Ditto to crl's comment. My fabricator came back & redid a seam, reapplied the sealer in one area & then did some final touch-ups after the project was complete. My GC made all this happen.

I definitely wouldn't choose a fabricator based on pricing. Referrals from satisfied friends and relatives are good, especially if you can see their work. There have been way too many disaster countertop installs on GW to simply choose based on price. Do your homework on templating, seams, etc.

If you have a GC, go with his guy so he owns the mistake. I'm a budget shopper but quality is foremost so I picked my fabricator based on experience, time in business, quality of work and satisfied references.

Ditto everyone else, except that my GC was recommended by the KD & fabrication (manufactured quartz, for me) was done by the KD's recommended fabricator, which was how my KD & GC preferred things.

I had gotten a couple of quotes from other recommended companies beforehand, and those came in about $100 less than the KD's fabricator, but to avoid potential issues w/ accountability, I figured $100 was a small price to pay.

OK, that was my hunch. But then I found some older posts on here that mentioned how people found their slab, then shopped around for a fabricator.

I did not. They were $1000 more, and on top of that I wasn't happy with their customer service in my interactions with them. I went to 3 other fabricators and they were all in line with each other pricing wise. I had a good experience with my fabricator and they had great reviews. My GC was scratching his head at the pricing differential. For my small kitchen that was a 30% difference.

We did not but it wasn't over price - exactly. We chose soapstone from M. Teixeira and our GC arranged his fabricator. Then there were multiple communication problems, we almost lost our slabs and he said some concerning things to me that showed a lack of knowledge of soapstone (sealing it and grit at 400). Luckily we are within Teixeira's area and insisted they fabricate - 80 grit. And we love them. If it as granite or marble we probably would have gone with his recommendation. This was also GC first experience with soapstone.

I'm kind of in this same boat. My "GC" (aka cabinet makers) include countertops in their proposal. However, he told me I am free to use whoever I choose - he said he's not making much money on it.

I am getting Cambria and another dealer in town will do the job for $3K LESS than my GC. Of course when I told him that is who I want to use, he insisted I don't want to use them and to pick someone else (they used to use them and they did a horrible job). Frankly, I almost think it's too good to be true - about $52/ft for Cambria.

In the end, I think I'm going to fork over the extra cost and let my GC handle the counters. I have 2 sink cutouts, a cooktop and a massive island with posts to cut around - all with no seams. I feel like with all that detail, I need to use my GC's fabricator to ensure it's done to my satisfaction.

I'm going with soapstone and definitely did not want my GC using his fabricator since "he's done a couple kitchens with soapstone". I am using Soapstone Werks since they live and breathe soapstone and I have total confidence in them.

Oh yeah, if we go with soapstone, we already have our fabricator picked out, and our GC is fine with it and thinks he's worked with him before.

For granite, I'll stick with the GC's fabricator. Thanks!

Our contract with our GC was a time and materials contract, so we (by agreement) separately contracted out a few things (he did all the carpentry, installation, electrical, plumbing, we did floor refinishing, painting and countertops). Fortunately, we chose a stellar fabricator. If I had been using soapstone, I'd definitely want someone with experience using the material.