chose a honed (matte) finish specifically because it hides etching far better than a polished one. The real question is not whether it will mark — it will — but whether you will read the accumulating patina as character or as damage. If you know the first etch ring will hurt, choose quartzite or a marble-look quartz instead.