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?
I took my six year old son and his friend to the Southampton boat show this week. They loved it, climbing all over the multimillion pound boats pretending to drive them. Some of these boats, the Sunseekers, Princesses and so forth are the last word in luxury. What was interesting to see (for me as a stone anorak anyway), was that many of them had granite worktops or quartz worktops in the galley and marble vanity tops in the heads (bathrooms).
To me, this is one of the best things about granite – it is affordable enough that we see it in every day houses and apartments all around the region that we mostly sell too, the South of England, but it looks luxurious enough to be seen about the most expensive yachts and boats. It just goes to show that class is permanent, no matter what the price is.
When we cut a new granite worktop or quartz engineered stone worktop like Silestone we cut from full sized first quality slabs. We don’t cut from prefabricated blanks (usually 2600 x 620mm) because these generally are of a lower quality and the colour match from blank to blank isn’t normally that good because you can’t guarantee that the blanks are from the same block as you can when cutting from full size slabs.
One thing we tend to have though are plenty of granite and quartz offcuts. There is nothing wrong with the offcuts except they are too small to use for a full sized kitchen. As they have all the qualities of the original piece of stone, they are ideal for smaller projects like fireplace hearths, shelves, windowsills, coffee tables etc.. So if you have such a small project it is worth a mooch around our offcuts yard, I think you’d be pleasantly surprised at what you’ll find.
Last time on this blog, we talk about the origin of the granite that is used to make our granite worktops. This time we’re going to look at quartz, and the process by which quartz worktops are made.
Like granite, quartz is reasonably abundant in the ground – in fact, it’s second only to the mineral feldspar. However, most of the quartz that is used commercially, both in electronics, such as watches or computer chips (the silicon inside is the silicon in ‘silicon chips’) and in the larger scale structures that you see in the quartz worktops in your kitchen. The commercial production of quartz has been vital in the development of the modern science of crystallography, the study of the way that atoms arrange themselves in a solid material.
This synthetic manufacturing process means that producers, and hence customers, are able to have a lot more control and choice over the finished product, in terms of size, shape, colour and finish. Pure quartz (or ‘rock crystal’) is transparent and colourless. Impurities are added during the process to change the way that the quartz forms, resulting in a wide range of patterns and possibilities.
Like granite, it’s a material that has been used for tools and structure since the Stone Age. In fact, the Romans believed that quartz was a form of ice that had been frozen for a great deal of time. Quartz doesn’t have the hardness and durability of granite, but the advantages conferred by the well established commercial production processes mean that it is often the preferred option when designing a kitchen installation. The ease of upkeep, too, can make a quartz worktop an attractive option.
If you’d like to call or stop by our show room for a chat, our expert team will be happy to talk through your kitchen worktops.
We’ve talked on this blog a lot about the benefits of granite as a substance for making kitchen worktops; how durable it is, how best to keep it looking good and to preserve its value. However, we’ve not really talked about a question that gets asked a lot; just what is granite, and where does it come from?
Unlike quartz, which is a man made material; granite is actually a rock and is mined from the ground. This is one of the reasons for its value; it is extracted in large blocks, with natural patterns and colourings, and no two bits are exactly alike. It’s then sold on to wholesalers and manufacturers to form into usable products; a bit like how a lumberjack will cut down a tree and then the wood will eventually be passed on down to a carpenter to make a table.
Granite itself is a very hard igneous rock; it’s formed when magma, the molten liquid rock beneath the crust of the earth, intrudes into a weakness in the rock above and then cools and solidified. The nature of the rock in which the cooling occurs has a bearing on the makeup and appearance of the granite. Over the course of time, though the movement and shifting of the earth’s plates, the rock moves into places that it can be found and extracted for human use. As granite is much harder and durable than many of the other rocks that make up the earth’s crust, granite is often left exposed as all around it erodes by the action of the wind and the rain.
It’s these properties that have seen granite in use as a building material for thousands of years; along with marble and sandstone, it forms the basis for many ancient buildings, including some of the oldest pyramids in Egypt. Today, of course, we use not just for buildings, but to enhance our homes and our kitchens, providing a beautiful and practical work surface that, with care, will last and last.
So the holiday season is upon us at last. Hopefully if you haven’t already been then you have yours booked and are looking forward to getting away for a bit. The question that I have for you is whether you have booked a package tour or have you booked your flight, hotel, care hire separately?
As we all know each method has its advantages and disadvantages. Package holidays offer more security and service at the expense of personal choice and tend to cost more. On a self planned holiday you get more choice at a lower cost but the security element is less and you have to do all the organising yourself.
Kitchens are similar to holidays in that you can go for the full package offered by large or small independent showrooms or you can shop around for the separate elements of the kitchen individually such as carcasses, appliances, kitchen worktops and the fitting services. A kitchen showroom will plan your kitchen, sell you the units, appliances, worktops and fitting service. Services such as the fitting of the kitchen and the templating and fitting of granite worktops or quartz worktops (Silestone) are usually sub-contacted out to other companies like us.
We do work for kitchen companies but remember they will add a mark-up to the cost of the granite or quartz worktops. This is fair enough as at the end of the day they are proving a service and it’s only fair that they get paid for that service. However if the budget is tight you can get more for your money by being your own project manager and do all the organising yourself. Organising the templating and fitting of you granite worktops or quartz worktops isn’t that difficult and we are here to help.
So at the end of the day the choice is yours, the whole package option, the project manage yourself option or a combination of the two. The most important to remember is to check that whoever you get your granite worktops or quartz worktops (Silestone) from that they are a reputable company with the right machinery and checkable customer references.
One of the beauties of granite worktops is their individuality. Each slab of granite will be different to the others. Depending on the type of granite, the difference may be subtle or extreme. Choosing a quartz worktop (Silestone) from a small sample is easier than choosing granite from a similar sample because the quartz, being man made, is a lot more consistent.
When choosing any stone kitchen worktop we recommend seeing the whole slab in a large piece to get a true impression of the stone. This is even more important when choosing granite, especially when the stone has a lot of veining or movement in it. This is why we actively encourage customers to visit us to see slabs and discuss their requirements. We do not hold in stock every type of granite, so it’s a case of visiting the factory to choose the piece of stone that suits best.
We also encourage customers to visit our suppliers who are granite slab wholesalers, stocking hundreds of slabs from all around the world. Often when our customers visit the wholesaler they will come back to us having chosen a granite that is completely different to the one they went to view, because they saw something they simply fell in love with. Slabs can be reserved at the wholesalers and then delivered to us for cutting.
Customers may even visit us again after templating to discuss how we cut the slab so they get the patterns in the worktop pieces they want. To the best of our ability, we will always try to accommodate customers’ requests. We buy from some of the biggest wholesalers in the country and the world, ensuring there is lots of choice and a guarantee of only top quality material. There are depots in Basingstoke, Birmingham and in and around London. So remember to take advantage of our ’select a slab’ service.
Due to our high work load and the fact that I like to keep my hand in, I’ve been doing a few templates this week. People are often surprised by the fact that we digitally template their kitchen worktops using a Proliner plotter rather than the traditional method of making physical templates out of board or plastic. I explain the advantages of digitally templating. For a start, there’s a question of accuracy; the plotter is accurate to within 1/2mm over a seven metre distance. Additionally, no walls are ever truly square, and the Proliner can accurately measure the angle.
Secondly is the speed of templating. An average size kitchen will take 15-30 minutes to template, and most the time taken templating a granite worktop or quartz worktop (Silestone) is discussing the customer’s requirements and ensuring they will get exactly what they want.
Thirdly is the fact that as the digital drawing is transferred directly from the plotter to our CNC saw, what has been templated is exactly what will be cut. Just a word of caution – although the templating process is extremely accurate there are still acceptable tolerances in the fabrication process, such as blade wear, material removed during in edge polishing, and other small facrors. Most worktops are within 1-2mm, however.
The Proliner is a fantastic tool but at £15,000 each and a further £80,000 for the CNC saw they are not a cheap investment, one that only a company serious about its commitment to excellence would invest in. However by making this investment not only do we cut the most accurate granite worktops and quartz worktops in the industry but we are also able to reduce our prices of kitchen worktops to the customer by the efficiency savings gained.
