We have Volga Blue and found that it can vary GREATLY between slabs. You are paying a lot of money and need to be very happy. I would contact whoever you paid for your granite (HD manager sounds like a good start) and tell them that you are very unhappy, you want it made right and you should be able to choose your slabs with no additional charge. Offer to cancel your check or credit card purchase and go to the local TV reporters who follow up on consumer complaints (hopefully you have them) for assistance if need be.

One place we got a granite quote from told us they pick our slabs or we pay "a lot more" to pick our own. I said no way and inquired why. They allegedly buy large lots of slabs at a great discount so if you want one or two slabs that are in another location, THEY pay more to get them to you and it's a pain in their backside.

Perhaps the HD manager can route you through a different fabricator after you choose your slabs.

Stick to your guns. VB is gorgeous and you will love it as long as you get the slabs you really want.

As for the brackets, we were told they are not needed for overhangs of 12" or less, but more than that they are recommended.

When you do get it, I suggest some good under cabinet lights - they make the blue really "pop", especially in the evenings.

I stopped reading at #3....you have every right to see what you are paying for...and you shouldn't have to pay for the privelige! For them to just say the other slab is a mirror image and not show you...you won't have much recourse if you sign off on it and pay for it and the second slab is horrible. I don't know much about support or seams...but 84" with a 12" overhang seems like it would be too heavy with no support. My advice---GO ELSEWHERE! This place seems shady. Good luck!

OMG.
Can you get any more red flags?

I think you know the answers to these questions or you wouldn't be posting. Trust yourself.

Kick them to the curb. Of COURSE you get to see your slabs. And no, to look you don't need to pay.

If you want supports, get 'em. I can't speak to the stress issues on the marble, but OMG. If you're more comfortable, get them. "Need" is only an issue when it's imperative to strength. "Want" is what one pays for.

As for the light? If you don't see it, it's not going to appear magically, flat on your kitchen counter. It sounds like you don't like the slab, so don't settle.

I'd start shopping.
Shoot. I've had plywood for 6 years and done just fine. Don't get in a hurry just because someone makes you feel you should.

Your key words were "other supplies." I'd stop payment and start shopping. If they're fighting you now, imagine how this is going to go.

Our granite is being installed today!!! Yikes! The templater was here last week to measure and he said that they don't like to do more than a 10" overhang without support. I have a raised bar section that I was hoping to make a little deeper but he wouldn't do it without me adding supports underneath and it was going to get complicated because there is a trim piece under the top etc. So he upped it a little but not much. Our fabricator also does work for HD and when I showed him the sale price at HD he gave me that price. I didn't choose from any of their slabs and went shopping on my own. I am sure I could have saved money by choosing from their slabs but I visited many times and they had the same things for months and never seemed to have anything new in stock so finally I just went to other suppliers on my own. The supplier that I got my granite from went out of business January 1 so I am so glad I got my slabs out of there before he closed or I could have been in a world of hurt...

Good luck!!! I always felt bad for making them show me slabs and sometimes I did and sometimes not. To me it doesn't look like they are all that busy that they wouldn't want to do it with this economy especially when you are a dedicated sale and not just browsing. Sheesh!!!

Geosulcata,

This is terrible. I would definitely want support
for 12 inches, and I would want to hand choose my slab
along with deciding where the seams would go. I would
want my installer to help me not fight me on the project.

I am not sure where you are in the US. Maybe someone
can recommend a new installer for you. The one you are
dealing with is terrible. Seriously TERRIBLE!
Thank Goodness you stopped the installation. You are doing
the right thing. They need to be fired. Often those
who get contracts with Lowes or HD are not always the
best quality but often slash their prices so that Lowes
and HD use them in their stores.

If you have Angie's list do a search in your area.
Ask neighbors, friends, church friends, the dentist,
your doctor, ... anyone who might have granite,
Ask them for a recommendation. Granite installation is
an art. A good installer is worth his weight in gold.

Glad you stopped this nightmare and hoping you find
a new slab (that you get to hand pick with out silly fees)
and a wonderful stone artist to make your dream
counters.
~boxerpups

If you are in the Boston Area my favorites are...

BFR in Manchester NH
Gerrity Stone in Woburn MA
Stone Depot in Dedham, MA
Absolute Stone in Ipwich, MA (my close friend loves them)
Ripano in Nashua NH ( Expensive and a little snooty but they do a nice job)

9" max without support. However, overhang support is the joint responsibility of the kitchen designer and cabinet installer, not the granite installers. They install on top of the support that has already been engineered. There are many different ways to create correct support for your countertops, and those should have been explored at the time of the design, because they will have different impacts structurally on how the cabinet design is created. Then the cabinet installer follows through with creating that support correctly as well as installing any ledger boards that are needed.

Time to STOP and get this all sorted out.

Unlike Hollysprings, our supports for the peninsula were done by the granite guys, but we have 3 cm granite without a plywood base, so that may make a difference.

I was a little confused about your description of what was happening after your counter goes over your dishwasher space though. Our countertop spans that space and dead ends into the pantry. We, not the granite guys, put a support on the side of the pantry to hold up that end of the counter. They told us what to put there, but we did the putting. You might need something similar for where your counter hangs out into space.

From the top it looks like:

Good for you to stop this process before it was too late. We were very fortunate to have found a great granite place with super helpful owners/fabricators. To have this part of the process go sideways would be awful. We took them at their word that the six pieces of our granite in the stack had very little variation as Kashmir Gold doesn't have big variations. They wrote our name on the one we could see and the next one down. I know they used parts of 2 slabs, but I can tell, can you? I just looked up Volga Blue though, and this is a stone that has *huge* variations. For that, and many stones, of course you should see the others, not just the most handy. What are they thinking!?

Thank you all! This is SO helpful. Suzannesl, those are the same supports we were originally told about. Our granite will be 3cm with no plywood. The bracket near the pantry is something I will put up or a 2x2 strip of wood maybe. I would just feel better knowing there is some support.
I went to the best granite wholesaler today. They have been really helpful and also said we had reason to be concerned, but that this fabricator is known to be very good. He however had no volga blue. I will try to upload a picture of my kitchen (excuse the mess). I actually loved the color of the plywood...maybe I should just get more and seal it :)
I can only seem to get one photo to show up. We still need to finish the trim work on the cabinet and put on the hardware, but you can see the general colors. We wanted light and airy, but we love the Volga Blue. It will be 3 months before the great wholesaler gets in more Volga Blue extra (that is all he gets in). The other wholesaler had 4 slabs that were all different sizes. Some had backing, some didn't. There was a lot of brown pattern and TONS of resin on the slabs (some had resin front and back) - but the blues were beautiful. It just didn't look first quality.

We are in Sarasota, FL. If anyone has any color tips for something else we should consider, I am open for suggestions. Also would love to hear paint color suggestions. The Shell White I chose looks more like someone has been smoking in the room for years. The kitchen in open to the dining and living room.
Thanks again for all of the help. I am going to pick up my sink template tomorrow. I would rather wait for what is best and I don't want to rush into this. It was a lot of money for us to spend.

{{gwi:2105381}}

we had volga blue extra spectralite installed in our home in October and used DLD Granite in Lakeland. David came HIGHLY recommended as being the best in Polk County. There was not a whole lot of stock to choose from in the Tampa Bay area so I'm not surprise with what you are running into. This is actually a stone and could have some browning from being out in the sun so its better indoors and fissures are common in this type of stone so you need a reputable fabricator/installer that has worked with the stone and can help you choose your slabs. It DOES take lots of abuse and we love it. Our fabricator recommended supports that came out quite a bit further than what I saw in some of these pictures and the fabricator custom made them for the install. They were an extra charge but well worth it. You might talk with your installer but I know when they brought out our countertops backing had been added underneath them too. We have one very small seam in the center of the sink and one small seam at the edge of the stovetop. An 11-1/2 foot bump-up bar has no seam whatsoever - it was cut on an angle. depending on how many square feet you need, you may consider an extra slab to work with rather than trying to get everything out of one or two. We have approx 110 square feet and the fabricator used three slabs - I read that you need approx 1/3 more stone than the actual square footage to do a job properly. In all of the tampa area there were only five slabs in October at all of the places we visited or called, Orlando had some but we did not travel up there. There were two slabs of volga blue classic up towards the Villages. We had our fabricator select the best slabs for the job since he knew more than we did what to look for and how to work around any fissures in the stone. We couldn't be happier with the install or the gorgeous stone. good luck with your countertops.

Have you read the stone information thread in the Read Me thread? It discusses the need for support, among many other things related to picking out, templating, and installing stone surfaces...

Overhang Support:

First question, how thick is your stone? Yes, it matters - 2cm or 3cm?

The "6 & 10 Rule" applies for support:

• If your granite is 2 cm thick, then there can be no more then 6" of unsupported span with a 5/8" subtop

If your granite is 3 cm thick, then there can be no more then 10" of unsupported span - no subtop required
If you need support, to determine your corbel dimensions:

Dimension of Overhang - Maximum unsupported span for your stone thickness = Corbel Dimension/Length needed for the overhang

i.e., an 18" total overhang in 2 cm would require a 12" corbel [18" - 6" = 12"]
the same overhang in 3 cm would require an 8" corbel [18" - 10" = 8"]

Seating Overhangs:

The minimum recommended seating overhang for counter-height seating (36" off the floor) is 15". For bar-height seating (42" off the floor), it is 12".

Seams & DW:

Generally, it is not a good idea to seam over a DW because there's no support for the granite, and anything heavy placed at or near the seam would stress the stone, possibly breaking it.

See the thread linked below for more information (it is the thread I mentioned at the beginning of this post.)

Overall...Based on what you've written about the templater's recommendations, etc., I think it is time to find someone else!

Here is a link that might be useful: Thread: Stone Information and Advice (& Checklists)

Sorry...saw the 3cm note in the later thread...somehow I missed it the first time around. So, the "10" part of the rule applies to you...no more than 10" of unsupported "span" or overhang w/o additional support. Also, be careful about what type of support you use...many of the flat horizontal metal supports have too much flex for stone surfaces; some are fine, some are not...

Were you planning any kind of seating? I didn't see mention of it & I don't see a place for seating in the pic, but I included the minimum recommended overhang in my first post just in case...

Also, see the PDF linked below from Marble Institute of America.

Here is a link that might be useful: A Homeowner's Guide to Natural Stone Countertop Installation

I was told by a reliable kitchen designer that granite should be supported every 24 inches. I searched all over for decorative supports and finally found some. There were not many to choose from, but I found one I liked. I chose the E style in the link below. They dressed up what would have been a bla area.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wrought iron counter supports

Thanks for all of the great help! We were able to find two wonderful matching slabs. We were able to also get the supports we are wanting. We only needed a little more than 1 slab, but they allowed us to use anywhere on either of the two slabs. The Island piece is one solid piece (124" long) that we placed on one slab. Then we have the sink run, a piece to the left of the stove and a piece to the left of the refrigerator on the second slab. There will be one seam that will be over a cabinet end and we will put on some additional supports just for our peace of mind. We don't want to do corbels because of the possibility of knocking our knees on them :)

I think it is going to look incredible. There are tons of huge cobalt blue areas that appear to flash on and off as I walk by the slabs. Thank you for all of the advice and support. I looked at every slab around and these are the best. Having countertops is going to be wonderful!! Plus, I think we received an excellent deal. We called a few other places and they all told us that their cost for two slabs would be just $300 under what we are paying and the slabs would come from the same place!

suzanne_sl - can you give me the details on the dishwasher support that you have? I had the same kitchen layout and need to do the same thing. Where did you get that?