Changes in Quartz Worktops

2025 has been a year of considerable change in the quartz worktops industry.

We have written a bit about this. Concerns regarding respirable cristalline silica (RCS) dust have led many if not all manufacturers to make changes in quartz worktops ranges. RCS content has been reduced, almost to zero in some cases.

Other changes have come from commercial pressures. Instability in global markets ever since the pandemic, and in the UK ever since the Brexit vote, is still bottoming out. Some quartz manufacturers have drastically reduced their range, and many have seen a heavy turn-over of products.

Amidst all this change, we have been very conscious that our Radianz Quartz Worktops page was seriously out of date. I have at last got round to an update – making the page much smaller, and with no attempt to be complete, as the Radianz range is likely to go on changing.

Changes in quartz worktops – or changes FROM quartz worktops?!

Perhaps most obviously amongst the quartz big brands, Cosentino of Spain (makers of Silestone) have been agitated by the furore surrounding crystalline silica.

In part because they have suffered more than most with lawsuits connected to the dangers of silica dust. Cosentino has been strongest in trying to avoid using the word “quartz” altogether. But the company is always keen not to rest on its laurels so far as innovation is concerned. They are sidestepping the whole “is it quartz?” by introducing an entire new brand. All of a sudden the great quartz brand, Silestone, looks as if it may slip into the past.

Éclos® has zero RCS, and is made in a new way, to make it truly full-bodied (veins and patterns run right through the slab.)

We will be writing more about Éclos® once we have further details and imagery. Suffice to say that the slabs are built up in layers using robotics. Cosentino calls this process Inlayr® and claims that the new material will be considerably more heat-resistant than traditional quartz worktops. We are looking forward to seeing, photographing and testing some slabs – we will report back!