Depending on what type of soapstone you want and where you are in the country will determine how much it costs.

In florida, about 85 a sq. ft. Only because it is a newer market. Up in the New England area, PA and around there prob around 95 sq. ft. and up. Out on the west coast prob about the same. Some granite guys will bid out a job lower and then look for the stone. Just make sure the stone you pick you see it touch it and please make sure it does not have and fissures or cracks in it. If you can't find soapstone in your area (and you have to order without seeing it) go with a company that has a reputation for soapstone.

Usually soapstone is by the sq. ft. then sink cutouts, runnels, faucet holes, and any other edge details are extra. Many higher end companies will price out by job and not by sq. ft. It just depends on the shop.

Stretchad-

I agree with my Brother Joshua on the pricing break-out
by many high end contractors.

Myself included - I don't split out or break out
the cost of the stone from the labor - That's like
asking Mercedes to split out their costs of the steel from
the delivered price of one of their fine driving instruments.

As far as the use of Soapstone - to date,
I personally have not done that much of the product out here in AZ -
probably a dozen projects over the last six years...
I think this is mainly because of the demand - historically,
there has not been that much of it
out here in the Phoenix market - I think mainly because of
the overwhelmingly popular demand for Granite, AND many
Fabricator's lack of familiarity with Soapstone. I think
this will change in the future, becasuse Soapstone is WAY
EASY to Fabricate, WAY WAY EASY to install,
and WAY WAY WAY EASY to maintain. (No Way? - YES WAY!!!) ha!

Hopefully more consumers will start looking at Soapstone here
as a viable option to other counter top material choices, and
I'll be posting more pics of finished Soapstone projects in
the future.

I like it so much I'm willing to put my money where my mouth
is - by putting some in my own home - and - I will be teaching
new Fabricators how to work with it at AZ School of Rock's
Basic Countertop Training Courses that we have here in AZ
each month...

my .02 cents worth..............

kevin

Kevin M. Padden MIA SFA
Fabricator, Trainer & Consultant to the Natural Stone Industry
www.azschoolofrock.com

In the Atlanta area I was quoted prices from 69 sf from Home Depot Expo to 110 sf. I ended up paying 105. Well worth it. I love my stone.

Soapstone is free! However, you DO have to pay somebody to quarry it, cut it, gauge it, hone it, warehouse it, fabricate it, transport it and install it.
Casey

I live in Arkansas, and here I could have gotten it for around $20 a square foot (material only) and around $65 a foot installed.

I wanted it so bad (!), but I only wanted it on one small counter where the sink is, with butcher block on the other counter. I would have had to buy a whole slab of soapstone and use less than half of it, which I just couldn't justify doing. So, I went with butcher block on both counters, and it looks beautiful.

owl at home, would you mind telling me where in Arkansas you were getting the soapstone? I keep reading here how great it is. I might just have to take a look. Also, I THINK I may want butcher block on my island. Would you mind telling me where you got that? TIA. And sorry for getting this off topic a bit.

Kevin, I disagree with you. I run into a lot of guys that think the same as you. It may be easier to cut because of its softness, but that's only 1 aspect of the job. It's the reason why marble shops are many times separate from granite shops. Soapstone is its own breed of stone, and needs to be worked differently to get it to look and act its best. IÂve also fixed many jobs because of this attitude.

As far a historically, it's really only found on the east coast and mainly in the New England areas. I think it's a matter of introduction into a market. New Englanders have always heard or know soapstone, but because we are able to introduce it into different markets now it's new for a lot of people. Even so it's been used for building materials for thousands of years. Look up soapstone temple in India. Someone who is willing to push to introduce it into a market of misconceptions will do well. If they know the stone and can work it correctly they will be sought after. For the thousands of Fabricators, few can work it well.

I don't think soapstone will be mainstream. Too many factors tie into that.

I think this kitchen forum is singlehandedly responsible for any upsurge in soapstone sales. I had never heard of it - and was not even aware till recently that the old gray laundry sink I grew up with, was soapstone. I never thought about it, actually. I also thought that laboratory counters were slate.

And now I'm eagerly awaiting my own soapstone counters! What an education.

Pup,
The place I looked at soapstone was Bedrock International in Little Rock. They have mostly granite and marble but do carry soapstone, and we got to see a slab there. You can go and look around, but they only give prices to your fabricator. I had to give them my fabricator's name (Brooks Fabrication in Heber Springs) in order to walk through and look. We also got a price from a place in Memphis (don't know the name). It was a few dollars more per square foot and still sold only in full slabs.

As for the butcher block, my fabricator ordered it and I don't know the supplier. It is pretty standard edge-grain maple, but I love it. I will post some pictures once I finish oiling it and everything.

Owl at Home, thank you so very much! I would at least like to see and TOUCH soapstone before I make up my mind. Funny, I was gonna go with laminate on the majority of my countertop...but I continue to feel a bit of pressure (from myself) to do something else. Maybe it will pass. HA! Thank you.

Florida Joshua, Thanks for the tip on the bees wax. Love the way it looks!

Thought you may want to know that there are historic homes in California with soapstone. Our friends have it in their home in Alta Dena along with an amazing copper sink/faucet.

Their house used to be owned by the author Zane Grey.
It has a light colored soapstone that has never been oiled and is really soft. This is in the butler's pantry. The kitchen sink and counters have been replaced so I don't know what was there originally.

Also, at least one of the homes in Pomona, Ca near where I live also has soapstone. That is where I first saw and heard of it. Makes sense as so many from back east migrated out here and built homes.

Turns out Zane Grey, grew up in PA, where I grew up moved to CA where decodilly is from and liked to vacation in FL to fish, where I moved to.. . . lol

I would love to see pics of the old soapstone. Someday I'm going to get an old soapstone sink for myself and put it in my shop to show it off. You know when I have time and some money . . . I still have to redo my kitchen.

The bee's wax thing was told to me, I'm just passing on the knowledge. Actually an old customer said she did it and my old employer checked it out. We still just offer the mineral oil when we install and if our customers want to try it, we have some for sale.

Joshua,
I'll ask my friend to take a picture.

This may be slightly off thread, but does anyone (florida_Joshua) know of any of those "few talented soapstone fabricators" in the Chicago area?? My cabinet order goes in next week so I've got about a month until template time. HELP!

ricklish!
I ave just been through hell and high water to find soapstone in chicagoland....here is what I found:

Hummingbird soapstone in glen ellyn has green mountain
http://www.hummingbirdwoodworks.com/Soapstone.htm

Terrazzo and Marble has 3-4 varieties (listed under specialty) but you can only buy their stones through a fabricator (they have good recommendations)
http://www.tmsupply.com/product.asp?pagetype=specialty

GFC architecture has 1-2 varieties and are up by Green Bay. Pretty affordable, and have samples at the merchandise mart
http://chicagosoapstone.com/

My favorite (i'm templating this week) is Rocktops in Crete, IL. Their website has no mention of soapstone really, but they have a bunch of varieties in their warehouse(including malibu green, santa rita and mariana reserve), I would REALLY recommend going to check them out in person.
http://www.norstone.com/frames3.htm

Your other options are to order from someone else, from those that I talked to, I was most impressed by M Texiera, Alberene, and Canadian (but shipping runs $500 and up for a mid sized kitchen)
http://www.soapstones.com/
http://www.alberenesoapstone.com/
http://soapstonecounters.com/

I have about 25 soapstone samples kicking around my condo in lakeview, by wrigley field. If you want to come see some of them, let me know! I'd love to help someone out, since I was pretty lost on the whole process when I started this summer.

I second the vote for Rocktops in Crete, IL! I had my soapstone done by them 2.5 years ago and I have nothing but great things to say about them Bob Kasper was a dream to work with. He brought out 5 guys on a Saturday to install my countertops.

Check them out! Tell them the Zeimen's were very very happy customers!

MY GC has a fabricator he loves, however the guy hasn't done any soapstone for a long while. My GC says he is meticulous. Should I be concerned about his lack of experience with soapstone specifically?

P.S. I found four beautiful slabs at T&M in Wheeling, IL. They couldn't tell me what variety they are, just that they were from Minas, Brazil.

Thanks staticfritz and sugarbreak, I'm heading out to Crete tomorrow to check out the slabs at Rock Tops. Which variety did you end up with? I have a really large island so Bob recommended Mariana Reserve GU (?) but said it isn't quite as black as Santa Rita when oiled. I'm leaning toward more black, but we'll see what it looks like when I get there.

Haha, I'm currently trying to get an appointment for saturday to pick out my own slab....
i'm either going with the malibu green (a serpentine/soapstone) or the mariana reserve clear(not gu)
You'll have a great time down there!

We went with Santa Rita. We have since moved to MI and when we renovate this kitchen we are going with soapstone again. I hope that I can find another company as wonderful as Rocktops and people as helpful and knowledgable Bob Kasper and his crew.

Hey sugarbreak - you don't happen to have any photos of your aged Santa Rita, do you? My DH is sorta freaking out about how soft it is. He dropped a hammer on the sample piece and gouged it. (Duh.) He's worried about have a cratered counter surface in a couple of years... how much abuse did your counters get from daily wear?

I'm in the same boat as ricklish, can anyone help me find some talented soapstone fabricators in the Virginia Beach area?

I was quoted a price of $115 a square foot installed, from Stockett here in Phoenix. They have 2 varieties: a softer, grayer one with lots of small veins (they called it "Minus") and a harder. blacker one with mostly dark green veins (called it "Brazilian Eyes") .When oiled, the blacker one is mostly black with very light veins and some dark green areas.

I was just quoted a price of ~$165 per sq' - that seems really high compared to what others are saying. I'm in the Northeast (Massachusetts). I'm thinking I should get another quote . . .

I have a four ft. by 2 ft double soapstone sink 18 inches deep, divided in the middle providing 2 24 inch by 24 inch
compartments. I will entertain any offers.