They came to our house even though it was just a big nearly square rectangle (67x64) and they cut out the stove hole here. They said they wanted to cut the stove hole here because the island was so big. (Thanks to the thread that warned it was a dirty job. We put plastic everywhere, especially over the new slides.)

It's my first time so I am not very experienced with granite.

My fabricator came by the house to measure and to check which entrance would be best to deliver the granite. If you are centering your faucet with a window your fabricator should measure your kitchen. All my cutting was done at the fabricators site. We discussed the cut for seams, faucet, soap dispenser and overhang. Ask him why it is not necessary to measure in the home?

that'd scare me. I hope those references aren't just his family and friends...sorry, don't mean to scare you.

maybe others will post that theirs was done this way and was fine. Just doesn't sound like it to me.

how about calling back to a few people to see if that's ok - and ask the guy at the stone yard!

Our guy came out to the house and measured. We had two areas. One for the counter with the sink and one for the island. When it was time they cut the sink opening at our home. Yes, it was dusty but both the guys also cleaned up after themselves. They did an awesome job and we had no problems with the installation. 14 years later, counters still looking great! NancyLouise

Our granite fabricator came to the house and measured for 2 bathroom vanity tops (1 sink per top). The only thing they trimmed on site was the side splash.

What if you called this guy back and said, "I'm not comfortable with trusting my measurements, I'd rather that you measure the space to be sure it's done right. Do you charge extra for this?"

Maybe he's used to working with more budget conscious people and one way he saves them some cash is by having them measure, so he doesn't spend an hour driving and measuring ($150?).

I agree with engineerchic- you should tell the fabricator you aren't comfortable with your own measurements and want him to come measure. I'd also tell him I've never heard of a fabricator not coming to measure, because I haven't! That would scare me.

Perhaps he is saying that due to your excellent measurements he doesn't need to come and measure in order to give you an accurate estimate. Templating to install is another matter entirely, and should take place after you've paid the down payment. Many fabricators won't come out to measure until some payment has been done as too many people have burned them on getting free detailed estimates and shopping elsewhere. If he means he doesn't template at all for galley kitchens, then pass this one by as well. I find it kind of frighteningly interesting that there are THAT many hacks in your area for you to wade through.

agree with everyone else.. the fabricator came to our house twice, once to measure counters and then after they were installed came back to measure full backsplash.

we gave them our sink for the cutout so they had exact measurement. they cut out our cooktop and faucet hole on site.

i would want them to come and field measure. we have a pennisula coming off our sink counter and we wanted it shaped a certain way. its really nice to talk to them when they are at your house and you can discuss certain things you want or they can tell you the best way to do things. i just think you get a better feel when they are at our home and you can discuss all your concerns with them.

sorry but i don't know if i would fully trust all the referrals. like someone posted, they could be family/friends. this fabricator also came from the granite yard so they are probably getting a kick back.
i does seem that they all "know" each other to a certain extent, but that would raise a red flag to me.

good luck!!!

I would be leary too. I am having someone come Friday after going through about 10 different fabricators. My concern is they promised they could do my sink in the positive reveal I need (Kohler Riverby) and no seam. I did not get any sleep last night. I would have your guy come to the house for sure. Good luck to you.

Not coming out to the house is certainly not the usual standard practice. Think how many people on the forum have had countertops installed by fabricators. I would guess that more than 95% of those were measured in the house by the fabricator.

I once measured a room for carpet and told the carpet store they didn't need to come to my house to measure because it was a prefect rectangle room with only 2 doors. My measurement were correct but I had figured the installers would lay the carpet north to south with two twelve foot widths so I would have just one seam. Instead they ran it the other direction and filled in the remaining long but narrow section with 3 pieces of carpet. I was unhappy with the way they payed it and seamed it like that. When I complained to the carpet store, they said there was nothing they could do about it because they had not done the measuring.

The same thing could happen to you. Even if your measurements are correct, if there is some issue that comes up, they could say it was a fault of your measuring. The fabricators came to measure each of three remodels I have done.

I also don't understand how paying the granite yard directly for the slab saves money. Unless they would expect you to transport the slab to your house (which I am sure they aren't) how would paying them make it cheaper?

I would insist they come to the house. And make sure they do not charge extra for doing so. It should be part of doing business.

I'd insist.

When I started buying my marble for my MBR, they asked for measurements. That gave them an idea of the remnants that might be used.

I had so much, they ended up buying a whole slab and giving me the remnant price. Anyway, a guy came out to measure the 78" vanity and where the 2 sinks would be. Then, he took the sinks with him (they are different shapes), and a faucet and the motion sensor.

When they came to install, they did some side backsplash grinding, but that was all. No seams, and it is gorgeous!.

I suck at measuring. I swear things change size when I'm not looking. I wouldn't dare let them cut based upon my measurements!

I just find it so odd even from his perspective. Which would be easier for him: driving across town to measure the space, or reworking the stone to accommodate some unanticipated problem?

I second desertsteph - call back the references and ask them if he came out to template theirs ahead of time. If he did all the fabrication on site for them, too, ask them about the dust.

Thanks everyone. I'm glad I wasn't off on that one. I'm going to do everything suggested here.

Yowza! I just called the stone yard to get my price on the granite, and added it to the fabricator's bid and that makes it the highest estimate I've gotten.

I did tell the granite yard that I had gotten an estimate from the guy and that I was concerned that he said he didn't need to come out and template, and the guy there said that wasn't too unusual for a straight run like I have. I asked about the sink cut out and asked if that didn't need to be done in the shop and he said yes. So IF we use this guy, I'm going to insist he come out and template.

Your fabricator sounds like a weekend warrior and not a professional countertop fabricator. I used three different fabrications shops and NONE of them will fabricate a countertop with out doing a template first. They also all furnish their own slabs so none of my clients go to a stone yard and purchase the slab... My clients select their slabs at the stone yard and it gets charged to the fabricators account, sounds like your fabricator doesn't have an account (ie credibility) with the stone yard, doesn't have the business to support purchasing a slab, AND doesn't do templates... which makes me wonder what type of guarantee do you get from him that he is not going to ruin the slab you have already paid for in full? I would not use this guy he scares me!

I wouldn't want to have anyone fabricate without coming out and measuring themselves. This also gives you the opportunity to talk about where/how many seams you will have. Your kitchen walls/cabinets might also have some slight deviations from exactly square that need to be accounted for.

AS for paying for the slabs directly, it may save you money and may not. If the fabricator adds a mark-up when he sells it to you buying it yourself might make sense. If the stoneyard give fabricators one price and retail customers a higher price, maybe not.

I think you have to look at overall price when comparing stone costs. Our fabricator normally works with several stoneyards. With those yards, they gave the fabricator a "contractor's" price which was then marked up by the fabricator and passed on to us. The price they quoted us as just walk-in buyers was higher than that. When we mentioned the fabricator, they then quoted the lower cost.

We eventually found slabs we liked at a smaller yard that our fabricator had not worked with before. Their price to us was 25% less that what the other yards had quoted as their "contractor's" price.

This is odd. I know I posted this already.

Anna, I think the slabs I picked were marked up too. Way up. I called and asked if those slabs are more than normal NVG because of the wide vein in them and he didn't know. He's going to check and call back when he gets back to the office.

In the meantime, I found another estimate in my spam box, and this guy puts wood supports under the sink and his bid is competitive, so that's good. I haven't seen his seams yet. The only question I have about his bid is that he says he prefers to do the short counter in two pieces because it is between two floor to ceiling cabinets and it is easier to get it in in two pieces. Seems to me that it would be harder that way.

Does anyone know anything about that?

Here's the layout of that cabinet. Black squares are the floor to ceiling cabinets and green lines are walls.

{{!gwi}}

That's weird. When we moved into our current house about 10 years ago we replaced the laminate kitchen counters with corian. They came out to template. A couple years ago we finished out basement and did a very small wetbar with corian countertop. They also came out to measure it. I think we went through home depot both times, and we had to pay upfront based on our estimates. So, we did have to do our own measuring first, but they certainly didn't use our measurements to actually cut anything.

Another reason a template isn't optional: on your drawing your adjoining walls are 90 degrees exactly to the back wall. Are they really? Most walls aren't. Your back wall is perfectly straight - I know, it's a drawing, so of course the lines are straight, but you see the point. Your back wall is likely to have some waviness along the length which a good template will follow. If the fabricator just cuts a generic rectangle and brings it along, you will inevitably have gaps along the edges which you hope will be covered by your backsplash. Maybe, maybe not. Speaking of which, did you measure perfectly? Down to the nearest 1/16th? Do you want to take the hit for that if you didn't read the tape just right?

About the sink opening: so he proposes bringing along his hand tools and winging it right there in your kitchen? Yikes. Have you used a skill saw and tried to cut a straight line with it? Personally, I don't get those lines terribly straight even when I clamp on a guide board. Think of the corners! In a well set up shop, a fabricator will have tools that ensure actual straight lines. My fabricator has laser guided cutters which get the straight lines straight, the curve for the sink corners the same radius on all four corners, and the wavy-to-the-wall lines wavy as called for. For faucet holes, he cut them almost all the way through at the shop and bonked them out on site.

What cateskitchen said: seems like evidence pointing toward a solution of: RUN!

At the very least, you don't sound terribly comfortable with this. That's your answer....

"he says he prefers to do the short counter in two pieces because it is between two floor to ceiling cabinets and it is easier to get it in in two pieces. Seems to me that it would be harder that way. "

I don't know about this either. Tho being there's a sink there, the cutout will make that area weaker. They wouldn't want to put much pressure on it when sliding it in between the 2 full hght cabinets.

It might be like my attempt at putting in 1 large full width shelf in my closet? that got stuck and dug into the drywall. I ended up putting in 2 shelf sections instead. These fabricators are supposed to be professionals. I certainly am not a professional 'shelfer'. I wouldn't have accepted the job I did on my shelves from a professional I was paying to do for me.

Does he do the fabrication on site? If so, he wouldn't need to template in advance. He would just need your measurements to bring the right amount of stone. We had an exceptional fabricator who brought his portable fabrication setup right to our front yard. He came early in the morning to template, and he had me come out to see where certain veins and features were going to be to make sure he had them where I wanted them. He did all the cutting, including two sink cut-outs outside, and he installed 90% of it that day. The remainder was installed first thing the next morning.