We purchased our countertop from a business that only sells carpet, tile and countertop. When we requested an installer they gave us a couple but seemed to favor one. He did the laminate and it was as if we had a magician in the kitchen. Knowing where to seam where to reinforce and willing to put laminate under the counter over the dishwasher. We had Cambria stone installed at our undermount sink and again went with the company recommended. Again we had no complaints there even if they weren't magicians. You didn't mention what kind of countertop you want to install and if you are buying it from the installer. Those things might help others here answer you better.

Thanks for your response!

To clarify a bit more: We're putting in quartz countertops, and we are aiming to have the same company fabricate and install them. (We tried going through our GC and/or through our kitchen cabinet installers, but neither had countertop company recommendations, so that ended up being a dead end...)

Ask the installers for references and to see someone's kitchen that they've done. Is there an Angie's List where you live?

Re: Angie's List. When I first heard about them, I looked them up to see how it worked. I was put off by finding that a person/business could "improve" their ratings with various kinds of fenagling unrelated to how actual customers rated them. Not interested, thanks. Since all kinds of people in your building have had work done, have you asked them?

References and online reviews. These are the two most important factors. Good luck in picking the right installer!

I see you have gotten some great advice. I would like to
add that the installer is worth their weight in gold. I
would rather spend more money for a good installer or
fabricator than the stone. If you find a beautiful rock
but use an unskilled, cheap, unethical or inexperience
installer you will regret the seams, edges, backsplash
space or even rish having your granite crack.
A terrible installer can make the counters look horrific.

Make sure you trust your installer and find one with talent.
It takes patience, expertise and experience to make a slab
of stone into a beautiful counter. Stone is super heavy
too. Keep this in mind.

What kind of equipment do they use to close the seams?
Machines to cut the edges? Have you seen their work in
person? Actually touched the edges of the countertop?

Where do you live? Which part of the country? If you
are in New England, I can share my favorite and not so
favorite places. Others can chime in about Denver, Southern
Cal, Florida, Texas, Virginia, Canada... all over really.

Visit Yahoo reviews. Like angie's list this can be helpful.

Meanwhile here are a few past posts from GW that might
help you know what to ask and what to expect. Good luck
and enjoy your soon to be countertops.
~boxerpups

Granite Check list

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0402564914989.html

Granite 101 from Stonegirl

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0402564914989.html

Looking for Grantie tomorrow, what do I need to know?

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0709272811831.html

Granite seams - fixable?

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0522311717488.html

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0308322425048.html

Problem with Seam

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0308322425048.html

How does this seam look to you? GW

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0700231120761.html?41

Here is a link that might be useful: How do you pick a granite fabricator? Any recommendations in MA?

How long have they been in business? Are they members of any trade groups? Which ones? Do they have customers who are willing to act as in home references for them? Older jobs? Recent jobs?

Many manufacturer's require certification in order to be able to purchase their raw material. Do they handle other types of quartz or granite or solid surface that requires this certification?

What type of machinery will they use to fabricate your job? Do they own a water jet cutter and CNC routing machines or is it all hand done? What about their policy of cutting holes in shop or on site? What is their policy of seams at sinks or cooktops? What about sink reveals? If you were to have issues past the warranty period (filling in chips, etc.) how much would they charge you for a service call down the road?

A good price is nice, but there's cost and expense and the two aren't the same. Peace of mind that you have a quality tradesman is worth a more costly up front amount. And, many times, if you ask nicely about them not being your lowest bid for the project, they may find a way to give you "extras" or a discount. Or not. In the end, knowing they'll be there in 12 months when you need that corner glued back that you just knocked off when you dropped the iron skillet is better than the cheaper price from Bubba's Bait 'N Granite Emporium that just set up shop last month in the warehouse down by the railroad tracks.

Luck was on our side with a fabricator. I could not find anyone around me who would highly recommend their fabricator, well except one gal down the road but when I saw the thick two tired seam next to her sink I though her batty. As we went around different yards looking at granite we would ask the employee's for names (some were not allowed to give out names but did). One employee highly recommended a man that we ended up talking to at his fabrication shop. My husband really thought he was a nice guy and wanted to hire him. I had no confidence in my husbands choice because he has a history of not having bad guy radar, plus the guy only had contractor's references and was just getting into residential jobs. I got even more nervous after I received his amateur contract. I had to rewrite the contract to include details and also noticed that he had not passed the savings of him buying the granite instead of us like He had said. So, I had to add that discount as well. All my worry was for nothing, they did the most amazing job. I mean I truly could not be more impressed. Husband was right and I was wrong and it all worked out great.
You may have to get a few names and talk to a few fabricators personally and take it from there.

Check out yelp in your area. I wish that I had paid attention to the negative reviews re: our countertop installer instead of our KD on this one. Long story short after 7 months of broken promises to properly install our countertops, we had another installer fix as much as could be fixed. sigh... Good Luck!

Thanks for all your responses. (We are in New York City, by the way.) Unfortunately, none of the installers I've found have any reviews in yahoo reviews or on yelp. I haven't checked Angie's list because that requires paying for a subscription, and there is no way to check if any of these businesses are rated there - since they aren't rated anywhere else, I'm thinking they wouldn't be rated there either. We don't know anyone in our building, as we have not yet moved in. We understand the importance of getting a good installer - we don't need to be convinced of that - the problem is that we can't figure out how to assess them. As far as I can tell, all of the suppliers are also installers, so we can't get recommendations from the suppliers in that sense. And we are under serious time pressure - we have to get these countertops templated on the 27th, and then installed by around the 1st of the year, at the latest. I will try calling the installers and asking some of the questions recommended above, but I'm not sure what the answers should be, and would appreciate a little more help to understand them better, if any of you have the time to help me clarify.

What kind of equipment should they be using? How are they supposed to be doing the seams in order to get the best results? Is it good or bad if they do work by hand? How should they be doing the cutting of holes for faucets and sinks? What should their policies be on reveals and sink cutout seams? I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for in the answers to these questions. And how do you get to view a sample of an installer's work - do other customers really want to let you into their homes to look at their countertops? How does that work?

Thanks again for help and advice!

Since you have exhausted your other sources of references, and don't yet have a lot of knowledge about countertop installation, and very little time to acquire more of either . . . pay for an Angies List subscription. You are being penny wise and pound foolish, by balking at that minor expense.

I think you will want to extend your time schedule. It is Dec 20, getting a counter installed by Jan 1 is likely unrealistic. If an installer is really good and known to be so, what are the odds they have so little work that they can, must, or will work over Christmas to meet your deadline? What are the consequences of getting the countertops done later - just a few weeks' inconvenience?

It's not an option for us to get the countertops done later. We have been talking with installers for a month now (and searching for them for 3 months), so it's not like we are just looking for people now. Only one of the 5 firms that we've contacted for quotes is not working between Xmas and New Year's, and all of our other contractors (GC, electrician, plumber, tile/concrete, kitchen cabinet installer) are working between Xmas and New Year's, so I don't think it is so unusual, at least here. I've actually been told that it is easier to schedule them during this time b/c they don't have a lot of other work, since most people don't do renovation work over the holidays.

As for the Angie's list subscription, I would happily pay for it if there were any ratings of countertop installers, but since I can't find a single online rating of any countertop installer in my area on any other online site, I am skeptical that a paid site (which by definition has a limited number of members to write reviews) would have more ratings that the free ones. At this point it seems like it might be more doable for me to ask each firm a list of questions, and try to see a sample of their work. So if anyone has any advice about what kinds of answers to look for, I would appreciate it. I've read the other forums online that I could find, and I don't see specific details enough to understand exactly what I should be expecting for their answers about their techniques.

Thanks again for your help and responses everyone!

With a lot of hunting around, we did find a countertop installer about 45 minutes away in NJ with 5 positive online reviews who says that they will install in New York city - now I'm just waiting for them to send me a quote. So maybe I should go with them over the places that have no ratings, even if they turn out to be more expensive...? I'll post an update when we decide what to do... :)

I just checked the Boston Angie's list and they had 150 companies recently rated under "countertops" and another 165 that haven't been recently rated. Yes, some of them won't be fabricators but many are. Call your local angie's list branch and see how many fabricators are listed before you sign up. And for anyone you are going to use - please see their work.

I used a company that I was very pleased with - they have the approval/affiliation/whatever it's called with the BBB, NKBA, Master Builders Association, and their city's chamber of commerce. Take a look at their fabrication process:

http://www.ctmgranite.com/ctmgranite-Fabrication-process.html

You can see they template with these flexible, foldable plastic-like strips. Then use I believe it's a CNC machine in the shop. They use an S seam cause it's much stronger and moves with the natural lines in granite so it's well hidden.

I don't know if that's any help at all, but thought I'd share anyway.

Here is a link that might be useful: Quality fabrication process

As to some of your other questions, this was my experience with my fabricators:

What about their policy of cutting holes in shop or on site? Mine cut the holes onsite. They taped over the area with blue tape then drilled right through it.

What is their policy of seams at sinks or cooktops? What about sink reveals? Mine used a slight positive reveal. They took my cardboard template that came with the sinks back to the shop with them. You can see their "standard" in the 4th pic down in this link: http://www.ctmgranite.com/Kitchens-2010.html

Here is a link that might be useful: slight positive reveal as the standard

In the Washington DC area a great source for consumer recommendations is Washington Consumer Checkbook. (I think they may be in other areas of the country also.) They take no ads. You pay for a subscription, which I done for many years and find the recommendations to be invaluable.

I thought I'd update on what we did - we did end up going with the installer I found with the positive yahoo reviews. The sink cutouts and the single seam that they had to do look good, and they did basically manage to do the work on our timeline (a blizzard delayed everything in the city by a day, and the slabs they got from Zodiaq had some serious flaws that made them shatter, so they had to return them and replace them with some Caesarstone slabs instead, but even working around these issues, they managed to get the job done quickly).

The only possibly quibble is that there are uneven gaps a bit at the far back of the countertop between the countertop and the wall, but the walls are really not straight at all, so I'm not sure that I can fault the installers for this (are they supposed to template the wavy back walls somehow? - I also didn't clearly say that we weren't intending to put in a backsplash, so perhaps this is my fault in not communicating clearly enough). So while we weren't intending to put in a backsplash, we are doing that now to address this issue, but since it is not too expensive or complicated to do this and it should fix the issue, I'm ok with that.

I did end up joining Angie's list in the end, but I found it totally overwhelming and difficult to navigate - there were hundreds of firms listed under countertops in the NYC area, but none of the ones I had already considered or had recommended to me were listed, they almost all seemed to have the same ratings, and most of them were not specifically fabricators - they seemed to include a lot of general kitchen supply places (like Home Depot, for example), so I gave up. Maybe if I had had more time, I could have figured out how to use those listings more effectively, but in the end I just didn't feel up to prolonged weeding through, and I felt pretty comfortable talking to the firm we ended up going with (and figured that the positive yahoo reviews had to mean they were at least of a certain basic standard).

Thanks again for all the advice and feedback - I really appreciate it during this complicated process that can be so overwhelming for someone who has never renovated before!

I use Percoco Marble for all my jobs. Trust me when I say they are the best in Denver. I tried alot of other fabricators and found that Percoco Marble is the most knowledgeable, they have the most professional people on staff, there showroom and shop are amazing, and all the stone fits perfectly everytime and looks outstanding. I would not recommend anyone else in the Denver area

Another thing - look up any firm in your local court records for lawsuits and/or liens (almost all are on line today - and easy to search). Also check with your Secretary of State to find out if the business is a real business. Also check out whether the firm has a license if it's required to have one by state/local law. Finally - make sure it has insurance to cover your job. Robyn