I've dealt with a lot of stone suppliers but never one that didn't fabricate and install their stone. Apparently the supplier you are talking to sells the stone to a fabricator who in turn marks it up. You are there just to choose the type and color of the stone. When too many people take a cut the price is difficult to determine and it is always higher than you would expect.

Can you use a supplier/fabricator/installer?

I was at a stone yard this week and was given a price per slab when I asked. My issue was that the salesperson was down-selling me! You could probably fit my project on one large slab, so he was only showing me what he had in large slabs, which weren't the colors/movement I was looking for. He finally listened and showed me better choices. The extra slab was $1,300 and I wasn't going to buy something I didn't like to save a few dollars on the last few items of a year long project! Going to pay for my 2 Golden Crystal slabs tomorrow.

I hear ya! Our builder does $50/sq.ft for granite, but that doesn't help us at all when we are out looking at the hundreds of slabs of granite and no one will mention the actual price!

Our fabricator told us that they could get in a lot of trouble with the builders they work with if they mention the actual cost per sq. ft. She said a lot of them do up charges. Luckily our builder doesn't do much upcharging!

My experience with the pricing is the same - the slab yards were A,B,C,D etc. I just went to the fabricator and asked what each will cost in sqft.

So A will cost me $45, B $55 etc. She did mention that there was a range so it was more like B was $55 or $60.

Around here the fabricator determines the final price and if things fit well on a slab, you might get a better price or if there is more waste, then you have a higher price. These things can't be known by the wholesaler - and differ for each customer. I think that explains the mystery and it really is unique for granite....

Also $40 seems low but in some parts of the country, that may not be too bad. I think it is unfair to judge that number without context/geography etc.

I don't believe that you could get any group of granite installed for $40.00 a square foot in my area...I recently had quartz tops installed and Lowes was running a special at $45.00 a square foot and I jumped on it.....looks great!!

Here are a few photos of my quartz tops:

In lots of areas quartz is more expensive than granite and Lowes is never the cheapest since they charge their subs a cost for the business.

We can get down to $30 around here.

Quartz usually is more expensive than granite here too but Lowes was running a special price on LG Hausys and no other venders could come close to their price with quartz or granite. Lowes may "charge" their subs a cost for the business but you can bet that many GC's will tack on 25-30% margin on the granite vendors too.

We started with our fabricator and went to places they told us to go to to look at slabs, they keep most of the builder grade stuff right there in the shop, but we wanted movement and color. They also keep remnants around and used those for our bathroom vanities throughout the house.

We knew the relative pricing of slabs around the warehouses, but never looked at the actual price (even though we were the GC on our build). We wanted what we wanted and we let the price sort itself out later.

We did upgrade from a bullnose edge in the kitchen to an Ogee for $10 a foot.

I found much of the cost of the materials is labor in terms of cutting, delivery and installation. The product itself was only $15-35per sqft. You can imagine mistakes aren't cheap. Our builder gave us the name of the fabricator but the stoneyard did give us some names of fabricators that were "quite talented" with leathered/honed finishes,... so they were aware of what we could afford. Don't think for a minute you will be happy only looking at only the affordable:) We looked at everything:) Good luck in your decision and you might want to ask about a mitered edge for a more expensive finished look without all the bulk of stone and price. I've seen these done successfully many times.

Here is a link that might be useful: mitered edge-apron

Lots of great replies!

The frustrating part is like Live Wire Oak mentioned....we aren't happy with the A grade material. Our builder should have known our tastes and realized we would never be happy with the lowest grade stone out there. When we were getting bids, we overlooked this aspect, and the fact that our kitchen is U-shaped which adds square footage. $40 will get you granite, but nothing special.

We will bite the bullet and get what we want. I'll post pictures once it's installed!

Funny you mention this. I have been calling around about macaubus quartzite and got a quote from a person for $75 ft and that was a "discount". Called another place and got $60 ft. The $75 person emailed me to follow up and I told her the much cheaper price I found. Suddenly she could match it, but yet the $75 was supposed to be her doing-me-a-favor-price.

Moral of the story, KEEP SHOPPING. I plan to get this price even lower and call the many stone yards around here. Everything is negotiable.

Hi......let me see if I can help you with this as I am a granite fabricator.
1.) Granite wholesalers don't sell granite to the public, and fabricators aren't wholesalers. Not to mention one slab weighs as much as the average vehicle, can't rest it against your house.
2.) Wholesalers aren't being secretive. When you ask a painting contractor to paint your house, you're not paying per gallon of paint right? And when you go shopping at say, Macy's, you don't ask the salesperson what Levi's is charging them. The price per square foot should not be your concern. The bottom line or total price should be.
3.) Anyone who told me $40/SF, I would not walk away.....I would run. Workmanship is what you should be looking for, and are they insured, do they do their own work or sub it out. Something to think about.

"Our builder should have known our tastes and realized we would never be happy with the lowest grade stone out there"

What makes you say this, has he worked with you before? There isn't a quality difference between A and D slabs, it's more about relative rarity of the stone and personal preference.

This is a good time to check all of your allowances, though, and determine which ones you want to upgrade versus not.