For the first time ever, the subject of our “Re-Emerging U.S. Stone Industry” feature is not technically a member of the stone industry. In fact, the company -- Counter Intelligence of Silver Spring, MD -- is strictly a fabricator of Silestone quartz surfacing, and they produce a staggering 35 kitchens per day (page 36).

Now, before you stone “purists” out there begin writing us the requisite hate mail, I think it's important to understand why this type of article is important at this day and age, and why we made the trip to their facilities outside of Washington, DC. First of all, quartz surfacing -- whether it is Silestone, Zodiaq, CaesarStone or otherwise -- has made such inroads in our industry that it would be foolhardy to ignore the fact that it exists. Many fabricators who have been working with natural stone for decades now also fabricate quartz surfacing to fulfill the requests of their customers.