Quartz Kitchen worktops on 1st floor?

[RenovationRenovationRenovation]

I have a flat in a converted house. This means that my kitchen will be on the floor that normally has bedrooms. I am installing a new kitchen and would really love quartz worktops, but am worried about the weight. Do I need to be? How could I find out if the floor would support them? It won’t be a massive kitchen, but quartz is still heavy… It's not like it’s a purpose built flat.

Don't be silly OP. A bathtub full of water weighs a ton and so does a piano. Surely your building is not made of match sticks? ;)

Haha this made me laugh.

I suppose a bath is only heavy every now and then and a piano is not that heavy compared to a large slab of stone that would sit there permanently.

Side issue: I got turned off quartz worktops when I discovered how easily they stain, from curry and spag bol spatters to rust spots from cans and such. Went Corian, far easier to look after, less likely to rip you if you bump into the corners and also happens to be lighter!

I would worry less about the mass and more about whether they can get significant lengths of it up the stairs. You don't want joins everywhere.

As for the pps experience with stains, I have found quartz doesn't stain at all.

I hadn't actually considered that, but the current laminate worktops got up there ok (albeit much lighter to manoeuvre...)

If you have straight stairs with a door in from of them it should be ok.

But I had quartz on the 1st floor and it was tricky to get the long pieces in.

I suppose it all depends on how many joins you want (minimum is obviously best) and how long your work surfaces are. My longest one was about 5m IIRC, but that was an overlay so probably half the weight of a proper piece.

Fortunately I helped them do it, otherwise my guess is I would have ended up with some chunks out of the walls.

We had quartz on a 1st floor. Access was a bit difficult.

Absolutely no issues with staining. Turmeric, coffee, wine, tomatoes (I’m a messy cook) and not one hint of a stain on our pale off white quartz

It will be fine.