We got ours from a local fabricator/stone yard that deals with the general public, not just through contractors.

I bought it directly from okite. I could get pure white for almost half the price of pure white cesarstone. So far so good, although they did chip at the edge when I banged a bowl against it, but I insisted on sharp edges and was warned this might happen. I havent had anything stain them yet, but I am not much of a cook. They were installed by a local fabricator, who did not do a great job, unfortunately.

I believe that both Lowes and Home Depot outsource and they want their profits along the way so you may find them much more costly than you anticipate, at least that's how it is in my area. Hopefully you will get some good referrals to some local crafts person.

practigal:

Your theory sounds good, but doesn't work in practice. The big box stores negotiate directly with quartz and other manufacturers. You can do that when you buy by the train car load. The manufacturer concedes prices, allowing the big boxes to remain profitable and still be less expensive than local fabricators.

This doesn't only happen with the big boxes. I fabricated the Corian in a McDonalds 20 years ago. I picked up my material at the distributor as usual, but McDonalds had negotiated a price with DuPont that was considerably lower than what I would have usually paid.

Then there are the sink promotions. The big boxes will negotiate a free sink that would cost a local fabricator $400.00 or so. This makes competing against them on price a tall order.

The fabricator makes or breaks your countertop choice. It does no good to buy the most fabulous slabs---- to be ruined. See above.

Find a fabricator first. Then ask him about which brands that he can buy will give you the result that you desire. Many manufacturers restrict the purchase of their materials to fabricators whom they certify, so get the idea of ''the perfect one'' out of your head before you go shopping Be flexible on colors and brands and be picky on the fabricator. It's far better to have a nice color well fabricated than a spectacular failure.

Joe, please try my local stores...at some point you'll just have to concede that LA CA is different than FL. Both HD and Lowe's were $25/sq ft higher than other local non big box establishments... And their personnel tell me that they don't sell much of anything unless it's on one of their sales....

practigal:

You sure you're talking about name brand quartz? I'm sure there are Chinese look-alikes that are less.

We're in the DC area so I'm not sure how that will factor into price at a local fabricator vs. big box. I guess we'll just need to get estimates from both types. What's the best way to find a reputable fabricator? Angie's List? Other sources? The flooring company we worked with before did (and continues to do) an excellent job with all of our flooring needs. He said he had a good quality fabricator for counters which is why we went that route in our last kitchen. We ended up thinking the "wrong color" counter was actually nicer than the one we picked (we picked white - they delivered light aqua!), but that lack of overhang irked me until the end when we moved, and we'd rather not have any big mistakes this time around.