I had a Sensa bid from Lowe's on their Verde Aquarius leathered. I liked the price... it was the cheapest of my 4 bids, and I liked the product. The fabricator was a putz though, and he tried to pressure me on the phone into buying when I hadn't put any money down with him. He tried to scare me into going with him since I had signed his estimate measurments as correct. I never gave him a definite yes, and outright told him that I was still getting other bids so he knew full well what was going on. Find out who your Lowe's uses to fabricate. Check out their reputation independently. The fabricator makes all the difference.

I agree with musicgal, though we had the opposite experience with fabricators from Home Depot. They were top notch, couldn't have asked for better. Not sure where you are but our fabricators do all the Home Depot jobs for New England and parts of NY. They are based out of canada. And I would highly reccomend end them in a heartbeat!

We used Lowe's (I don't know what sensa means) for our custom cabinet kitchen remodel. I believe the prices were lower than the somewhat nearby fancy independant dealer. The only problem we had was that our cabinet maker mis-inastalled a run of cabinets and had to rush out to reset them while the Lowe's contractor had to wait a little. Fortunately no problem for the installer. Everything came out well.

On the other hand, we had previously used the fancy dealer before for a special unusual and expensive granite in our bathroom. Everything that could possibly have been done wrong was done far worse than badly. I seriously considered spending several days standing out in front of their shop to accost potential customers to tell my story. I still dreamily think about doing far worse. Our decorator, who had originally toured us through the fancy dealer's impressive collection of granites and beautiful huge expensive cutting equipment, and who knew the whole sad story, obviously knew we wouldn't be using them again, went with Lowe's.

Sensa is a brand of real granite treated by the Cosentino company that also happens to make Silestone, a manmade quartz that is very popular due to its antibacterial and stain resistant properties. The Sensa granite is real granite. It is treated to resist staining. It was a very nice product.

I also purchased my countertops throught home Depot, quartz. The fabricators were top notch, highly professional and did a fantastic install. Working with HD was completely painless.

They did say that had I chosen a natural stone I would have had to go to the yard and choose a slab since the samples are small and stones vary so widely.

It probably depends on where you live. I priced granite at various independent places and Lowe's and for both the stone and for the fabrication Lowe's was higher by about $10 per sq. ft.

I've gone the Lowes route as well as a local place. The local place was a MUCH better choice. Better selection and price.

In WNY, Lowes and HD can be more expensive because they charge extra for things that are included at other places. Here granite is sold by the SF not by the slab.

To get a good deal, maybe better customer service, and probably better choices, 30 to 50 miles does not seems far at all.

We are in NJ and found granite at Home Depot and lowes to be more expensive than independently owned yards that fabricate. I think it will all depend on where you are. I think its worth checking out other places, too. The yards have a lot more inventory and a lot of nice options at each price level.

I don't think that's far to drive to choose granite, especially since a stone yard will probably give you better prices. Not to mention, at the big box store you only get to see a small piece of granite, and not the actual slab that would be going in your kitchen.

We are north of Seattle and went to a stone yard that sells to many retailers in this area - including Lowes, I think. We went there about 3 times; each trip was fun. It was local to us, but would have been worth a long drive if necessary.

I have to drive almost 30 miles to get to a traffic light, so 30-50 miles for a granite countertop seems completely reasonable to me. I'd at least give it a shot so that you can compare to the Lowe's price etc. Would Lowe's give you names of previous customers so that you can ask them about their experiences? I know it is common for local companies to do that sort of thing; I've never tried it with a big box store.

I don't know about Lowes but HD has a horrendous contract...it puts the homeowner at all the risk. I've had several clients unhappy with their experience, they asked for money back and came to me, an independant K&B dealer.

Just get a few estimates and look at installed jobs...see who can give you the best service.

I personally wouldn't buy anything from Lowes or HD that wasn't sitting on a shelf.

30-50 miles drive doesn't sound bad to me, really, particularly for something as important as countertops. Make an afternoon of it - go look at granite and then have a lunch or dinner date somewhere. We live in a decent sized city, and we drove several different places, many of them 30+ miles away from us. Our fabricator wound up being just a little over an hour drive away from us.

Kompy, I have to disagree with you. I'm sure it differs by area, but working with Home Depot for my countertops and lowes for my cabinets here in nh was a good experience. I priced out my quartz ( same exact lg and silestone colors) at Home Depot and at an independent fabricator. The independent company was not willing to work with me at all, and their price was 50% more than Home Depot. I didn't feel at all that I as the consumer was placed in a position to assume all risk. The countertops from Home Depot are warantied. I was told very clearly what to expect, what was an up charge, what was included. And actually all the information about up charges was clearly available online.

When we did our kitchen we priced out big box and independent retailers, and custom cabinet makers. The reality was we could not afford the custom guys (and they were great trying to help us but you can't change enough about a $12,000 custom cabinet quote to fit it into my $6000 budget). The independent retailers were 25-50% higher for the same exact products, and that's not including the big box store promotional offers. On a tight budget you can't justify going with the little guy. We had one quote from an independent cabinet dealer that fit in our budget, but it was builder grade cabinets, and way less bang for my buck. Not to mention how poorly I felt treated for not having enough money to make it worth their time.

All this to say, it's quite irritating to see all the bashing on big box kitchen remodels. In an ideal world we could all afford custom everything, but this isn't an ideal world. And yes, I understand with an independent retailer you might (if your spending enough money to make it worth their time) get a good amount of advice and assistance you won't get at big box. But, if you are a diy'er or a budget kitchen remodler you are not going in cold, and there is certainly enough kitchen helpers at the big box stores to keep you on the right track.

We just purchased granite through Lowe's today, Sensa Amazonas, the color of which we loved and no other installers or fabricators here have that particular granite. The salesperson who helped us printed out a plan with the seams in the middle of the peninsula at the corner. I said I wouldn't accept a seam across the peninsula, so I stipulated that on the contract with a money back guarantee if they weren't willing to work with me on the seam location. I will go look at the slab before purchase even though this particular granite doesn't have a lot of veining and it's a more consistent pattrern, slabs do however have a definite color variation.

it seems like the wait time for Lowe's(four to five weeks) is much longer than with an independent contractor (three to four weeks), something to consider.

Here is a link that might be useful: sensa granite

I guess it must vary by region, chrissy. My store carries 3 lines of budget/builder grade. The majority of what we sell is semi-custom (Shiloh, Medallion, KraftMaid) and then we sell a little bit of both budget grade (Aspect, Silverline, Debut) and Luxury (Plain & Fancy). Here is my neck of the woods, the little guys are very competitive with the box stores. In many cases, we are LESS.

Like I said before, get quotes and go with the place you feel the best fit with. A knowledgeable designer can get you what you want within your budget.

I think it's important to choose your slabs and put your name on them. I went to a yard 30 miles away that both sold the slabs and did the fabrication. The owner told me to call as soon as the cabinet were installed. He templated 2 days later and installed 3 days after the templating.
Prior to going there I stopped at a yard 100 miles away that had a fabulous selection. They were going to charge $300 extra for travel.
My friend had a lousy installation with HD, but they did come back and fix.
BTW- I enjoyed the process of looking at gorgeous slabs, even some beauties that were way out of my price range.

This post was very helpful. I am learning so much and still have one crisis after another so I have to wait a few more months to get back into my kitchen obsession but I still read and learn and try to give opinions if I can.

Thanks for all the replies. The fabricator seems to have a good reputation. I tried going direct, but they are taking their time getting back to me for a quote.

I looked at the slabs they had in their yard and like a few of them. It wasn't a large selection sense they are really just fabricators.

The sensa distribution center is about an 1 1/2 away. The Lowe's person said I can go pick out the slab there. It would then be shipped to the local fabricator. My other option would be to just have it shipped and look at it when it arrives. He recommended choosing the slabs for the summer caroline color, since it is an exotic with a lot of variation. The crema pearl is a more consistent pattern.

Buying granite from Lowes is a crap shoot. Lowes has amazing fabricators and not amazing fabricators- and the difference between the Sensa granite from Cosentino and the Allen and Roth is supposed to be huge, with the Sensa being better.

However, my experience with the Sensa granite is that Cosentino talks a great talk about their warranty but no one stands behind it- not Lowes, not the fabricator, and certainly not Cosentino. I purchased more than 60 square feet of level E granite from Sensa. 13 days following installation, a crack appeared. Fabricator said it was a natural fissure. If so, what's up with the magical appearance following installation?

Well, it turns out that it's a dirty secret. Cracked slabs at the quarries are filled to make them sellable. Apparently, per numerous granite people I have contacted "all the companies do it". I contacted the fabricator, who blamed the supplier (Cosentino). Cosentino first tried to blame the fabricator, but then told me that it was my fault for purchasing a natural stone product.

I finally contacted Cosentino corporation directly. I was informed that they sell a "premium product " and quarry fills are not their policy. I was advised to file a warranty claim. The warranty claim was expected to take 3 weeks. 8 weeks later, I now have a response- warranty does not cover fissures, even ones that were hidden and appeared after installation.

This is like selling someone a car in perfect condition and 13 days after purchase a dent appears, then telling the customer that cars have dents sometimes - the customer took that risk. I have no issue with quarry fill, it's the transient nature of the repair that bothers me. A local granite repair person told me that it's because they used cheap materials- once the fissure is big enough, he will happily fill it properly for $400.

So you take your chances. For what it's worth, I have been told that the cheapest granite is the most durable and my mistake was going with a premium granite.

Frankly, had I to do it over I would have gotten stainless steel- it takes a beating and requires no special care. Or a butcher block counter. What the professionals use, they use for a reason- usually durability.

I had Lowes install granite in kitchen two bathrooms laundry room worst installation no support from Lowes absolutly terrible customer service stay away from Lowes