americancolleen -

I didn't take the time to figure out your square footage, but I can tell you that we got 3 estimates for our 42 sq. ft of soapstone counters. The estimates ranged from $3,300 to $4,400. These estimates were from three different dealers for three different varieties of soapstone - Green Mountain Original, Ice Flower, and Old Dominion. We liked the Green Mountain Original the best, and luckily, it was also the cheapest.

Perhaps it would be cheaper to contract directly with a soapstone company rather than going through your cabinet place. Check out this link to see if there is a dealer near you. Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: list of soapstone suppliers

I had 39 square feet, and the price for soapstone (Julia) came to $3600.

Doing a very rough square footage calculation from your measurements, you're paying $90-95 per square foot which is the average price here in Philadelphia.

Have you searched this site for the many threads/pictures of soapstone alternatives like virginia mist or honed cambrian black. Mamadadapaige has an amazing honed granite (I think it's called ocean green?) that's hard to find but every bit as beautiful as soapstone. Honed slate is really nice too; my neighbor has it and she loves it.

If that price is correct and you don't want to spend that much, mix it up. I used soapstone on my island, marble on a couple of countertops and stainless steel on the others.

Thanks Happytobehome and Marita...

If I figured it out correctly, I have about 70 square feet of countertops.

Looks like I should figure at least $100 a sq ft. Looks like I should entertain some other kind of countertops :-(

My husband would KILL me.

Can I live with that... hmmmm....

Thank you Cheri and Sundownr... I thought marble was more expensive than soapstone?

I do love/envy :-) every single thing about Mamadadapaige's kitchen - and I thought it was soapstone that she has. Is a honed granite less money than soapstone?

I should have known, I grew up in an old house with huge soapstone set tubs in the cellar... I vaguely recall someone saying once that they were worth a fortune.

I've had laminate counters for years... I can't do them again.

americancolleen - my soapstone worked out to around $79.00 per square foot. You can install it yourself for much less if you're handy.

Shop around and go directly to the fabricators in your area. IÂm north of Boston, and the stone place my kitchen designer sent me to was 50% more expensive than the place I went with, for the same # of sq/ft of the same exact stone! We used granite, but the ideaÂs the sameÂ

In CT and we paid a little over $100 Sq FT. It was more than granite I know.

The cost of countertop material and installation varies widely. It depends on the quality of the material, quality of fabrication, edge details, fabricator, area of contry you live in, just to name a few. You might be able to find soapstone that fits in your budget if you shop around alot! Don't give up.

Happy... do you mean that you used a wet saw yourself?? Dang I'm fairly handy and my husband is very handy but what a costly mistake just waiting to happen in our case :-)

I just called a place fairly close to me and she told me that their soapstone (which they get elsewhere) runs about $35 to $50 but that the fabricator gets $25 per sq foot plus another $15 if there is anything but basic work. She also tried to disuade me from soapstone and talk me into something called 'pietra di cardoza' - said it's as good as soapstone and you don't have seams with it.

She was a nice woman from Majestic in Canton, MA. I think she was Indian, I had a hard time making her out so the $$$ I quote above could be incorrect.

I got two quotes and both were cheaper than that.

One from Dorado Soapstone in Shrewsbury, MA for their minas (black with veins) - $81per sq ft installed.

One from Teixeira in Hackensack NJ, for either Black Venata or Black Julia, $79 per square ft installed. I ended up getting the Julia. (Just picked the slabs today!!)

So your price sounds high to me. I would call around if I were you, I'd think you could get it cheaper. I think your kitchen design place is jacking up the price.

Personally my experience with Dorado wasn't so hot. But that was because they didn't have stone that met my description. Maybe you'll be luckier than me - if they have what you're looking for maybe there wouldn't be a problem. They are closer, and deal exclusively in soapstone.

There are many many varieties of soapstone, each slab is individual - IMO more so than granite. So you definitely need to look at slabs (OILED) in person before you decide. Some is green, some is black, or gray. Some have green veins, or creme, or brown, or white. Check the different soapstones on Teixiera's website.

Here is a link that might be useful: M. Teixeira

Check out M Tex in Hackensack, NJ. They have a whole DIY informational section. Might be worth a phone call to them.

Here is a link that might be useful: M Texeira

I should have read the whole thread more closely...

You should not need to have any seams. Your longest run is 101". All you have to do is choose a slab bigger than that. The julia I chose today were 2 107" slabs - you don't have any runs longer than that. :-)

Honed granite is comparable in price to what I was quoted - though I was quickly dissuaded from it after reading the horror stories about it as counter material on this site! Do a search in this forum, then decide. Apparently it shows fingerprints and watermarks and has to be resealed. Soapstone never needs to be sealed, BTW.

I had a fabulous experience with Dorado in Shrewsbury,MA. Give them a call and ask for Dave. Shewsbury is less than 2 hours from Hyannis, MA. It would be worth a trip to see the soapstone and meet with them.

americancolleen - no we didn't install ourselves. It was $79 per square foot installed. Others on this site have installed themselves however and DH researched it as a possibility before we decided to leave it to the professionals.

I'm all over all of your suggestions --- thanks so much. I'm going to call Dorado and Teixeira tomorrow. Meantime, I will check the sites.

I'll report back with my findings, hopefully someone else may need the information as well.

I like the dark soapstone with veins but I don't know the name of it. I will check out the Teixeira site now.

Thanks again everyone. What would I do without this forum!

I wouldn't do Pietra di Cardoza. While some here have it and love it (it is very beautiful) it does etch. Do a google search and you'll find lots of information on it. It's not as maintenance free as soapstone. As to honed granite showing fingerprints etc., it's my understanding from reading this forum that Absolute Black honed is the notorious offender but others are better, especially if they have a leathered or brushed finish. Good Luck. Hope you find a stone you love that's in your budget.

Colleen, if you and DH are handy, I'd give DIYing serious consideration. We DIYed our Black Venata and it was really easy to do. We used a diamond blade on our circular saw and a diamond spade bit on our drill, but just a carbide bit on our jigsaw. The Texeira site has some DIY instructions, but I really studied the videos on this Canadian Soapstone site.

This is our Black Venata that we got from M. Texeira.

They have 4 different price levels and 3 ways to order soapstone. I think ours was the second price level. You can choose to order slabs, cut to size, or cut to fit. We chose cut to size just to keep the weight manageable.Cut to size is pieces cut to a rectangle. We cut the inside corners for L pieces ourselves using the spade bit for the corner, circular saw to the hole, and jigsaw to finish the cut. We rough cut the curved edges on our peninsula with the circular saw and used the belt sander to smooth it out. Soapstone is very heavy and it took 6 guys to lift our peninsula piece(~7 1/2'x40") into place.

I'm just north of Boston. I went with Maine Soapstone. I faxed them the drawings and they gave faxed me a quote. I wasn't too fussy about seeing slabs. Their located by the Canadian border, I think. I just wanted rich black (green undertones).On the templating day, they were stopping off in Haverhill, then my house, then to the cape, so traveling isn't a problem. I paid less then 4k, but have less countertop then you. I haven't had to oil for a year.
good luck.

laxsupermom, now I know where you got your name! I watched those videos you recommend and saw the meticulous work it takes to get the countertops as beautiful as yours are.

I just found an installer on Craig's List (New England Kitchen & Stone out of RI) and spoke with him - nice guy, very knowledgable... he is going to send me an approx quote including cabinet install (he likes to do that to make sure he will have a level surface and he is cheaper than the cab place will charge us for install), approx stone price (I like the Black Venata too) plus the stone install price.

I'm also going to call M. Teixeira and Dorado today.

My husband, an amateur woodworker but full time 12 hour a day employee elsewhere, is not interested in the least bit in us installing the countertops :-) He is wonderful at making furniture pieces, doing finish work, installing some floors and painting - but installing countertops is not something he wants to get involved with at all.

I love the Black Venata too, that was my first choice in stone. Just be aware that the veins can vary WIDELY depending on the slab. When I went to look at slabs at Dorado (they call theirs Minas) they only had 1 visible (couldn't move stone b/c the guy was alone) and it was sold anyway, but it had a huge splotch of veining in the middle I wasn't crazy about. For some reason they didn't have much of a selection of minas - though maybe you're not as particular as I was. ;-)

I can say that for veined stone, at the moment Teixeira has a good selection. I was just there yesterday. (there is more than one kind of veined - some have gold veins, some white, etc etc.) They are good about sending pictures via email if you can't get there. They are also having a sale on their venata right now.

After all that I didn't even get a veined stone haha. I fell in love with the Julia. :-)

so my point is, if you are at all picky about the veins, have them send you lots of pictures if you can't get there yourself. I had Dorado working on it, after about 1 month I got a local RI guy on it - but neither could find anything that met my requirements. (quiet stone with white veining) However, I walked into Teixeira and they had 3 different types of soapstone I could have walked away with. I think part of it is just luck.

In my experience, cabinet place is the most costly way to purchase stone counters since they are an extra middleman. Definitely go straight to a stone yard/fabricator and your cost should be lower. Our granite price is 1/2 what the KD quoted! Have you considered a wood top for your island? Wood can be very inexpensive & goes well with soapstone. Might be another way to get your overall price down without having to give up soapstone entirely.

When I went to Dorado they had just received a shipment of Minas w/veining and so I was able to pick a slab from the new shipment. I had also been looking for a long time. I would say look around and when you see a slab you love, put a hold on it because you may not see another one like it for a long time! Less veined soapstone like Beleza and Julia also tends to be harder and less likely to scratch or ding. Talk to Dave at Dorado in Shrewsbury, he is so knowledgeable and can connect you with a local fabricator at a good price.

Pluckymama, I definitely believe I caught Dorado at a bad time in terms of selection - I chose them based on feedback on this site (and b/c my house is in Newport so they were close.)

I had just typed a long explanation of what happened to me at Dorado, but decided to delete it - my lesson learned is if you don't walk in and find your stone, don't wait around for new shipments without also searching other avenues, because I wasted alot of time. Have several pokers in the fire, so to speak. ;-)

I agree - if you find a slab that "speaks" to you - snatch it up! choosing slabs was much harder than I expected it to be. And I didn't think I was that picky. ;-)

What great information you guys all gave me. Thank you so much!

OK, here's the information I got today. The gentleman I spoke with, Todd out of New England Kitchen & Stone in RI, told me I have about 65 sq ft of counterspace. What he will do is to call around (Teixiera and Dorado) see what they have for dark soapstone with veining, I will take a ride to see it and we'll go from there. He is wonderful to talk with, loves soapstone and has installed it many times.

His price quote to me is (no backsplash) $5100 including stone, installation and any shipping. For around $700 or so he will install the cabinets. I'm very happy - plus he is a fireman and I love those guys :-)

So, the cabinet place is quoting me $1850 for cabinet installation and a quote of $8500 plus tax for the soapstone.

I am so happy, soapstone is again back within my reach :-)

Yay! I'm so glad you found someone for your install. $5800 is way better than 10K. He sounds like he really knows soapstone and is the perfect fit.

That sounds great - so that's $78/sq ft installed, which is a fair price based on the quotes I got. Plus he'll be helping you.

Our house is in RI, I googled that company and couldn't find it. Just make sure he's legit - maybe ask for references. You never know with CL - but I hope it's the real deal!!

Thanks guys! I'm so superficial.. yesterday, with the 8500 quote for soapstone plus tax and the company wanting 1850 to install the cabs... I was just down in the dumps. Today, after talking to this guy who will do countertops and cab install for under 6k, I am over the moon :-)

Then you have the small matter of the market being up today... life is good!

The guy is a fireman full time and does this stuff on the side, he's good - has a lot of references and also works for several kitchen cab places (he gave names for reference). He also gave me some good cabinet advice from all his years of working with them. Told me junk and told me some good cab names as well. I have a room addition and a bathroom addition going on and accidentally, all of the contractors are firemen! Nice cash side jobs. But they are all word of mouth guys although a few are on CL.

Anyway, kpaquette, if you want his # or e-mail, let me know and I can e-mail it to you. I know you have your kitchen done already but maybe someone you know needs countertops or cab installation.