You are in for a real treat. Check findstone.com for some basics.

Bring your layout, materials(cabinet colors, flooring sample) that will help you see if you have a prospect. And bring your camera. Get a feel for what you like and you will find there are many variations on that theme. Get samples of several that catch your eye and bring them home so you can see the granite in your light. After you get a quote (if you select a very unique slab) - you may have to re-adjust your expectations / or your priorities.

and have fun!

I think it would be helpful if you decide beforehand whether you like granite "with movement" or the granite that is a more static pattern or even a solid color like Absolute Black. It's a matter of personal taste, but it is likely you will be overwhelmed with the selection at the granite yard, and if you could narrow it down a bit even before you get started, it will help you.

Also keep in mind that some granite yards talk about "Grade A" , "Grade B", etc. granite. Typically they are not discussing the quality of the granite, but the rarity. The more rare, the more expensive. The yard may have dozens of slabs of one granite, and only two of another, and that will affect the price. But the rarity has nothing to do with the quality of the granite, or whether it will or will not stain or etch, etc.

Also, be prepared to take samples home, for two reasons. One, is that the granite will look different in your house than at the granite yard, so you need to see the ones you like at your house in order to choose one. Another reason is that it is often helpful to have a sample to "experiment" with. I.e., spill wine on it, or oil, and see what happens. Although keep in mind that the granite will behave differently once it is sealed, it is still helpful to see what happens when you spill stuff on it.

HTH.

Thanks for the tips! The hard part for us is that we are building a house so it won't help us to bring the sample home to see it with our cabinets and all, as we are not at the cabinet stage yet with our build. This first trip to the fabricator will probably be more of a learning experience and to get an idea of what we like.

The other problem will probably be that I like granite with more movement (love the Verde Savoia that looks like sand dunes to me) whereas my DH will probably like the granites with less movement. :-D

Patti

I think the first main decision my DH and I had to make is light color versus dark color. We have dark red cherry and had been leaning toward a dark green granite but when we went to the granite yard we only liked the lighter color granites. My DH did not like the granite with a lot of quartz/gray so we were able to eliminate those. Then on the movement versus less movement - we wanted some but not a lot. As far as staining etc., we didn't really test the granite we just did a little research on the one we liked. The other thing is you may not know 100% what the granite will look like until you pick your exact slab. We liked Golden Oak and we saw some versions of Golden Oak that had almost an orange/yellow and some a lot lighter. Then with price, some places have a better price if the slab has been there for awhile. So basically you may not know the exact price and the exact look until you are ready to hold and pay for a specific slab. When we went to the big granite yard we basically were getting a feel for what called to us, what each person liked and if one person liked something and the other didn't we tried to find out why (i.e. the quartz/gray for DH) to make the search easier. We tried to come up with our top three choices. Oh and we seal our granite once a year.

Go with a camera and a note pad. Wander around and take lots of pictures and notes. Try to visit more than one yard. Hubby and I wound up going to about 10 different granite yards. (Ironically we wound up back at the very first yard we visited picking the first granite we both liked but that's another story.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Some pics of ours here

Some granite they will not let you take peices home. They did not let us for the one we ultimately chose. Also for whatever reason we found that all the granite yards refused to give us a price. About half of them would give us a grade and general price for that grade but no number for a specific slab.

If you see one that they don't have very many of that you like PUT IT ON HOLD!! Holds are either free or something like $200 or less and if you cancel the hold within a week they don't charge the $$ to your card. Nothing would be worse than loving a granite at the first yard, not finding anything better and then going back to the first yard to find that someone else put your favorite one on hold.

pbrisjar - what kind of granite is that on your counters? It's beautiful!

Thanks, Kevin!

We do have a small sample of the cabinet that we can take with us. We haven't finalized a floor tile or backsplash because we thought we'd coordinate those colors to the granite color.

No model home to use to test our choices...we'll have to go model home hopping and see if we can find one that is similar to what ours will be. LOL! ("excuse me, can we use your model home to test our granite options?")

We also have a lot of counters in the kitchen. My plan is to ask our kitchen designer to estimate the number of slabs we'll need. If we can find 2 coordinating granites, I'm thinking we'll use the second one on the island and perhaps on the eating bar near the family room.

Thanks for all the great advice, everyone!

Patti

Here is a link that might be useful: Our kitchen design - lots of counter area!

Hi Patti-

I looked at your blog thingy - pretty cool -
I tried to get a look at your plan view of your kitchen
to see dimensions, but could not see any - here's
what I would ask- what are the finish dimensions that your
plan is calling out?

By knowing these, you'll be able to determine what the slab
sizes are going to be needed to Fabricate your kitchen.

Questions I'd ask you are:
what is the thickness of the stone that your Fabricator will
be using - 2CM or 3CM?
will there be a laminated edge, or just cut & polished?
what kind of overhangs will you be having?

All of this will have to be factored in to the equasion and
will help you in determining what size slab to look for...

EXAMPLE: let's say that You are going to put a countertop on an island that's cabinets are 84" long by 48" wide...
with a 1 1/2" standard overhang, the piece for your island
will need to be at least 87" by 51" - AND IF you are doing
a laminated built up edge, the piece will need to be 90" by 54" minimum - just for the island - AND - this does NOT
include any extra overhang for any sitting areas...

Now... let's suppose you "are smitten" with a slab that's only 88" long... Most Fabricator's "Stone Stretchers" are
not working due to spare parts shortages, SO..... you'd have to
pick a larger slab... (HA!!!)

THE best thng you can do to help your Fabricator at this point, is to have an
DIMENSIONALLY ACCURATE - scale "plan view" drawing of YOUR
kitchen - forget about the 3D stuff - most Fabricators like me
ONLY want conventional plans and elevation drawings...
AND - have a drawing of the COUNTERTOPS - NOT just the
cabinet "box drawings" - by having a finished layout drawing
of the COUNTERTOPS - your Fabrciator will be able to see
where your KD wants the STONE....

As a Fabricator, I HATE cabinet "box drawings", because they ONLY
are concerned with the CABINETS (I'm venting here...)
and Box Drawings don't always ..no... NEVER take into consideration
the overhangs for a sitting area... so IF you are
using a KD - (one that knows what they are doing) will
give you a plan view - of your COUNTERTOP layout...

However......
If your "kd" does not know what that is, or won't do this for you, you've probably got a "poser" or a "wannabe" KD, and I'd "Trump" them ( Youah FI-AHHHED!!) and get a "real"
one to help you with this project...........

IF you can't get something that's to scale (usually 1/4' or
3/16" is typical) lable ALL of the dimensions on the drawings.

This will help get the right slabs sizes plugged into the
project from the get go - saving you extra time and hassle
because you will not have picked slabs that were too small the first time
out - because you didn't know any better - Now You Do!!!

hope that helps

kevin

Kevin M. Padden MIA SFA
Fabricator, Trainer & Consutlant to the Natural Stone Industry
www.azschoolofrock.com

Thanks, Kevin - very helpful. I'm sure our KD has the layout with all the detailed dimensions - he just hasn't given them to us. Last night we met with the builder and I saw the plan for the master bath that our KD drew up for the builder and it had all the detailed dimensions the builder needed, but we never got the copy with all the numbers on it.

DH just called and said that our meeting with the fabricator is set for a week from Friday, so I don't get to go look at the granite this week. :-(

Our quote from the KD for the kitchen includes granite up to level 4 and, I believe, 3 cm thickness. I just realized a couple of days ago that the thickness was something I needed to ask him about as it isn't specified on the quote (although looking at the fabricator's site, it appears they use 3 cm granite for countertops). The edge that is included in our estimate is a square, eased edge. Any granite we may choose that is higher priced than level 4 or if we choose a different edge treatment, then we pay the difference in cost.

Thanks again for all the useful info, Kevin! I really appreciate it!

Patti

I have one more suggestion. Get samples of the granites you like and buy some sealer. Seal the granites, then put samples of the food products you use that seem like they might stain (I used red wine, soy sauce, peanut butter for greasiness and ketchup). Leave them on overnight. In the morning, wipe them all off and let them dry. I did one further step which was to put a paste of baking soda and water on the stains, and let THAT dry. It removed some of the stains. Anything that still had stains was out of the running.

Our granite is Arco Balleno. There's actually some confusion over this particular stone. The yard we got it from had it classified as a marble. Online references have it as either a mixed granite or a quartzite.

The one thing I absolutely love about our granite (besides the pretty colors) is the fact that the veining patterns turn into what we see as sea creatures. The slab we have for our peninsula has a beautiful whale pattern in it. One of these days I'll have to see if I can get a picture of it.

The link below has some good examples of what the stone can look like, though I think their description is a bit off. Our granite has purples, blues, grays, whites and small amounts of a mauve / pink color.

Here is a link that might be useful: Some more slabs

If you're like me and don't want to worry, check the samples for staining BEFORE they're sealed. Some stones are like glass and nothing soaks in so they won't ever need to be sealed.

Patti,
I see you are from Western PA. I also live here and many of the local fabricators buy their granite and marble from the big 3 local distributors: Belstone, Dente, and Mont. YOu are able to go at any time to these distributors and look at slabs. They won't give you prices and they will ask you what fabricator you are working with. I suggest that you make a few trips to get an idea in your head of what it is that you are looking for. Looking at slabs is so much fun! Then try to picture the slab in its finished state in your kitchen in a countertop width. Good luck!

Check out these links for exact addresses:

www.belstone.com
www.montgranite.com
www.dentetrading.com

My personal rule has always been to start with the cheapest/builder grade, and work my way up...no sense in beginning with $$$ if I end up really liking $$, and would be happy with that!

Sorry if I repeat a suggestion, just skimmed above comments - when taking pictures, include a picture with the label - name/location. The 1st yard I went to I didn't do this. Boy was I sorry.

Regarding "GMI Stone DFW" - beware, it's a someone trying to drive business to his/her site. (You're not supposed to do that in these forum!)