And where do you live? Costs vary regionally. All countertop materials have a wide range of costs too so depends on your materials choice - costs vary within each specific material You should get an independent estimate to give you more confidence. Did you have a full contract drawn up with contractor itemizing each component - we did & the costs for each were based on a cost range for the quartz / tile etc. We understood if we bought more expensive materials cost goes up.

I imagine it will depend a lot on where you live, but we got quotes of $2-$4K in a HCOL area to fabricate a simple 42" quartz vanity top for a bathroom project (though that included the slab cost--quotes were similar for soapstone and marble too, with nothing under $2K). Nothing at all complicated--just a standard eased edge with sink and faucet hole cutouts. It kind of blew my mind, since we'd done a full kitchen of soapstone a decade earlier for under $10K. Yay inflation (and rising labor and rent costs). We ended up just buying a prefabricated countertop; not quite as nice, but perfectly functional for what we needed.

I would get at least two more quotes to see how your contractor's fabricator compares just to price check in your area. You can have them quote with and without the waterfall (and read all the threads here on the pitfalls of waterfalls before deciding to spend the extra money there!) Also ask what the slabs will cost--that can vary too.

We live in California. We are getting quartz. I’ve found one from LG and one from Daltile that I like. But that was priced out separately. The $6400 is ONLY the fabricators cost. Good to know about issues with waterfalls! I had not researched and so I will do that now. And if true, that will save me a lot!

We are in CA too (Bay Area). It's crazy expensive. Another factor is your counter design balanced against the slab sizes--you might find that with one choice vs. another you can use fewer slabs overall, which will cut costs.

We are in Southern CA. Everything is so inflated here. The Daltile quartz slab was quite a bit less than the LG. We like it a tad less but it is a close second. So for the sake of our budget, we’ll likely go that route. It is jumbo size too which I think also helps. We definitely would need less slabs if we did the waterfall. Only 2 slabs vs 3. If we decide against the waterfall, I think we would still need 2 slabs of either one.

We paid around $8600 for about 75 sq ft (labor and material) of Cambria quartz. We bought through Home Depot (knowing that the fabricator they use was the same one we were going to use anyway). We ended up not doing quartz for the backsplash because it was going to cost almost 50% of what our island and perimeter counters cost. Also, if you use it for backsplash make sure you read the installation specs for your cooktop/range. There are many posts about the quartz behind the range getting scorched from the heat (as well as the countertops on either side if the range is set too low).

Whatever fabricator you go with, make sure you review and approve the layout for seams etc. I lucked out and didn't have any seams in our design. Good luck with your project!

All great advice from Lynn Lou. I would not use quartz as BS - we used 3mm quartz & I wouldn’t want BS that thick. Would NEVER use as BS behind cooktop.

if you have the option to price out quartz and installation using Home Depot's tool - that can give you an idea of costs. Waterfalls are expensive (mitering the edge) and that's a LOT of finihsed edges. The HD pricing tool gives you insight into what drives fabrication costs (undermount sink? $, lots of finished edges? $, number of faucet holes? $, other cut outs? $.....)

That's only about $600 more than what fabrication and installation total was for us here in the SF Bay Area last month, but ours was soapstone, and so heavy (to cut it in a way that reduced seams) that it included two extra guys (@$320) in the crew to help get it up our sloping driveway and into the house. We had maybe a little more countertop total than you have (?56.5 sq ft), but no "waterfall". Fabrication and installation are calculated per sq. ft., so waterfall ends would represent a goodly amount extra, if on that basis. It is a high-cost area.

Waterfall ends on islands are an expensive design. But, I'm seeing less and less people ask for them. I use two different fabricators. They both charge about $700 LABOR for each waterfall end On top of that you might need "underside polishing" which is an additional charge, a miter charge as well as potentially, a "carry charge". A carry charge is when one piece is more than 22 SF. They charge handling fees for large tops....as it requires a third person to help on the install.

That’s good to know about the waterfall edges. Expensive and possibly on their way out? It sounds like I could save a lot by leaving the waterfalls off of the plan.

We have an induction range which won’t get hot and so the range itself should not cause problems with the quartz. But ya we have to be careful with the pots and pans. As for the thickness of the backsplash, except for the cabinets directly next to the range, all other cabinets are deeper than the standard. So the thickness of the backsplash should not impact things much. My husband wanted it because it will be easier to clean than having grout. Also it does provide a clean seem-less look. Hopefully we are happy with that decision.

If this is a full blown range, with oven underneath the induction top, then yes, you still have to be concerned about scorching a quartz backsplash. The oven will exhaust out the back of the range. That’s the heat that will damage the quartz…which is 33 1/2 parts plastic resin, by weight.

There are ways to avoid scorching, but these involve putting steel studs in the wall behind the range, and using an inflammable board in front of the studs. My contractor did this behind the gas rangtop (separate wall ovens), even though we don’t have a quartz backsplash. Ours is tile.

Yes to what darbuka wrote. The oven vent at back of my induction range puts out a lot of heat & the tile BS is warm.

Used to live in LA and did a full remodel on that house. Don't remember the numbers for the quartz in the bathrooms, but for the quartzite in the kitchen we paid roughly the same in labor as what the cost of the material was, so 3 quartzite slabs were around $9000 + $9000 for labor = $18K. No waterfalls or backsplash.

This estimate is the installation only. It’s not the cost of the slabs. The entire quote is over $12k

Our experience is similar to what Lynn Lou says above. We got Cambria quartz for our master bath vanity. If we had bought it from Rocky Mountain Stone here in Albuquerque, we would have had to pay for the whole slab, which doubled the price. Doing it through Home Depot - which included installation,. we only had to pay for the square footage that we used. And the slab was still brought in by Rocky Mountain Stone and installed by them.

No matter where you purchase your Cambria from, it should only be for 'actual square footage'. That's weird. I've heard that not all Cambria is fabricated by "Cambria Corporate" so maybe that is why.....Rocky Mountain Stone must be subbed out by Cambria to fabricate. Probably a deal they made with the box store. (rolling my eyes)

I think they use 1mm for the backsplash. As darbuka stated, the issue is the oven exhaust and not so much the cooktop for the backsplash scorching issue. The cooktop could cause issues to the adjacent counter, but probably not with induction. Just be sure to check the specs.

Our fabricator only works with Cambria. So we knew we wanted to use them. I didn't even know that Home Depot offered Cambria. I was pleasantly surprised that HD cost was about 20% cheaper. Our salesperson at our fabricator said it was a no-brainer to buy from HD since they'd do the fab/install either way.

But as I said before, just make sure you review the layout of counters and backsplash prior to fabrication so you are not dissappointed. Good luck with your project!

Just a note about Home Depot & Cambria - the patterns sold by HD are exclusive to HD. You cannot buy their patterns from another vendor. And, you must use a fabricator who works with HD. I learned this when a pattern we wanted was a HD exclusive & we wanted to use the fabricator who worked with our GC but not HD. We confirmed this situation with HD & with the Cambria Rep who our fabricator worked with. Reason given is the HD prices for Cambria have the install cost built into the price & they can’t separate that out. We asked if we could buy from HD & have slabs delivered to our fabricator’’s shop. A hard no.