Never heard of that before--With my granite, I picked each of my slabs.

I have never heard of that either. Here we not only choose the slab, but can go back when they have the templates made and choose what area of the slabs we like best.

No, we didn't. We were told we could, but chose to allow the fabricator and our GC pick the slab for us. And you know - they did a great job picking out the slab/s!

DonnaR/CA

We actually were not allowed to have our slabs without looking at them. The first set of slabs were never put on held (long story) and we called the granite yard to double check as something didn't seem right a week later and the installer didn't return our calls and blew off my concerns when I went to the shop... luckily they pulled two slabs after many tears (probably to stop me from crying) and insisted we look at them before we went to another installer (they recommended although they don't usually). We were there bright and early the next morning - they were wonderful.

California Dreamer,
I just went through my first stone purchase. It is for a kitchen reno here in south Florida. I visited 6 stone yards and all of them allowed me to pick by the slab. They all actually encouraged looking at individaul slabs for the right fit. After going through this for the first time, I cannot imagine not being able to select a slab based upon the needs of my individual project and taste. There is so much variation from slab to slab. I selected my stone in conjunction with my fabricator and as a result, I was able to get all of my counters with no seams and no problems with movement due to the consistent nature of the stone.

Mike

Ok- good to know I'm not the only one who finds this policy strange.
This is actually me second kitchen remodel and I did pick the individual slabs the first time around.
If I hadn't had such a hard time finding a supplier for the type of soapstone I want I would just move on.
I think I will express my strong desire to see the individual slab before I purchase it. Hopefully they will be willing to bend the rules.
Thanks for the feedback.

California_dreamer, did the yard happen to be in Sun Valley? I had the same experience the other day when I was told that even though the first 7 slabs out of a bundle of 10 were sold, they wouldn't pull out the 8th for me to see. That's a deal breaker. If I'm spending that kind of money I want to see what I'm buying.

cspinto
It was Marble Unlimited on Keswick. I think that section is considered Van Nuys.
Were you ready to buy and they still wouldn't let you see the slab? I can't believe they'd rather loose a customer than pull the slab! UGH! I hope m/u will be a little more flexible than that.

Hum... I'm wondering what this stone yard has to hide? What's the reason they don't allow you to chose? It's not like you can break or damage these stones easily.

I never heard of such neither. I too was hopping from one stone yard to the other for almost 3 months. None was rejecting me, yet they were even very helpful in letting me know that if I didn't see something, they may be able to get it for me.

LOL, I'm in a powerful power wheelchair. Were these people afraid that I'd bump into their stones and damage it? Heck no! They were happy to see me strolling all over their yard and carefully checking out one granite after another. They even didn't mind me taking photos of the slabs! Their last words before I left? "Come back soon!"

At the beginning of my search, I didn't have a fabricator and they were even happy to give me a list of fabricators that they normally dealt with. However, when I finally found the granite I liked, I let my GC know and he dealt with that stone yard; regardless whether he had dealt with them before or not. Then, I went to chose the slabs. Afterward, I asked my GC to double check the slabs I've picked to make sure I didn't miss a scratch or some other stone damages.

The stone yard where I've chosen my granite almost lost my business. The salesperson found out that his price was too high and I was leaving to go to another stone yard where a similar stone was for much less. He insisted that I call my GC so he could make a deal with the price. Basically, the salesman matched the price with the other stone yard and won the bid. As for the prices, I could only go with the GC's total cost bids and don't know the actual cost of the slabs since these stone yards only deal directly with the GCs.

Remember, it's your money and you're the boss! An experienced fabricator would be able to work with any stone and deal with any stone yard of YOUR choice.

Yay, you found some soapstone!

With ours, they would have pulled the slabs with ours if we insisted and were willing to wait. However, our granite is pretty regular in pattern and they assured us that they would send pictures if there were any surprizes. There were none, and our counters are beautiful.

HOWEVER, if we were dealing with any stone with movement, then I would have insisted that they pull the slabs. With the veins in soapstone, I'd want to approve the individual slabs.

There's a difference between making them show you all of the slabs and letting you choose vs you approving the slabs they pull out for you. They'll have to move them eventually. Can you insist that they do it while you're there? Or call you when they'll be moved? That's kinda risky though; I'd bet that they's "forget" to call.

California_dreamer, thanks for the heads up on M.U.. I was there today, my 3rd time visiting and no one mentioned the "no-pick" rule. The yard I walked away from is Francini's on Sheldon in Sun Valley. They do have some beautiful slabs, though.

cspinto- I was at Francini's on Saturday. How funny! I was at M/U today- I wonder if our paths crossed? (I was pushing my baby in a stroller and trying to keep an eye on my four yr old who was skipping around and jumping over puddles- I'm sure we were hard to miss). Well, I think I had a grumpy saleswoman at M/U. I will be very disappointed if I can not approve the slab before the purchase is finalized.
If you're still looking I would suggest going out to stone west in Ventura (thanks alku05!). They had a great selection and were very helpful.
My decorator loves to work with Vinny at Modal Marble. So that would be another place to try.
Also, check out StoneMart (I think on Sherman Way). Nice big indoor yard. Very easy to see what they have to offer. Good selection.
Hope you find what you're looking for. I'll let you know what M/U says about seeing the slabs.

Every lot in my area is set up to allow and encourage people to pick slabs individually. Not doing that seems very odd.

We did not get to hand pick our slab either. The granite yard had about 5-10 slabs of the many available types of granite and there was no way for us to shuffle through them-as some were bundled. Granite fabricator picked the slab and we OK'd it along with the placement of the template on the slab.

We're in central Florida and the biggest granite yard to chose from does not let you hand pick either. Our contractor personally spoke with the owner about how much money the stone was and we were eventually allowed to chose. Good thing too, a couple of slabs had big copper blobs that looked like a spill. Although I do admit, I understand the reasoning somewhat...the crews actually lost a stone (not mine) while we were there. (Liability)

I hand picked mine and I chose 2,3,5, and 8 from the bundle with no issues about them not being able to sell the others. These had the nicest mica deposits and the best "fracturing". I would NOT have purchased my granite without being allowed to hand pick my slabs and I would not have worked with a fabricator who did not allow my input on template placement either.

But then anyone who knows me knows I am picky, anal and a perfectionist. LOL

Also, if you've read my past posts you'll know that when initially installed I was disappointed at how all the fracturing looked on the horizontal plane. Now I know why a couple of the yards had steel trestles set up.

Tom Shadley not only let me pick my stone but we stood there with a rough sketch of my kitchen counters and determined the layout for each area. Our thoughts on how it should be done were almost identical. Then when he brought the stone to my home we went over the layout again before he made any cuts. I am still so thrilled he was able to do the corner L without a seam - it looks wonderful!

I think if you have a pro like Tom doing your counters I would trust him to pick the slabs. If you have someone who's never done soapstone then, no, I would insist on picking my slabs and going over the layout. You may have a beautiful white vein that you want to place in a prominent position or there may be areas that aren't so interesting that you'd rather have towards the back of the counters. And at ~$100 sq.ft. you should be able to pick your slabs, imo.

Good luck!
Diana

We chose Saphire Brown, a granite that doesn't have much movement and is rather uniform. As such it is not really necessary to pick a particular slab as they truly look pretty much alike. We could have if we had wanted to but went ahead ordering without looking at any particular slabs.

As it happens we do have 2 very minor and very small imperfections in the granite after all. Didn't see them until after we lived with the installed granite already for a week. There is no way we could have discovered them if we had looked at the slabs in the stone yard. In the end, these kinds of "imperfections" are just part and parcel of going with a natural product.

I'm in SW Ontario and I was emailed pics of 2 different lots. I then told them which Lot to bring in. This particular yard( In London, ON) doesnt carry Labrador Antique so they dont have it in stock. They said if I wanted to see more slabs, I'd have to go to Toronto. When I went to look at the slabs, there were a few dark splothes that I didnt like. I asked them to cut those out by using that area for the sink. It was installed today and I love it so much.

I had stone held at two stoneyards. They both let me pick the pieces and intial them. The fabricator gave me the scrap pieces with the name I wrote on them.

I have heard that with more fragile stones, they encourage you to approve the more accessible slabs. You still get to approve or disapprove, and then look at more if you disapprove, but they don't want to crane slabs willy-nilly so you can see every slab on the lot, due to more potential for damage.

I think it's just a given that customers get to pick and approve their slabs, yet I also think that unless the customer doesn't like what s/he is seeing with the first 2, 3, or 4 slabs, that s/he doesn't ask the yard to see every one, "just in case."

Huh?

I picked a stone that is considered pretty "common", but I still got to pick our Tropic Brown slabs. Even a pretty standard stone like Tropic Brown can run lighter or darker, etc., depending on the slab.

Although...we were at the yard trying to decide what stone we wanted (I was leaning towards St Cecilia, DBF towards Absolute Black) and then we both fell in love with one particular slab of TB...maybe that's why?

If your stone has lots of movement/variegation, I would definitely think they'd let you select your slabs. I mean...they could install something that looks different from what you based your other selections on.

I encourage ALL of my customers to view their slabs before cutting anything. If you are not allowed to do this, I would find another fabricator in a hurry.

Did they use the term "cherry pick?" Cherry picking is picking out the best from a large lot; are they trying to make sure that every customer gets at least one bad slab? Of course you're going to cherry pick! That's the whole point.

I wouldn't do it, or I'd make a huge fuss and warn them that if you hate what they pick you're not paying for it.

How stupid. I picked my slabs and watched while they labeled them with my name. And I got the ones I picked too.

We weren't allowed to look at all of the slabs, just because it would be difficult to move them all. We chose the lot, and then came back to approve the templating. We were told that if we were not happy with the slabs then, they would get some others. I was satisfied with that, but our granite was fairly uniform.

i was told that all of the slabs in a bundle (of granite) are the same. so, while there could still be surface differences, i guess, the color tone/variation would be the same as the top one.

I was never told that. I picked my slabs(they wouldn't let me go through the whole pile but I did have them move 2 slabs to compare) and they marked out the cut outs for sink, stove, which side I wanted as front etc.. I wanted the grain going the same way. I went with pietra cardosa but wanted the veining to all match. They used masking tape to tape of cuts..

{{!gwi}}

Chose the slab from 7 different ones. They moved every single one out so we could choose the 2 we wanted. They were very accomodating. The fabricator allowed us to place the templates wherever we wanted, too.

Well, I just wanted to update for any of you in the area considering using Marble Unlimited.
Went back today with my designer and a different salesperson helped us (Juan). He was soooo helpful! He moved several slabs around so I could see the different soapstones they had. It was a totally different attitude than I got there yesterday!
So, if you're going to M/U, ask for Juan. He could not have been more helpful. I got to see lots of different slabs and I put 2 on hold for my dh to see.
And yes, the other salesperson used the term "cherry pick" when explaining their policy to me yesterday.
Just wanted to let you know that it looks like I will get to see my slabs after all.
Thanks for your input.

glad it worked out!!!

We got our soapstone from M. Teixeira in San Francisco. The woman there said we could pretty much look at any slab we wanted, even though she explained that they are basically like slices of bread. I actually felt like a real pain asking them to move "just one more slab," and then "could I just see one more" etc. b/c the slabs were about 800lbs each. And often, creative rearranging had to be done (moving a slab across a room to get it out of the way).

But they still did it for me.

And the fabricator won't be cutting until we approve the exact location of the template pieces on the slab.

Did she actually say "cherry pick?" Oooooh: that's obnoxious!

Francy

We bought 3 slabs of white fantasy from marble unlimited with no problems at all. Our salesman was Hector Gonzalez. I went back 3 times and they moved the slabs with no questions asked.

It is a long trip for us, about 260 mile round trip, they knew our fabricator from Bakersfield. The fabricator insisted we come down to Bakersfield to OK the slabs again before they were cut, 120 mile round trip. I have a lot a mileage in these slabs but well worth it.

pastst
Ohh- I saw some of that white fantasy there today. It sure is pretty! I'd love to see a picture of it installed in your kitchen.

Heck I cherry picked vanilla marble :oP And I picked my slabs of granite as well (vulcan gold, and jurassic green). I cherry picked my onxy sink...I'm a certified cherry picker, and given the cost of these darned cherries...I want to see the fruit before I start making jam :o)

Oh, I can't imagine not getting to pick out my slabs, especially with soapstone. You need to let the manager of MU know that the first salesperson almost lost your business (even if you really didn't have a choice but to go back), but that Juan saved the day.

cal-dreamer::::::::

I don't have any pictures to post but look for alku05 on the white granite thread and mine looks just like that. We have had it installed for about a month and so far no problems. It really bullet proof.

Picking out granite was the hardest decision to make. Good luck

I agree with partst about picking out the granite being the hardest part, and believe me, I've obsessed about a lot of things in this remodel. I can't wait to get this part over with!
p3shawn2, I am curious about what stoneyard you used, as I am in central Florida also, and have had less than accomodating results.
I have been to 4 yards in Central Florida. The one that I think has the prettiest stones has somewhat of an attitude about picking slabs, so I have chosen to deal with someone else. I am not "super picky" and don't expect them to move 5-6 slabs, but even the salesperson who was helping me saw the difference between corresponding numbers in a lot. When I asked to see a slab that was a couple of numbers earlier, I was told they all look alike.
Previously, I was told the "beauty of granite" was that every slab was different.
Which is it?
Meanwhile, another yard was very accomodating. When I asked them if I chose that particular color, if I could choose between the one that was in front or the next two behind it, they said no problem, they would move them and let me choose the best one.
I understand, there is a risk in moving slabs, and I agree there can be times when people can get crazy nit-picking , but to not allow you to choose between 2-3 different slabs is a bit off putting.