Hi Lisa,

I am in Portland, also, so I thought I'd jump in here. We installed Pietra Del Cardosso that we bought at Intrepid (I've also seen at OTM & Pental). They tend to categorize it as a soapstone, even though it's technically a schist. Anyhow, it's matte finish and we are absolutely loving it! When the fabricator installed it (Portland Marble Works) it was just sealed with Miracle Porous Plus. The color was lighter gray, but beautiful. We decided to use the Miracle Enhance and Seal and go with the darker look. I love that it makes the quartzite veining "pop" and totally resists spots of any kinds. Hope this helps. Oh....loved the fabricator! They did amazing work and were a delight to work with :)

Sorry...I don't have a close up of the counters!

A bit OT, but what a beautiful kitchen and beautiful counters, Penelopejosephine! The stone looks a little lighter and softer than the typical soapstone? Not so stark with the white...I love it.

Gorgeous kitchen, penelopejosephine! Thanks for the heads up on Pietra Del Cardosso (never heard of this but wow, it's yummy!) and the recommendation for your fabricator.

OTM is Oregon Tile & Marble? I have stopped there but I don't remember seeing this stone. I'll have to make a stop at Intrepid.

Please tell me more about your kitchen reno. Are you happy with your other contractors? Where did you shop for appliances? Basco? I don't remember seeing Blue Star (did I ID it correctly?) at the usual places.

Thanks for the compliments Rhome & Lisa! We still have a few things to finish up but we've definitely been enjoying it.

Lisa...you're correct. I abbreviated Oregon Tile & Marble (sorry). I looked at both Intrepid and Oregon Tile & Marble but went with Intrepid because they had larger slabs (I could get all of our perimeter counters out of one saving stone costs) and I liked the veining in Intrepid's. One more thought. One of the guys installing the counters said he has had it in his kitchen for several years. I took the opportunity to quiz him sense I haven't seen much on the stone. He said his has worn incredibly well and has been easy to care for.

We did buy our appliances from Basco. We thought they were great to work with. Our salesman was very patient with us as I ran into some refrigerator issues I didn't anticipate (door swing clearance). Your eyes didn't fail you...we went with a 36" Blue Star with the griddle...we're loving it!

What other contractors are you looking for? We absolutely loved our GC and most of his subs (only a couple of trades I wouldn't necessarily recommend). We did the kitchen at the same time as master bedroom addition so there was a lot going on!

Good luck with your remodel!
PJ

Dear Penelopejosephine: Your kitchen is gorgeous! (Now I'm back to wanting soapstone.) Have you posted information on Gardenweb about other aspects of your kitchen renovation? I'd love to know who made your cabinets and the paint color. The color is exactly the warm, creamy white I've been looking for.

Penelope, your kitchen is beautiful. I am so happy you loved your GC. I don't hear that very often. (I also live in the Portland area and with all of the remodeling I've done, I'd only recommend my tile person and plumber). I used Dirk of Hawthorne Tile and I'd highly recommend him.

I would love to here your recommendations as I (can't believe) am about to embark on another kitchen remodel.

Hi Lisa,

I actually got my soapstone through M Texiera. I looked at Pental's soapstone (as well as CFM) and Texiera was about half the price. Since soapstone can be cut and fabricated with woodworking/traditional carpentry tools I had my carpenters do the fabrication and installation. They did a *great* job on the rest of my house, and started installing the counters yesterday. They told my neighbor that it cuts very very easily and was a pleasure to work with -- much easier than other counter top substances they've installed before.

I only have a picture of the penninsula (sorry it's a crappy cell phone picture) since the rest of the counters are going in today.

It's not oiled yet, since they are still working on installing the rest of the counters, but I'm really really happy with the way it looks. I'll post some real pictures once I unearth my camera (lost somewhere in the craziness of the renovation) and when the installation is complete.

*excuse the mess... we haven't reattached the doors to the cabs, and are waiting until everyone else clears out before installing our floors.

PS -- I forgot to answer your question on who did the installation. I had Billy Spear from Evergreen Craftsmen do the installation. He does great work! My next door neighbor works from home and has been watching the progress on our entire house renovation, and has been really really impressed with our carpenters' work; we are thrilled with the results, but she says they are incredibly neat and conscientious as they are working -- so much so that she is trying to hire them to do work on her house. :)

That was actually one of the selling points for soapstone for me -- that we could get our carpenters who we trusted to do the installation, instead of bringing in another set of subs. Harder stones need specialized equipment, so you need to go with a stone fabricator.

@ portland renovation....your kitchen is beautiful! I can't wait to see the rest of your soapstone. It's yummy!

francoise...the cabinets were made by a local cabinet guy. His company is called On The Level. Our GC brought him to us. He was wonderful to work with and we're happy with the all of his work (did our bathroom vanity and medicine cabinet, too). The color is Benjamin Moore "Super White". We had the color on the trim in the old kitchen. It definitely yellows (as do all oil based paints) but the color works well with the light in our house.

Marlene...we didn't use Dirk, and that may be our biggest regret of the remodel! He's a friend and we love his work (and he's an awesome guy). We didn't want to step on our GC's toes and tell him who to use. Hindsight's 20/20. Our GC was Petrina Construction (located in the Hollywood area). Joe was such a pleasure to work with and brought a lot of great ideas to the table. He knew we had a tight budget and worked with us to stay in control of it. He was also open to us doing the painting so we could use that money elsewhere. The cabinet maker I mentioned above was great (I think he's located in Vancouver). Good luck with your next remodel (I don't think I'll be ready for another for quite some time!)
PJ

PJ, thank you for the recommendations.

I am so sorry you couldn't use Dirk. To say I hate remodeling and working with contractors is an understatement and remodeling my MB was the least thing I was looking forward to because it's about four levels up, plus I already had my new floors and carpeting throughout the rest of my house, which meant it was going to be a royal mess for demolition and especially the tile work because the guys had to run back and forth from the MB to the garage. I cannot tell you how wonderful Dirk and his guys were. They were here for six weeks and they were beyond fantastic. If you talk to Dirk, please send him my regards.

Thanks to my fellow Portland residents for posting your recommendations! It's so good to hear you've been pleased with your crews. I've been (irrationally) worried about hiring the right people and that silly fear has stalled the project as much as anything else.

I think we're going with DeWils cabinets (great quality for the price and green practices, too) and we have a floor person we'd like to work with. He's married to the woman who's cut my hubby's hair for almost two decades. He used to install and refurbish bowling lanes and although he generally does commercial work these days, he will do residential work now and then. I've seen one of his floors in the kitchen of a fellow GWer (don't think she's still around, though) and I was wowed. We also interviewed a plumber and electrician we really liked but they were referred by an interior designer who wanted to GC our kitchen and we're not so sure we want to hire them for this aspect (were underwhelmed by who they recommended for cabinets) so we may not be able to hire these two trades without their involvement.

We also have received a recommendation for a GC from DeWils. Helps that they have a very good rep on Angie's List, too. What we hope to do is find a well-recommended GC who hopefully will be willing to work with a few of our choices should we have a strong preference over their subs. Anyway, I'm still mulling our choices and I appreciate receiving more recommendations, thanks. Speaking of which, marlene, who is the plumber you liked? We have to do some work on our laundry room (mold problems forced this reno ahead of our kitchen) and I've been hunting for someone to use.

Portland_renovation, your soapstone looks wonderful (as does what little of your kitchen I can see)! I didn't realize that M Texiera has a local branch. For some reason I thought this was an East Coast company. I'll check into them, too. We still haven't decided whether we'll go for soapstone or honed granite but the more resources, the better.

penelopejosephine, we've visited Basco, too. I expected their prices to be higher than other local appliance dealers because they have an aura of exclusivity about them. We were pleasantly surprised when the quotes came in for less (by several hundred dollars in most cases) than the quotes from Standard.

Lisa, I've used Craig Anderson Plumbing throughout the years. They always show up on time and they always do the job and are very responsive. Craig is a really nice guy.

I understand why you want to make sure you have the right contractors. I was so tired of dealing with some of them, I walked away from starting my last project (well, that and the stock market).

Marlene...we had Criag Anderson, too. Craig came out initially, but it was two of his guys that worked on our project. They were both pleasant and thorough. I didn't mention them before because you said you had a plumber you liked.

Good luck with your renovation Lisa!

PJ, who is your electrician? You can email me at pdxmarlene@aol.com if you'd prefer.

Gee, it sure is a small world!

Wait, don't keep it secret! I need an electrician for my laundry room project, too!

Thanks to you both for the rec for Craig Anderson Plumbing. I looked him up - clean license record and great reports on Craig's List. Yippee, finally found someone to call for my laundry room! While we're at it, we're going to replace all our toilets, too. They were the first generation of low flows and they aren't worth beans. We've had it with more than weekly clogs after almost 16 years of use....

I got a lead on a kitchen designer from my ex-boss who hired her to design her kitchen remodel. What I heard so far sounds very promising. I'll know more after I visit her kitchen this Friday.

Hey Lisa,

Sorry I wasn't more clear. M Texiera *is* on the east coast -- I bought the slabs from NJ and had them shipped -- even with the shipping, it was cheaper than buying locally. They do have a warehouse in San Francisco, so if you want to pick out your slab yourself, you can check them out there. I ordered a sample pack of soapstone from Texiera, so didn't get to see the full slab, but felt that I knew enough about the material from all the many many many hours I spent in Lab (used to be a research biochemist) and from looking at Texiera's samples. I think that is the main reason they were so much cheaper. By the way, my carpenters just called and asked where I got my soapstone -- they like it so much one of them is planning on putting it in his kitchen, too!

I also have a great plumber, who I love, but am looking for a GC for my next renovation project (it never ends, does it???). I am planning to pop out some dormers on my second floor and add a bathroom -- do any my fellow PDXers know if their GC would handle a job like that? It might involve some structural/foundation work. I was GC for the kitchen and bath reno, but anything requiring building permits is beyond me!

Because posts are going missing again, I'm going to post a recap and then save it to my clippings (at least I hope this will prevent the info from going missing). Plus, I want to bump this thread up so that perhaps portland_renovation can get a GC recommendation for the next home project.

penelopejosephine installed Pietra Del Cardosso counters. It's often classed as a soapstone but it's really a schist. The matte-finished stone was already sealed with Miracle Porous Plus but she requested Miracle Enhance and Seal, which gave the light gray stone a darker look. "One of the guys installing the counters said he has had it (Pietra Del Cardosso) in his kitchen for several years. I took the opportunity to quiz him sense I haven't seen much on the stone. He said his has worn incredibly well and has been easy to care for."

portland_renovation installed soapstone counters through M Texiera. "I looked at Pental's soapstone (as well as CFM) and Texiera was about half the price. Since soapstone can be cut and fabricated with woodworking/traditional carpentry tools I had my carpenters do the fabrication and installation.... I bought the slabs from NJ and had them shipped -- even with the shipping, it was cheaper than buying locally."

GW Portland-area members recommended the following contractors:

Portland Marble Works.
"They did amazing work and were a delight to work with." - penelopejosephine.

Basco.
"We thought they were great to work with." - penelopejosephine.

Intrepid.
"There is a guy at Intrepid named Tom that is an incredible wealth of knowledge. He actually recommended the Pietra del Cardoso." - susieliz.
"I looked at both Intrepid and Oregon Tile & Marble but went with Intrepid because they had larger slabs (I could get all of our perimeter counters out of one saving stone costs) and I liked the veining in Intrepid's." - penelopejosephine.

Dirk of Hawthorne Tile.
"I'd highly recommend him." - marlene_2007.
"We didn't use Dirk, and that may be our biggest regret of the remodel! He's a friend and we love his work (and he's an awesome guy)." - penelopejosephine.
"Dirk did all the tile work in our last two bathroom remodels." - suzieliz.

Billy Spear from Evergreen Craftsmen.
"He does great work! My next door neighbor works from home and has been watching the progress on our entire house renovation, and has been really really impressed with our carpenters' work; we are thrilled with the results, but she says they are incredibly neat and conscientious as they are working -- so much so that she is trying to hire them to do work on her house." - portland_renovation.

On The Level cabinetry.
"He was wonderful to work with and we're happy with the all of his work (did our bathroom vanity and medicine cabinet, too)." - penelopejosephine.

GC Petrina Construction (located in the Hollywood area).
"Joe was such a pleasure to work with and brought a lot of great ideas to the table. He knew we had a tight budget and worked with us to stay in control of it. He was also open to us doing the painting so we could use that money elsewhere." - penelopejosephine. (Joe recommended On The Level.)

Craig Anderson Plumbing.
"I've used Craig Anderson Plumbing throughout the years. They always show up on time and they always do the job and are very responsive. Craig is a really nice guy." - marlene_2007.
"we had Craig Anderson, too. Craig came out initially, but it was two of his guys that worked on our project. They were both pleasant and thorough." - penelopejosephine.

Let me know if I missed something, please!

Still hoping to hear who your electrician is, penelopejosephine.

penelopejosephine, love your backsplash- can you share what it is? (am deep in backsplash selection to go with our new soapstone and white cabinets)

thx

L

Hi...sorry I didn't check GW yesterday.

Marlene...the electricians were one of two trades of ours that we didn't like. Sorry I don't think you want their info ;)

lauriec- our backsplash is 5/8" polished bianco cararra. I had fallen in love with a sample from Sicis at a stone yard but they didn't carry it any longer (I know Pratt & Larson now carries it). It was brighter than my backsplash. I looked all over and found our material at United Tile. My sample piece had more white pieces, but I didn't care too much as long as it was a uniform batch, which it was. It was cost effective at about $9 square foot...I think the Sicis was twice that. Hope that helps.

We love our GC, he did the cabinets in our original kitchen remodel 20 years ago. They are beautiful, inset doors, not many people were doing that in Portland back then. The cabinets are the only thing we're keeping in our new kitchen. He has been a GC for 15 plus years now. I don't know if he's cheap, I doubt it but his work is quality and his subs are all excellent. His name is Mike Barth and his company is Barth Woodworks. I highly recommend him.

Lisa,

Thanks for writing that summary -- very helpful! And Susiliz, thanks for the GC recommendation!

Here are some updated pictures of my soapstone -- my carpenters finished installing and oiling them last night, and dropped the sink in. Our plumber is coming today to hook up the sink and dishwasher (I AM SOOO EXCITED... I haven't had a dishwasher for 3 years!!).

peninsula:

Sink area:

Stove:

Again, sorry this pictures are a little blurry -- I still can't find my actual camera so these are from my cell phone. The soapstone is a little more green in person.

An improvement over my old kitchen, don't you think? :)

OMG, yes, big improvement, portland_renovation! I remember when you posted your "before" kitchen and asked for layout help. Your soapstone looks stunning!

Thanks for the recommendation for your GC, suzieliz. I'll add him to my list to consider.

Oops, penelopejosephine, for getting confused and thinking that you liked your electrician. I'll hunt through Angie's List to find one for my laundry re-do. It's not a big enough project to require a GC so I'm hiring subs as I need them.

You're welcome, portland_renovation, for the compilation. If I don't put great information into a concise format, I lose track of details. I'm glad it was helpful to you, too.

ooooo portland_renovation! Love those counter tops! I'm in Seattle and am having a heck of a time finding "true" soapstone. Someone directed me another slab yard today and they had some that was much more translucent and softer than I'd seen at all the other yards. I can't quite tell from your pics, but does your soapstone also have a translucent quality? How soft is it? Can you not only scratch it with your nails but even gouge it? The stones I saw today were SOOOO soft, it got me worried. Plus the translucent quality made them look almost waxy (they even felt waxy in an overly greasy sort of way--not pleasant and silky like other soapstones--which was strange, but the woman at the slab yard explained it was because they'd been sitting outside in the rain... still, I wonder)

Thanks, tatter! The variety of soapstone I picked is not that translucent -- only the veining (white areas) read a bit translucent but the rest of the stone is quite opaque. One of the other varieties I considered (Piracema) seemed quite translucent, but I only saw a 4x4 inch sample square so it's hard to tell what the full slab would have looked like.

Our soapstone is soft, but not so soft that you can scratch or gouge it with your fingernails! That seems very soft to me. Then again, they have only been installed for 2 days, so they haven't seen that much wear yet. We put a heavy cast iron pan and the pizza stone on the counter yesterday (and weren't that careful, but didn't drop them or anything) and even after sliding the cast iron across the counter i didn't see any scratches. I am hoping that we develop a good patina on the stone quickly, but I don't anticipate any big gouges or deep scratches...

what type of soapstone is that from Teixiera? I love the veining!

scrappy- my soapstone is "barroca". It was actually one of the more "sedate" options they had! I'm thrilled with the way it turned out! :)

@ portland renovation: love your cabinets, soapstone and your sink! Do you mind sharing what brand/model sink you have?

Thank you in advance!

Wow, its great to see feedback on some Portland providers. We have been giving our kitchen a makeover as well, it all started with me falling for a Bluestar range...which then made it apparent the rest of the kitchen needed work to make it stand up to the range.

We have our original cabinets from when the house was built 80 years ago, we did have to resize a few of the wall cabinets as they hung too low and made the counter useless. They had been refaced at some point with some lightly stained maple, and after getting quotes to paint our small kitchen cabinets in the range or $1800 we painted them ourselves with Miller primer/paint.

I performed all of the electrical work, we just had to have a contractor run the gas line as we originally had a wretched electric stove.

We are now at the counter decision, and are leaning towards soapstone. We got one bid and it just seemed way too high for the amount of work soapstone takes (no polishing or sealing), I just don't see how it can have $1800 in labor if I compare the cost of "DIY" from Teixeira cost. We have two straight counter tops, nothing fancy. I could screw it up and do it twice for what the quote we got was.

If we had to pay the bid price of $3000+ for soapstone, I couldn't justify it. We have old cabinets, so they are a shallow depth...which means the counter is not "standard" and would have to be completely replaced if we ever replaced the cabinets. However the DIY price is a bit easier to consider.

We also got our Bluestar at BASCO, but just the 30". They had a great deal going last year that saved $300 off the standard price. One complaint is that their delivery guys dented the side panel, pretty big mistake for guys that deliver high cost (heavy) appliances every day. This reminds me I need to call and finish getting credit for the damage as they offered.

We found some soapstone slabs at Casa Bella and a few other spots around town, i think we found 3 warehouses with SS slabs in stock...I just hate how they can't tell you the price of it. It really seems like they have a racket going with the installers and can just make up whatever price they want. None of them would even tell us a "real" price, seems shady to me. Perhaps that is how stone is sold, but I'm not down with that game...just seems to leave too much room to just jack up the price if they don't like your fabricator or something.

@poppy09 -- thanks!! our sink was made my Kohler, but we got it at the rebuilding center ($80!!), so I'm not sure what model it is. We got it because it was huge, deep, and had two bowls. It weighs a zillion pounds!

@xipper -- I also found it frustratingly difficult to get prices from any of the soapstone dealers/fabricators in town. One of our friends works for a contractor that has an account at CFM, so we had to keep calling him to find out prices for us. It was really shady! I'm really happy with the Texiera DIY slabs I got, but there is the element of uncertainty, since you can't actually pick out your slabs like you can if you go with a local dealer. Then again, I did consider flying down to SF since Texiera has a warehouse down there. Flights are pretty cheap on southwest!

Hello, late to this thread but I thought I'd chime in! I just finished a portland remodel.

I second the positive reviews for both Dirk of Hawthorne Tile as well as Craig Andersen Plumbing. Both are top notch, impeccable contractors.

I have soapstone counters which I purchased through Shadley Soapstone. They have been mentioned often on this forum but mostly in the SoCal area. They also operate out of Oregon and cover, I think, the whole state. They source their soapstone from Dorado in Denver, however they can also source from other quarries (e.g. Virginia). They did an excellent job with my soapstone. If you have to deal with sink cutouts for an undermount, or anything other than straight-forward squared off slabs, I would highly suggest you get an experienced soapstone installer.

Funny! I just went to their website to confirm the URL and the homepage photo on their site is my kitchen!

http://www.shadleyssoapstone.com/shadleyssoapstone/Home.html

Also, for a GC/Cabinetry installer, I highly recommend Marshal Greene of Greene Works. 541-399-6679. Very accommodating and very cooperative GC who really advocates for you as a client.

@mavmomma do you mind sharing what the price was per square foot for your soapstone? We got a quote from a place in town that happens to really do granite/marble, so I am guessing their pricing for soapstone is just ridiculous? They quotes us ~$3200 for ~30 square feet all in 2 straight slabs (galley kitchen) with a farm style sink.

$100/sq ft is just unreasonable in my book for something that is a soft stone and doesn't require polishing and/or sealing. Perhaps they are going to come and clean it and oil it anytime we want for 5 years too? ;)

xipper, $100/sqft is the going rate for installed soapstone in Oregon right now. I wouldn't pay a granite shop to do soapstone, however -- soapstone is really different. Experience in installing granite or other harder rocks does not really translate to expertise in installing soapstone. It's possible to do both well, but most granite installers do not like working with soapstone.

Wow! That is crazy! Our soapstone cost $1,417 (including shipping), and the installation cost around $1,200. It was around 60 sq ft, so that works out to around $45/sq ft installed.

AND my carpenters did the first round of oiling for us (mostly because they were curious to see what it was going to look like).

Hi portland_renovation,

I saw this thread regarding M Texiera. I just visited their warehouse in SF last weekend, and the only slabs they have currently in stock are the Barroca and Santa Rita. Julia and others are all sold out, and they won't have any new shipments for another 6-9 months.

Since you have the Barroca soapstone, can you please share your experience thus far? How long have you had it? I read some posts here that certain slabs can have water ring problems (e.g., a type called Santa Barbara). I wonder if that's also a problem for other soapstones?

In the Bay Area, I've seen several types of soapstones - Barroca, Santa Rita, Green Mountain, Beleza, Julia, Black Mina and Porto Alegra. Does anyone have any experience with these? I'm totally confused at this point!

Thanks.