We used M. Teix in San Francisco and liked working with them. They seem to do better with specific questions---I got the sense that they get a lot of "tell me about soapstone" calls and thus spend a little less time on those than they do once they know you're serious. (I have very mixed thoughts on the soapstone itself--but that's another issue!) If you're close enough to go into the store, I suggest doing that---much easier to actually look at everything. We chose them because they charge per square foot rather than by the slab, and we have a small kitchen. I also really liked the people at Teresina Soapstone (if you're near Northern California---they may also go as far as Oregon or Nevada) but because they charge by the slab and only had larger slabs at the time, it was going to be nearly $1K more for us.

i asked at a few showrooms if they were just fronts for the mafia, or for some supplier. Within six months they had a sample of soapstone. I guess they don't like fielding that question. In any case, I do feel there is some anticompetitive collusion going on and the antitrust authorities might want to look into it. Within the next ten or twenty years.

Contact Michelle at M. Tex in NJ...(I have dealt with Maria and Isobel, but Michelle more directly and more often, like a few times a day for a month). Tell her Jessie told you to call. After my saga with soapstone, we are good buddies.

I can highly recommend them...I had ordered Santa Rita Venata, there was some irregularities in the stone. Roger came to my house and confirmed it was wrong from the quarry, offered to repair the slabs. If I wasn't happy with the repair, he would replace them free of charge. In the end I wound up replacing them with Belvedere. Very happy with the service and the product.

Everyone there from Roger at the top, to Michelle in the office, to Jose who came to my house to try to repair and/or template numerous times (we almost gave him a room)...I'm very happy with our choices.

If you would like more information or details, please send me an email...I'd be happy to help.

I also dealt with Michelle at M.Tex in NJ. My soapstone was shipped to SD.

Did it almost all over emails, and it went very fast, but I wanted something they had plenty of in stock, and wasn't worried about picking out an exact slabs so mine was probably an "easy" job for them.

I also ordered from Michelle at M. Tex in New Jersey. She was professional, courteous, and flexible with my ever changing schedule. I had the slabs (125 sqft) shipped to my fabricator here in So Cal who did the fab and install. It all went very smoothly. The shipping from New Jersey to So Cal wasn�t cheap (almost $9/sqft) but ya� gotta do what ya� gotta do.

Give M. Tex another try, and please do ask for Michelle!

FYI The stone was about $30/sqft. Fabrication and installation was about $14/sqft. Shipping, fab, and install came to about $53/sqft.

Laranbrian,
What type did you order? That seems like a very low price on soapstone. Was it on clearance or something?

It was cobra on clearance. I'm not sure if it was the "new" or "old" cobra as they have made a switch in the source quarry recently. I had put in my downpayment in late Feb or early March. The install was done mid May.

I used Soapstone International with showrooms in Anaheim and Carlsbad CA. Excellent selection and a recommendation for a fantastic fabricator in Anaheim. I could not be happier with my choice which is Brazilian stone--very dark--with lots of marbling and veins in seaglass green.

I used M. Teixera in SF and was very happy with them. However, I went to their showroom and chose something they had in stock. I was not looking for a particular variety. That might be what is difficult for you.

I went to M. Teixera in NJ had the stone shipped to Fla. and Florida Joshua did the fabrication/install. It went flawlessly.

We just chose our slabs at Soapstone International in Anaheim. Wonderful selection that I believe is all from M. Teixera. We went looking for black, quiet soapstone and absolutely fell in love with black belvedere slabs with the gorgeous seaglass green veins!
Dretutz, are you willing to share your fabricator information?

I didn't get any soapstone woes; I bought from Alberene.
Casey

Here is a link that might be useful: Alberene

Happy to share my information. The fabricator's name was Steve (Estaban) and his fabrication shop was right next door to Soapstone Internat'l showroom in Anaheim. I'll dig around for his number, but am sure you can get it from Soapstone at (877.732.2180). His whole family did the install and he was great about letting me fritz around with the template process so I could capture the veins I most loved. Very talented and reasonable. My slab was $16 sq ft and he was $16 sq ft for fabrication +$100 for runnels.

Thanks to all of you for your comments and help! I think I need to start over and try M Tex again. Although I would still like to hear from happy Dorado folks, if you are out there.

I did get a response back from Dorado and was told that a mistake had been made. I was also told that while I only need 24.6 sq. feet, he's gonna round it up to 25 and charge me for the 25. Why does this seem to not be ok to me?

Part of the problem is that I have a small kitchen, only need 25 sq. feet of stone, and am trying to stay on a budget, ie: keep the shipping costs low, and install myself. Maybe I should get one of my male friends to do all the talking for me and see if I get better results!

I'm going to call Michelle next week, and I'm also going to check out Soapstone International.

Thanks to all of you, so much! I will keep you posted with the result.

Thank you Dretutz! I've got Steve's number and now I've gotten you as a reference! I'm going to try to email you some questions so as not to hijack this thread any further.

I had good luck with Teresina Soaptone in Rocklin. CA - near Sacramento.