When there are only 3 reputable diamond cutters in the city, and a bunch of sketchy unlicensed ones, you don't start your engagement ring buying trip with shopping for uncut stones at the wholesale market. You shop the skill of the cutters first, and then ask their input in who carries the best uncut stones. Better still, tell them the results you want, and have them suggest and purchase the raw materials. They are responsible for the outcome then. If you bring them questionable off brand products, youre going to have the agree to be responsible for it shattering if it’s terrible quality.

Only fabricators can give you prices, because the material cost is virtually irrelevant. The $100+ a square foot cost of this is mostly about labor costs. There are darn few certified fabricators who are authorized to fabricate them. Start there. You’re starting at the wrong end of the project.

These pictures were taken at All Natural Stone in Berkeley, CA. I visited showrooms in both Northern and Southern California and didn't experience difficulty getting prices, but perhaps I was just lucky?

We're planning to use Neolith slabs which are similar in cost to these porcelain slabs. As Magnifico stated, the materials cost is nominal compared to the actual fabrication and installation cost. If you choose to go with porcelain slabs, then make sure you go with a very experienced installer.

CA seems to be different from many other areas. I also had no problem getting slab prices from stone yards in Los Angeles. I paid for the slabs and then had my fabricator pick them up. I think the slab market in LA is very competitive and I guess not enough margins for fabricators to also get a cut.

Thanks for all the comments and excellent information we really appreciate it

Distributors of porcelain panels are having a lot of problems with installation failures and finger pointing. Many are becoming reluctant to reccomend installers, yes even certified by MFG installers. Be vigilant in your hiring process.

Who are you calling Honey, Frances? What an odd comment.

We also looked at porcelain slabs for our kitchen when we did our build a few years ago. If OP is the "handy" husband and planning on doing this himself, I can promise it will not end well. This isn't like cutting tile with a machine you got at Harbour Freight. It's very difficult and requires special blades that are not cheap. In the end I went with quartzite and wish I had just started my search with that.

I am Houston and most places here (tile or stone) don't give out prices directly to the customer bc a lot contractors base their pricing of supply costs. Our builder just gave us his contactor number and we supplied that to places we looked. Some places had a retail price and we could at least go off that for our own estimated calculations.