Granite kitchen top

[Dave Walsh]

Any recomndations on a good source for granite work tops?..Should I look to Europe??...

Thanks for any thoughts??

[Rick Dipper]

There is a place neer me, in an old quary, that polish them up. I have no idea what its called, but if you live in N. Wales, I'll tell you where it is.

Rick

[Andy Hall]

We're in Europe.

The two main costs with granite are transport and finishing.

If you go for an African granite, there won't be a huge difference in the transport element between buying in the UK or other places in Europe.

There is extraction of granite in Finland, but I suspect with high labour costs you wouldn't save a lot.

There are some practical issues.

Good quality granite, well polished, finished and fitted is not cheap.

Having gone through the exercise, I would *strongly* suggest finding a good local specialist firm with references and also go and take a look at some of their work. The best way to approach the exercise is to discuss the exercise with a number of suppliers from the usual sources such as Yellow Pages, home magazines, web search etc. Give them a scale drawing and ask them how they will approach the job and a costing. For example, when I had this done, there was a requirement for underhung sink, an L-shape and drainage channels to be machined. The cheaper suppliers wanted to supply in two pieces, saying that the L shapes couldn't be done.

Fit all the units in place firmly first, then ask the granite supplier(s) to come along for a final quote. On selection, ask them to template for supply and also whether there are any site requirements.

I think that it's better to get the supplier to own the whole job including templating, cutting, polishing, delivery and installation.

That way, if there's a screw up, the buck is in one place.

It really does then imply a reasonably local supplier unless you want to take on some of the risk.

Personally, I felt that if one is going to invest in granite, it's better to get it done properly.

[Andy Dingley]

Can't move these days for granite worktop makers....

I use Bristol Marble

mainly because I live next door. They do marble, granite, factory-farmed and some slates.

They've a lovely granite in at the moment - dark grey, with a rough surface to it. It's like slate, but without all the wear problems and unevenness of slate.

[The Natural Philosopher]

monumental masons.

[Rick Hughes]

There was a Post on Uk Selfbuild form a guy starting off a granite work top business, he was offering great discounts as long as his team could leran on the job ... i.e. could take time over each install.

You could search the posts and contact him

>

[Jonathan Pearson]

I got ours from

templated, collected & fitted myself, the quote was much cheaper than anything local to me - they normally template and fit themselves, but were happy to offer loads of advice on how to do it yourself, and the quality of granite / finish was excellent - recommended

Jon

[MBQ]

If one is going to invest in granite, buy shares in the quarry, don't buy the end product.

MBQ

[emv]

I used a company called "Affordable Granite" in Betchworth, Surrey. I managed to do the whole kitchen (admittedly a small kitchen) for just over £1000. including fitting. Quotes from more traditional sources were nearer £5000.

The guys (contracted kitchen fitters) do the exact measuring cutting and fitting on site. This proved v. useful as I had made a slight error in my measurements which could have been dificult if the granite was prepared elsewhere.

The downside was that you have to use set sizes of granite which are cut down to size. This means a long continuous length will need to be made of several pieces. Also they finished the joins with black sealant which I will have to redo as it wasn't that neat.

On the plus side the cost made it comparable or even cheaper than using a wooden worktop when the specialist labour that I would have needed was inclued. Also, despite the sealant joins (which I will redo when I have time) the granite looks great, and has all the advantages of granite.