It's more work to cut a curved edge but I think it was wrong to charge you for that without telling you up front.

I have a very unusual bar. At the fabricator they called it the Nike swerve. I did not pay any extra to cut that shape even though the original design called for a rectangle. There is one 17" straight edge on the whole piece - that's it. but I also have a very simple edge and the whole job was very expensive due to using a pricey stone.

Fabrication charges for various services vary. For most, any curved cuts are pricy extras. Some fabricators are already charging enough for the job that they'll throw in a few things for free, but as I said, charges are not standardized, and it's the whole price of the job that you would need to compare. Some might charge a lot more for the granite in the first place, but throw in the curved cut free and still be higher than what you are paying.

And yes, you pay for the whole size of the countertop as a square, including the "negative space" that isn't there when a curve is done.

If a price for a round (vs straight) front edge was not discussed at time it was offered to you and accepted by you, I'd call that a ripoff and would not pay the $400.

Hmmm, are they just testing you for your "balk point". What's yet to come on your project? Why $400? Why not $1,000.

(On our little redo, any late changes to original counter design were written--whether requested by me or suggested by them; changes were priced out, if additional; and all were to be initialed by me as "accepted."

Interesting. My templating was yesterday. The ORIGINAL design we sent them included an almost completely circular end to the island which was to be the seating area. Before the template my GC and I changed it because I wasn't happy with the shape. It is now more rectangular with only a simple curve on one end. Noone said anything about the price going DOWN because I cut out alot of curves!!! On the otherhand, I did change my edge detail (to an ogee bullnose because I really don't want that laminate edge to be an annoying stripe around my room) and they had no hesitation in telling me how much MORE that would cost. I guess I've got some investigating to do!

As for yours, I would think they should have told you it cost more, especially since they were the ones that suggested it.

One of the lower priced fabricators I talked to had a flat price per finshed square foot, however you could only choose from 8 or so granites, from three edges, you could not have any curved edges, and they would place the seams to avoid any inside corners. Given what I wanted (pictured below) that was a non-starter.

{{!gwi}}
The fabricator I went with didn't have a problem with doing the curved end, but said that the CNC machine he was expecting to be delivered was delayed two weeks, so he and his crew did the curve and the inside corners by hand.

So I can certainly see where for one fabricator curved edges can be a major additional amount of hand work necessitating an upcharge, whereas for others with more advanced machinery, the curves can be significantly less additional work. However they may then upcharge all jobs to cover the greater capital expenditure for the advanced machinery.

I agree that they should have told you that it would cost more at the time they suggested it.

Our peninsula overhang starts at 10" and goes to 15" in the center (the total peninsula is about 8')...we were charged an extra $650, if memory serves. Though I was a bit unhappy when they told me about it, I gladly paid cuz I knew it would make a huge difference. Plus at that point we were already $2K over the granite budget so I just gave up. :-)

But I definitely think they should have told you in advance...it COULD have been an honest mistake...or they could have been trying to squeeze in some extra charges. I would at the very least point it out to them as a bit of deceptive practice.

I got charged $250 for a 6' soft arc. It starts at a 12" overhang and peaks at 18" then back to 12".

If they cut it then told me about the charge I would have flipped out and would have insisted not to be charged. Its just bad business.

We have a curved side on our island and weren't charged extra.