Questions about Granite

16 years ago

I hope no one thinks this is the wrong forum for this question.

Dh and I are building a house. Our builder has instructed us to pick out two slabs of granite for the kitchen and one slab for the bathroom. During discussions we have learned that the fabricator is the person who actually buys the granite. We aren't actually supposed to know how much our granite costs. The fabricator buys it and then gives our builder a cost for everything and then it gets paid through the builder. After the counters are fabricated, the fabricator gets to keep the leftover granite. He can sell the leftovers for jobs down the road at his discretion. Is this the way it is typically done? If dh and I are paying for the granite anyway, we'd prefer to have the extra installed in our laundry room. We aren't sure of the costs of fabrication, but it seems like the granite should be ours. Has anyone else dealt with this?

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Comments (4)

creek_side
16 years ago
Some fabrictors charge only for the installed square footage. Some charge for the amount of slab used. If they charge only for the installed square footage, the remnants are certainly theirs to keep. If they do it any other way, then it is a more open question, but they can always structure their contracts to keep everything.

Most fabricators would be happy to have the extra work of installing the remnant in your laundry room. Talk to your builder about that.
kudzu9
16 years ago
My local Home Depot charges about $65 a square foot for installed granite, with a $1000 minimum charge. I have a friend who just got his kitchen done with a beautiful blue granite and it was $38 a square foot. I recently had a small granite counter top fabricated and the bids ranged from $600 to $1600. The low bidder did an excellent job. Make sure you shop around, and see if you can get references so you can talk to previous customers about how happy they were with the granite folks.
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sue36
16 years ago
The place I got my granite charged only for the square footage used, so he kept all the extra. How it is done seems to vary widely. I would call around to some places and ask about pricing. I have noticed that people in the Kitchens forum sometimes discuss buying slabs. If you are required to buy slabs then you want to plan your layouts and usage around that.

How this is all done also depends on your agreement with your builder. What type of contract do you have?
User
Original Author
16 years ago
Here is what I know. We pick out the exact slabs we want from the granite company. My builder hires the fabricator. The fabricator is a separate business. The fabricator buys the individual slabs from the granite company.

We're checking with our builder for exact details. We are assuming that since the fabricator has to buy the entire three slabs that the cost of the slabs is being passed on to us.