Well I have the cheapest granite in the world (ubatuba) as my counters at home. My wife likes it so it stays!

Natural stone for the most part is way cheaper than quartz. Wholesale 3cm granite starts at $4.50/sq ft. 90% of new construction housing in the states gets granite in this price range. Only the most exotic granites creep above $20/ft wholesale. Quartzites usually top off at $30/ft wholesale, with only the most rare ones reaching $50-$70-$100/ft but that is the 1% of the 1% and at that point the client is going to spare no expense to get that exotic stone so you can price it however you want to minimize risk. (This does not include exotic Italian marbles which are an entirely different ballgame and are not even thought about with 9/10 fabricators.)


Quality quartz starts at about $15/ft wholesale and goes up from there. The quartz that has the marble look wholesales for $20/ft+. Maybe one day they will produce it cheap enough to compete with the cheaper granites but not now.


As far as UV goes I only have firsthand experience with quartz slabs sitting outside in direct sun. I have heard secondhand that quartz will fade indoors. I have also seen firsthand evidence of some poor homeowner who decided to outfit their outdoor kitchen with quartz and that did not last long.

I don’t doubt you and I don’t blame you. My warehouses have 100+ varieties of granite marble quartz and quartzites. Do you know how many people just walk into Home Depot and pick a countertop based on a sample and never see what’s out there? How often do you see a renovation show on HGTV and see some interior decorator come in and give the homeowner two different choices of white quartz and that’s it?

Fabricators capitalize off this and often don’t tell the customer what’s out there. It makes sense, if the customer walks out your door they may never come back. Most of my work is just letting the public know that we exist, and that there are infinite options out there if you want to find them.

Yeah, we're in the process of a kitchen remodel and I kept this advice in mind (you've posted similar stuff in the past). Our guy was very open to us looking at other stuff and said that if we found anything better that we liked, he could obtain it and put it in. He wasn't really interested in directing us to where we could find other stuff.

He was, as you can guess, very pro quartz, and he showed us a bunch of cambria stuff. I did find a place where I was able to view caesarstone (?) and pental. But we liked the cambria the best.

I did go look at some granite myself, but I didn't really like the selection. It may have just been a poor sampling. The guy we worked with also had a limited granite selection to show us, but all of his looked awful.

One thing I noticed is that I think quartz photographs a lot better than it looks in real life. I agree that a lot of quartz looks very plasticky in person.

Shaft any particular product you recommend for cleaning granite?

Also I love granite because I’m dirty and you can’t see dirty stuff on it. Like to the point of when I’m wiping down the counters I feel shame at how dirty they are but they look clean.

Yeah thats definitely one of the benefits of the busy/dark granites, they look great even while dirty.

Another reason why I think the all white everything trend will flip- you have to really really enjoy cleaning because every tiny little splash is noticable. I have white cabinets in my kitchen and I cook a ton- its a chore every few months to scrub the vaporized grease droplets off the surface of the cabinets.


As far as products I like anything from Dupont Stonetech. They're the best of the best but I'd be lying if i said I used anything else but windex multisurface to clean my granite.

are you in a major metro area? if so you should try to find a stoneyard to see the most variety. If you let me know what major city you're near i can tell you where to go.

if youre not seeing something like this:



You're not starting in the right place. I've said it in this thread before, most people go to a "granite guy" who may have two or 3 a-frames with stone, maybe some sample pieces cut, and the homeowner will walk out of there thinking thats all they get to choose from. If you want to see what's truly available out there you have to go to a wholesaler/importer.

Thanks for the offer, but we already ordered the counters a while ago (not installed yet). We actually both favored quartz because it was most stain resistant and did not need sealing (the chance of us actually doing that every 5 yrs was basically zero). And we do like the color/pattern of what we got quite a bit. Right now our major concern is if every thing we liked will look good together. I guess we'll see.

I went to an importer who supplies a lot to contractors/new construction and then does individual houses on the side.
Since it's 4.50/SQ foot wholesale and he is an importer, do you think I can get to price down significantly from $52/hr.....like mid $30's?

Only the cheapest granites are $4.50/ft wholesale to the fabricator. If you gave me the name of what you selected I could give you an idea of what the wholesale cost is. In my area fabrication alone is $30/ft+ so $50/ft installed doesn’t sound obscene depending on the material you selected.

If you want inexpensive, you will have to get the pre fabricated pieces of stone that already have a finished edge. That cuts out the fabricator having to do that step.

it is finallllllly inspection day and i can turn this damn solar on

I am messy, and have a 'busy' granite island and counters. Lots of veins, dark berries, color variations, inclusions etc,. We bought it cause it was visually interesting. Went through the yard to find a slab that spoke to us.

If its stained, i wouldn't know. As far as I can tell it looks like the day it was installed (10 years ago). I know when its dirty because it doesnt feel smooth (other than some natural pits in the stone) to the touch,

Me thinks much of the discussion is hype. Or for montone light coloured pieces which would easily show a stain by an out of place color or contrast. If you are getting quartz/ite which looks like fancy granite patterning for the stain protection, i doubt it worths any pricing premium for that feature.

Ymmv

Thanks. Haven't made my final selection. The $52 was the initial quote for the Shadow Storm.

Found this article that should answer your questions. Basically breaks down the pricing and expectations for Quartz. Pretty sure they have same kind of articles for Granite and other stones so you can compare and contrast the ones your interested in. Hope that answered your question

https://marble.com/articles/guide-to...untertop-costs

There is something going on with the irrigation in my neighborhood and it wont get turned om for "a little while." Which means no water for my irrigation sprinkler system. My yard/plants are starfing to dry out.
Is there any issues with connecting my house water to my irrigation system via hose? My house water hose bib has a backflow prevent. So do all of my solenoids.
I have a big in my irrigation line just past my water shut off and before my filter. I'm thinking I could connect it there but not sure if it would cause any possible risk to the house water.
I kmow i might not get the same pressure, but I think it would be enough to get me through for "a little while." Whatever that means.

Beam update:

Final quotes are wood beam 10K, steel beam 20K. So, only 2X. Neither quote includes rerouting of heating ducts because they can't tell if that will be necessary until they tear open the ceiling.

Quartz and manufactured stone offers uniformity of color, it also has some recycled content. Manufactured stone has some VOCs and is mostly made offshore.

The beauty of stone is each slab is different, a lot of the designers we see in commercial work don't understand the variations in color and that a small piece is a part of the pictures.

That natural slab that you go pick is basically a one of a kind, lots of patterns similar in the family but it exists once in nature, variations in pattern, depth of color are what you need to choose. Natural slabs are not all the same size, quartz if made in regular and jumbo slabs.

We do very fine woodwork in commercial buildings and sell a lot of quartz as part of out contract in our area as contractors prefer a single source for coordination. We sell veneers from specific logs that don't repeat in Nature.

I have a job now with about a lot of wall panels in high rises and the architect is viewing a 6" sample and we can't get through to them that nature doesn't repeat like that, she looks at the log and likes the middle but not the ends. Its the tree they specified.

I have been doing this for over 40 years and the latest batch of designers and architects out of school at high name firms are just lost. 10 years ago I could could discuss issues with a senior architect now the really have no idea other than color pallet.

Back on subject, if you want uniformity of color and consistency in pattern go with manufactured stone, if you want the beauty of what nature creates go with natural stone, you have to live with it. The designer can't see it from her house.

Without reading the whole beam discussion a single piece is basically as wide as the outside of the house so besides the weight there are issues depending on layout on getting something bigger than the opening in the walls, really depends how much room there is to tip at an angle and slip in.

They may need to poke through the outside of the house to slide it back in place which requires removal / repairs to the exterior. Take a look at your house an imagine how a 25' long piece is going to get in a room 24' 4" wide +/- at the inside and slip into the walls.

Wood is simpler to trim to length, connect, temporarily shore up. You can order a 26' wood beam and cut for length in the field in 10 minutes. The steel needs more time to confirm the size before fabrication, cutting machining or you need someone with a torch / welder that can size to length in the field.

Lifting. loading, getting in place with more people or equipment all add to the cost. Maybe the GC is using a metal sub to the metal install but would do the wood himself.

Who is actually doing the engineering? They should be able to give insight into some of whats driving the costs.

finally got my PTO (permission to turn on) and im online planting trees!

A couple weeks? That's not so bad. Southern California Edison is actually usually doing it in just a couple days lately, but LADWP can take months.

Inspection was just the 23rd then he emailed the doc that day, so 3 days really. Pretty good.

That's a big system. Looks good. I assume the 6 panels are facing SE, that's just the output for today and your SW panels will catch up by the end of the day. And maybe you have a little tree that could be trimmed just off the side of the 6 panels.

here is a better shot from just now. off and on clouds today

Had to make a couple appliance repairs recently, replaced the door hooks in my dishwasher and the oven burner igniter for my range. Here’s the range with the oven floor removed and the broken burner igniter detached but not disconnnected.



About $150 in parts and saved two service calls which would’ve been $700 easily. As always with home appliance repair im glad to do it to save some money but I’m also so glad I don’t have to do it as a profession.

Hanwa Q-Cell is pretty much my standard recommendation at this time. I hope you got a real good price on the 315s, 'cause the 325s aren't much different normally.