The labor is usually MORE than the material. Usually double, at least. The fussy and difficult details shared sound triple the stone cost! 3 slabs is not nearly enough for all of that though.

$100 a square just for the materials for quartzite is low. The skilled labor is the majority cost for all bottom line stone fabrication. Waterfalls and integrated sinks needs crazy good high end skills. Quartzite chews through blades like they are nothing. The risk for breakage is much higher on expensive stones. Especially expensive stones with some fissuring.

Quartzite fabrication is more than marble & granite because its a harder material, taking more time to cut, etc.

Oversized slabs require more bodies to install.

Integrated sinks?

Waterfall(s)

24" vs 18" backsplashes

floating shelves?

fireplace surround - how tall?

We just did a similar kitchen in Quartzite for about $12K without waterfalls, 18" splashes, mitred 4mm edges, undermount sink.

12k was just for labor? How much was your stone?

So my contractor likely under estimated?

Its just that when I look up prices on the old google almost EVERY site says fabrication and install should only be 35-65 a square foot.

You are not crazy about the upcharge for quartzite. It's the hot material right now. They charge more because they can. Taj Mahal has a 30% upcharge over a level 5 granite. That's why I walked away from it. It's nice, but it's not that nice.

To be fair, there is a lot of risk with quartzite. It chews through the fabricators blades like crazy, and those are expensive. It's hard to work with. Certain quartzites have a bad tendency to absorb water and may not release it staining the product. That waterfall edge that you just had to have takes mad skills to pull off, not to mention the integrated sinks. There is a fair amount of risk on the part of the fabricator because it's easy to screw up a job of this type.

It's like lasik surgery, if you have to have it, you don't want to hire the cheapest guy.

You have 7-14K in just the integrated sinks, depending on their sizes.

" Its just that when I look up prices on the old google almost EVERY site says fabrication and install should only be 35-65 a square foot. "

Those were pre-covid prices for labor.

@M Miller who is responsible if there is an issue like that? I assume they have insurance and if not they have to pay out of pocket?

Poor vein matching, especially on a waterfall, will be your fault for not buying enough slabs. It takes 2 slabs, just for that, with a bookmatched seam in the middle. And that presupposes that you bought bookmatched quartzite.

"who is responsible if there is an issue like that? I assume they have insurance and if not they have to pay out of pocket?"

Not sure what type of insurance would cover an improperly designed or improperly fabricated waterfall? And the question of who is responsible is the theme of these threads - Is it the fabricator? is it the kitchen designer? Is it the General Contractor? Is it the homeowner? It is rare that any conclusion is drawn on this, but what is for certain is that the homeowner has decided to take on this risk with the intrinsic issues a waterfall counter has, that can only be addressed by the very top-notch fabricators.

Britt Wllen, I'll answer. You are. Somewhere in all that contractual language is a hold harmless agreement. Should an issue arise, and there is a high likelihood, you will be responsible to pay for additional material and labor to fix the issue.

Even if the fabricator did everything correctly, your floors could be out of level or there could be an issue with your cabinets. Stone isn't forgiving. It has to be perfect and perfect is the enemy of every contractor ever hired on your project. How many of your contractors work to NASA tolerance standards?

There are dozens of places to save money on this aspect of your project. First, is the selection of quartzite material. Get something else and save a bunch there. Second, is the waterfall and integrated sink issue. Get furniture ends for your cabinets and a standard edge island. Presto, save a bunch there. Before you know it, you have reduced your cost by more than 50%.

I just replaced counter tops. I shopped for Taj Mahal quartzite. By the time I had it costed out it was a little over 17K for a basic installation in my kitchen. While I could have paid that, I didn't. I changed my choice, shopped for something else and selected a much more budget friendly quartz and a more budget friendly granite. Either would have been fine and were comparable in price. I ended up with the granite. The important point was I got all the granite I needed and installation for 9K and was able to put the granite in my laundry room, upgrade my applicances and lighting fixtures, too.

You have picked top of the line. If you really want to die on this hill, know what you are getting into and know that you had alternative choices that were less risky and less money for the same amount of utility.

Well the materials were already purchased months ago - kitchen is already in progress. I see it installed this week. As we redid the first floor, everything including cabinets are level etc.

yes could have gone with a basic slab but they werent THAT MUCH cheaper here in LA. A simple marble runs 4k plus, anything crystal is 6k plus, granite imo is dated. Plus we wanted a natural stone that was virtually indestructible yet beautiful. So it is what it is! Fingers crossed for no issues.

I am going to add a comment to "who is responsible if something like that goes wrong..."

I just had Taj Mahal Quartzite installed, with a waterfall edge. It looks beautiful, except there is an uneven reveal between the cabinets and the waterfall. It was perfect when it was installed, I've seen fabricator's pictures. No one is certain what went wrong between the installation and the final cabinet install and adjustments and there is a lot of finger-pointing. It is being replaced and I have no idea who is absorbing the financial cost, but it isn't me. BUT, there is more than the financial cost....they have located a slab from my lot in another state and brought it here. We think it matches, and the fabricator and I have done everything we can to try to verify. It will be switched out this week and I am beyond stressed - it may match, but will it match as well as the one that was in sequential number to the countertop slab? Will it look as good as the one that is already in there? The seam on the waterfall now is near perfect, will it look as good once they take it out and replace it? When you have all these additional features (waterfall, integrated sinks, backsplashes, etc) you add a lot more room for things to go wrong. This is all very much a first-world problem. but if I had known about all this additional time and stress ahead of time, I may have forgone the waterfall edge. And I can see how a fabricator needs to add a lot to his price to cover these things that can easily go wrong.

@Britt Wilen another issue with waterfall islands has been electric outlets. They are required by Building Codes in kitchen islands. It’s harder to install them with a waterfall counter, but it can be done. Lots o’ posts about that one. So just make sure that the electrical outlets are being addressed to your satisfaction. You don't want a rude awakening about them.

Get everything in writing, and then you won't be getting hosed by your contractor.

@Britt Wilen - To address your initial concern. Whether or not the amount is reasonable is not the only question.

Did you get a written estimate and what specifically was included in that estimate? Your fabricator would be required to provide you with a written estimate that included the scope of work and estimated costs. If the fabricator snuck the change in that written estimate then there is little you can do. However, if the original scope of work included the other rooms then the fabricator is going to have to eat it, regardless of whether it was just a mistake or deception. Likewise if there was no written estimate provided to you, then they are essentially in the same boat and are going to have to eat it.

I just wrapped a similar situation this week. I got a verbal estimate for the replacement of two garage doors. The estimate was a bit high but he could finish that day and so I authorized the work. He showed up at my home, we looked at the work and he agreed on the price. I left and my wife paid him once the work was completed, still without any written estimate. Only he charged double and claimed the verbal estimate was for one door and my job was two doors. I stopped payment on the check and to make a long story short they ended up being awarded about 30% of their original amount (the amount of the lowest competing estimate).

@Britt Wilen - To address who is responsible for problems... The fabricator would generally be responsible for any mistake they make.

A hold harmless agreement would be worthless in this situation. A hold harmless agreement is for risks they couldn't identify or that they identified and notified you of. Example: If you go skydiving and break your ankle while landing then a hold harmless agreement would likely protect them. Skydiving is dangerous and they will warn you that things like that can happen so you can't hold them responsible for it when those things do happen. However, if your parachute fails to open because it was packed incorrectly, then the hold harmless agreement is worthless. Skydiving may be dangerous, but they still have a duty to do their work correctly.

This same idea applies to waterfall edges. If a fabricator warns you that vein mismatching can happen because of fabrication problems then you accept that risk. However, other mistakes that were made by the fabricator are more likely standard run of the mill negligence and hold harmless agreements don't mitigate negligence.

Having said that, there is a chasm between being right and being compensated. In reality, customers usually pay for contractor negligence because they don't bother with the effort it takes to make contractors pay for that negligence. There is a post currently on these forums about a countertop where the OP would easily win in small claims court, but doesn't want to bother with it and that is not unusual.

I have used 2 really good fabricators in LA. We left the area a few years ago.

For fabrication, it was usually roughly equal to the value of the material, so $18K for material, I would expect the total project to be around $36K. Fireplaces are more expensive than counters.

Personally I avoided purchasing from MSI. Too many complaints about them.

I hope you tested your slabs ... not all quartzite is quartzite, with a lot of it being mislabeled marble/dolomite, specially if your quartzite slabs are the white/gray marble looking ones. Some quartzite slabs can be hard, yet very porous, and those need to be sealed regularly.

Search on the forums for "quartzite staining".

everything is MUCH MUCH MUCH more expensive after Covid!!!! Here in California our sinks TRIPLED in price. Doing remodeling. Been a nightmare!!!!

That seems like a low price for all of that fabrication. I’m in the middle of a kitchen remodel with two slabs of a fusion type of quartzite (price point for the slabs based on grading system at stoneyard was around Taj Mahal). No waterfall and undermount sink plus full height quartzite backsplash. There are no L shapes to the counter and one island. Total for two slabs and fabrication was around $12k.

Something smells fishy here…

No honest fabricator is going to start a job and only give you a price for half of the fabrication. It just doesn’t make any sense. What makes sense is that this was a bait and switch the entire time.

If you gave the fabricator the details of the entire job and they gave you a price on half the job, then they have a problem. It is their job to construct the bid correctly and they should absorb most of the damage from not doing so.

Your price would be typical to high in my LCOLA area. Skilled labor is relatively cheap in my area and there are a lot of stone fabricators in my area (there are 9 within 5 miles of my rural/suburban home).

However, the price isn’t the point. The unfair competition and deception is the real problem. Had this fabricator provided an accurate bid would they have gotten the job? If there is a chance you would have shopped around for a better price or better fabricator, then they benefited unfairly from the mistake/deception.

Worse than getting less labor than what you contracted for is enforcing the contract and having a contractor on your job who is losing money.

@Joseph - disagree. Contractors have multiple jobs and muktiple 3rd party arrangements. If after 40 years experience, my guy is unable to provide an accurate quote… that is NOT the homeowners fault or responsibility morally or otherwise. Homeowners use their life savings to do these projects and also can go broke…

Joseph's point is if the fabricator is not getting the money he now says he needs for the entire project he will cut corners and you will end up on the short end of the stick. Someone losing money is not going to take the same care with quality work. You need to determine of this is the hill you truly want to die on.

In my experience a frog is a frog even after you kiss it.

When a contractor shows you who they are it is naive to think they will become someone else after a big kiss. Contractors who use deceptive bids to get jobs they couldn’t get fairly, aren’t likely to do better work just because you are paying them full price. Or more precisely, they are likely to cut every corner they can already.

Also, in my experience, honest contractors are willing to take some repsonsibilty for their mistakes. If this fabricator said they were willing to do the rest at a significant discount then there is a fair case to be made for not putting them into a net loss position, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.