Good question.

I am wrestling w/ the same dilemma, but since I am interested in a relatively oommon granite, Baltic Brown, I am leaning towards pre-fab, plus I like the thick bullnose edge it affords.

I know a lot of the pre-fab granite hails from China, which
lowers the cost and as long as it's not radioactive, I think I'll roll the dice.

tweety48, Kevin's advice is, as always, right on point. I'll just add my own experience with pre-fab slabs. There are **tons** of importers of the slabs here in CA. They're on every corner (right next to Starbucks - haha), it seems. We installed a couple of slabs in a rental house, as the price of the materials was comparable with cheap laminate ($120 for an 8-ft slab), and installation was only slightly more than laminate installation (but was NOT done by a stone specialist...more of a general handyman type).

For a rental house, we'd use pre-fab again in a heartbeat. I have friends that have done some updating of their kitchens (not big remodels, just refreshing) using the pre-fab slabs, and again, everyone is happy with it. As Kevin says, however, it's not the big "wow", for a couple of reasons: the stone selection seems limited to the most popular (and therefore, most common) colors, and shape is limited to the straight pieces that go against the wall (i.e. you can't do an island because the slabs are always unfinished on at least one side).

For a relatively modest/simple kitchen, I'd say go for it - the stuff we call "granite" is more or less equivalent in quality, esp if you're going for one of the more common colors (I know this is a gross generality). If your kitchen has a number of other custom features, however, the simplicity and common-ness of the pre-fab selection may not be able to keep up with the rest of your kitchen!

I think the quality of the seams has MUCH more to do with your installer than the stone itself, so I wouldn't worry about that when trying to decide if this material is right for you or not. If the slab you're choosing has laminated edges (as Kevin discusses), you'll be able to see those when you select your slab, so you can decide if they're ok for you or not. Ours didn't have a laminated edge, so the only seams we have are between slabs along the countertop. The seams look fine (even though we had a bone-headed installer, but that's another story....).

Good luck!

Thanks for both replys. I was leaning toward Roserx's opinion, but reading Kevin's professional opinion gave me food for thought. The trouble is...how does one tell good from bad quality granite? Also complicating my decision was that I had custom fabrication of Silestone by a very expensive fabricator for my laundry and sewing room, and I was not so impressed. They did all the fancy electronic measurements, but ended up smashing it into the drywall to get it to fit. So much for "custom"! Anyway, I appreciate the input.

Is the 3cm thick granite an absolute in a kitchen, as most of the pre-fab granite is 2cm thick w/ an either 3 or 4cm bullnose? My kitchen counter top does does not have any overhangs.

roserx - 3 cm granite is common on the East coast - 2 cm granite with/without a laminated edge is more common on the West coast (I think due to shipping costs). 2 cm granite requires plywood underneath - 3 cm doesn't.

tweety48 - some damage to the drywall is fairly common even with a good fabricator - my GC told me to expect it and that he would fix it up if necessary.

Kevin, even though we did our kitchen in a mini remodel (pre-fab Tropical Brown, new appliances, and tile floors) in March of 2006, I will be looking forward to Stone-101. You never know when you will need good info and yours is very persuasive. Friends of ours own a granite and tile business and do mostly big remodels. Some of their stuff doesn't look as good as the seams on our two pre-fab slabs done by a contractor that we found by accident. And our kitchen fits your criteria to a 'T'. We only spent $6000 total, didn't replace good quality 20 year old cabinets, and only needed a straight shot of counter against the wall. My redo was done on a tight budget, because the thing my kitchen Really needs, is reconfiguration, and that's not in my immediate future.
So far, my counters are wonderful. I hope that will continue so. I do think that educating yourself about the product makes a lot of sense before you spend the money. I didn't necessarily know much about quality, but I did look at the pre-fab slabs at 3 different places before I bought.

Red

Here is a link that might be useful:

Thank You all for your kind remarks...

The things that I look for as far as a pre-fabbed blank
goes, is...
Consistancy in color throughout the entire piece:
what I mean by this, is there's a tendency in SOME of the
pre-fab producers to apply enhancers to deepen the color-
in a NOT SO EVEN manner - I've seen this at one of the
supplier's products here in PHX - kinda looks lame...
So..... When you're looking at YOUR blanks - look at them
from about 10 feet away, as well as close up - to see
if there's any inconsistancies in the overall finish - IF
it's not good, it'll look like some kind of "stain" was
applued with a MOP - and NOT on all of the stone.

Glue Lines: Let's face it - many of the shops over in
China are in "Blow & Go" - "Turn & Burn" mode, and they just
don't take the time to get their glue lines as tight
as us "homeboys" here in the USA, so "more noticable" glue
lines will more than likely be a fact of life you should
be prepared for - IF you have little or no noticability
on your glue lines of the blanks you're buying - consider it
a "bonus"... :-)

Polish Marks: Look for the polish on the slabs to be consistant
and not having any permanent "swirl" marks on the slab that
WON'T come off with a little water & a rag...

I do pre-fab blanks - and i have a supplier here in PHX
that's dialed in to what pro's like me want and need, and
I make no bones about it - they are on their game as far as
I'm concerned.

One big plus (that I do not want to sound biased at all when
I say this) is that it's a great asset if the supplier
speaks and UNDERSTANDS ENGLISH... A few of the Chinese suppliers
send their peeps over here with little training in American-isms
and that is a WAY BIG NEGATIVE -
Again... The supplier I work with is cognizant (sp?) of
the English language and mannerisms/customs... They don't
constantly say.."In MY Country.." to me... very refreshing!!
IF I ever go to China to set up shop there - I'll learn Chinese.

Any ways - Thanks again for all of your very kind remarks
and keep an eye out for Stone-101 = coming in January (hey..
that's next week already...duh..)

kevin

Kevin M. Padden MIA SFA
Fabricator, Trainer & Consultant to the Natural Stone Industry
www.azschoolofrock.com

Here is a link that might be useful: AZ School of Rock

It seems that people here have some bad impressions on Chinese stone products, I would like to say not all the Made in China are bad qulaity. You will get what you pay.

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Chinese Countertops Inc.
Add.: Stone Center, Shuitou Town, Nanan City, Fujian, China.
Tel.: +86 18129817263
Web:www.chinesecountertops.com

Here is a link that might be useful: Chinese Countertops Inc.