Granite Kitchen Worktops blog

After the extremely busy December when everyone wants their granite worktops or quartz worktops (Silestone) fitted in time for Christmas, January is traditionally a relatively quiet time in the stone industry. It’s a good time to pick up a great deal and here at Shaw Stone we’re doing our bit. For January and February only we’re offering free digital templating worth over £200! It’s also a great time to order a granite, marble or quartz off-cut for a vanity top, fireplace hearth, shelf or any other use you can think of.

We would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year.  Looking forward to 2012, we are quite upbeat. After a record year for granite worktop and quartz worktop sales in 2011, we intend to improve on it this year.

We put down the success to our continued commitment to only use  1st quality granite and quartz full sized slabs (not cheap 2nd grade ‘blanks’ as many of our competitors use) and also exploiting the very latest technology breakthroughs such as digital templating and ‘lifetime’ natural stone sealers offing a 15 year warranty.  As ever, customer feedback also remains key and we are very proud of our Checkatrade score of 9.9 out for 10 from 175 feedback forms. Another massive growth area for the business is the sale of the stone off cuts which are proving very popular. These are ideal for vanity tops, shelves, cistern tops, fireplace hearths and much more.

Well it’s been a busy December fabricating and fitting lots of granite worktops and quartz worktops (Silestone) in time for Christmas but last weekend was the Shaw Stone Christmas party and we decided to do something a little different this year. Rather than the usual dinner and dance the guys in the factory wanted to go Go-Karting at Teamsport in Gosport and managed to convince the ladies in the office that this would be a great idea (although not everyone wanted to race with some opting to spectate).

I must say well done to Kath for giving it a go but after taking quite a hard bump in the side from Kev as she came out of the pits on her first lap, she decided to give the rest of the race evening a miss (and asked if we could go for a spa day next year)!

The race was a hard fought battle that proved a lot more difficult and competitive than many people had expected. With Jason getting far ahead in front after Mike (who had qualified on Pole) span out, it left exciting wheel to wheel racing for 2nd place between myself, Mike and Sam. I must admit my competitive side took over and I raced as if it was the F1 world championship!

After the race it was the prize giving on the podium and then we all went off to the Chinese for an all you can eat sit down meal. I think a great night was had by all. We’re back to fabricating and fitting those kitchen worktops on Monday.

The final race positions were:
1st Jason Carr (our bookkeeper  Nia’s husband); 2nd Robert Shaw (MD, myself); 3rd Mike Green (templater & fitter); 4th Sam Arkley (fitter); 5th Jo Shaw (the good lady wife); 6th Kevin Greaves (fabricator); DNF Richard Atkins (factory manager).

November has proven to be a popular month, and this is set to continue throughout December with large amounts of work scheduled!

Whilst we were fully booked in the run up to Christmas with templating and fitting granite worktops and quartz worktops (Silestone), we now have limited availability due to a small number of jobs having been delayed due to builders not being on schedule or kitchen units not turning up on time. So if you want the kitchen worktop fitted before Christmas, get in touch with us soon before these dates are go!

Well, Christmas is fast approaching and as always it’s a busy time of year in the stone and kitchen industries as people want their new granite worktops or quartz worktops (Silestone) fitted before the big day. For our industry this does mean that January and February tend to be a bit quiet.

For customers who can wait this is a great time of year to pick up a fantastic deal as company’s try to keep their staff busy. As such we are offering a special deal of free templating worth £204 for all granite kitchen worktops and quartz kitchen worktops fitted in January or February 2012 (terms and conditions apply). So you could save yourself a fortune by buying your new kitchen in the January sales and taking advantage of this offer.

If you’re researching granite worktops or quartz worktops (Silestone) and are looking for prices then we have a useful tool on our website, the online price calculator. This is quite useful for just getting an estimate on your granite worktops or quartz worktops although we always prefer to discuss your plans further if the initial estimate is of interest to you.  Every kitchen worktop we fabricate is bespoke so pricing for every scenario on the website is impractical; we try to make our website estimations as accurate as possible, but at the end of the day, it is a guide, and not a firm price.

Once you’ve completed an online estimate it can be submitted to us so we can review it and give you a firm quote based on the information you have inputted. At this stage, we can discuss your needs in more detail and come to a firm price and plan of installation.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week we  were exhibiting at the Big Green Home Show at the National Build centre in Swindon. We were presenting the new Eco solid surface from Cosentino (the same company that manufacture the market leading quartz engineered stone Silestone).

Ideal for kitchen worktops this material can be fabricated in the same way as our granite worktops and quartz worktops but it s green credentials are impeccable, made from 75% recycled material and bonded with 25% organic resin it really is the first choice for environmentally conscious consumers.

Now and then I have a look around the internet to see what other granite worktop companies are up to. The other day I came across an article written by a company advising customers that they shouldn’t be paying deposits for their kitchen worktops. I read on with interest and realised that they were unfortunately talking a load of (hmm how can I put this politely), untruths. I’d like to dispel a few of their myths.

We are a very busy reputable company and need to work to tight schedule in order to deliver the service we promise. When taking an order we book templating and fitting dates in advance and enter into a two way contract with the customer. We will produce and fit a granite worktop or quartz worktop (Silestone) of the highest quality and the customer will pay us an agreed sum for doing this work. We ask for a 50% deposit at the beginning of this contract not because we can’t afford to purchase materials (we have accounts with all our suppliers so this wouldn’t be an issue) nor is it because we have no confidence in our work (see our Checkatrade report to the see the quality of work we produce), it’s because we need a commitment from the customer as we are producing a bespoke product that will only fit their kitchen and cannot be resold if the customer changes their mind.

If a customer is nervous about paying such large deposit the option is always there to pay be credit card and be protected that way. Deposits have always been the standard in the bespoke worktop / stone industry so I was curious to see why this company thought them unnecessary. Looking into it further it became obvious, as they were using cheaper ‘blanks’ and doing all the cutting onsite there was no risk for them because if the customer changed their mind before the fit they hadn’t cut anything and therefore hadn’t lost anything.  All reputable and established fabricators will require a reasonable deposit, so the question should be if a company doesn’t require one why not?

So who watched Superior Interiors with Kelly Hoppen on Channel 5 last night? For those who missed it, it will be on again on Sunday at 6pm. Wow, what a family! I bet Mr. Applebaum never used Checkatrade to find his first set of builders, oh well, you live and learn. It was interesting that one of the first things he said in their initial briefing with Kelly was that he wanted a natural stone worktop, in other words, a granite worktop.

As it turned out they ended up with a Compac Absolute Blanc quartz worktop, one of the quartz worktops that we supply. The worktop did look amazing though but before we get inundated with calls asking for 5 metre long worktops please bear in mind that theirs was jointed halfway through, so there is installation work that needs to be carried out as part of this process. Nonetheless, it still made a hell of a statement! If you would like to make a statement in your kitchen then give us a call.

One of the great things about the stone industry and the granite worktops and quartz worktops market is that it is always changing. New quarries are being opened up all the time or previously unknown granites are discovered. Unfortunately sometimes some quarries do run out, however that does make it more exclusive for those people who have that granite already. One new granite that we have recently discovered is Chocolate Brown, a beautiful deep brown coloured granite (as the name would suggest) from Brazil. Not to be confused with the quartz engineered stone of the same name. We have only been using this granite for a short while and it’s already proving very popular. We have a display slab at our factory so why not pop in and have a look?