We used BC Stone as our fabricator. They did a marvelous job. We got our granite at Avanti in Frederick.

Avanti Marble & Granite in Frederick was very, very helpful when we were looking...they didn't have any slabs that I loved so we didn't buy from them, but they were extremely friendly & helpful. (http://www.avantimarblegranite.com/)

We ultimately got our slabs (3 of them) from Universal Marble & Granite in Halethorpe (just south of Baltimore). (http://www.umgrocks.com/index.htm) They were very helpful but, two things...(1) they did not do the fabrication/install for us so I don't know how they are with those tasks (if they do them) and (2) they don't let you pick individual slabs, you pick a "lot". For us, it didn't matter as ours was a very small lot (5 slabs, as I recall) and all the slabs in the lot were fine with us. We picked Absolute Black Premium...but a true, deep black w/sparsely scattered silver inclusions. Most ABs at the time we were looking were either gray or dyed to look black. Universal was the only one of several granite places we looked at that had the true, deep black...and it was a very small lot. (Their other AB lots were gray.)

Two places, though, that I recommend staying away from:

Granite Source in Chantilly, VA, and Stone & Tile World in Rockville.

Granite Source did our templating/fabrication/installation and did a poor job in both the Kitchen and Powder Room...not to mention that they irreparably damaged one of my cabinets and delayed everything about 4 weeks! (We had to wait for a new cabinet.)

Stone & Tile World gave me such a run-around that I finally left them in frustration!

I don't remember the names of the other places we looked at since it was almost a year ago...but none of them were memorable...positively or negatively.

Thanks.

Is it usual to get granite from one place and have fabrication done at another place? How did you find the places you used? Did you have general contractors managing your projects?

We are not remodeling the whole kitchen, just getting new counters and a backsplash. We had gotten as far as having a template made by a countertop place, but I just had a bad feeling about them. They were terrible at communicating, and the contract they eventually sent didn't have any provision for if they messed something up and didn't explain what they were going to do about cabinets not being level. I could envision having problems and them not being at all responsive. Also, they wanted to be paid in full before the job was finished. No way! Had to pay for templating time, but I feel much better now that that's canceled.

We also have a sink and faucet sitting there in boxes - guess they'll keep until we can figure something out.

Stay AWAY from Granite Outlet. Overpriced and poor customer service.

The manager was extremely rude when I tried to set up an appointment for installation. When he told me that he was in the *sales* department, and couldn't tell me what the time-frame for an installation would be, I asked POLITELY if it would be possible to speak with someone in the installation division to get a better idea of how busy they were (it was close to a holiday, so I was wondering if they were stretched or if they had extra openings with so many people out of town). He got belligerent and condescending.

And this was the *manager* (or so he told me, I have no idea if he made that up or not). He was SO obnoxious that I canceled my installation. I got it elsewhere considerably cheaper and the company was very nice to deal with, they came out within a few days to measure, then installed it the day after measuring.

Well, during our lengthy search for the perfect marble and the perfect matte black granite we probably checked out 10 slab yards/fabricators in the DC/MD/VA area. By far, we found the best service at Classic Granite and Marble in Jessup. We were thrilled that their templating and installation were also just perfect. We took our layout with measurements on our first visit (no appointment) and walked out with exact prices for the 4 different materials we were considering. They came out 3 different times, at no additional cost, to be sure the template was perfect. During the first template, they discovered that our island wasn't aligned properly. We had to order a new corner cabinet, which would delay the countertop installation several months after their findings. Classic had no issues holding our material and waiting for the cabinet issue to be resolved. Andy was superb and I can't recommend them enough. In the end, I found the marble slabs I wanted at Daltile in Chantilly, VA - Classic drove down and picked them up.

As far as other slab yards I visited (these do not do fabrication)-
Universal - had great selection, but as stated above, you can't pick your specific slabs

Marva Marble and Granite - Great selection, no calacatta

Daltile - Good selection, very friendly, moved many slabs on a busy Saturday for us.

NSI - near BWI - fantastic selection, lots of exotic choices

GranTops - in Frederick - outdoor slab yard, they also carry soapstone from M.Tex

Avanti - Great selection, lots of exotic stones

Good Luck!!!! HTH!

I was very pleased with the service and price from Atlas Stone Fabricators in Odenton. They have a small selection of choice slabs. I also visited NSI-- as lagrant says, great selection.

Thanks! That gives me something to work on.

Our granite was done by Lowes ... after we were ripped off by a fly-by-night granite place. The Lowes price was great $65/sq ft (Floresta Verdi), we could have chosen our own slab at the granite yard in Chantilly, and the sub-contractors that were sent to measure, template, and install were first rate.

After our first bad experience, having the power of a national retailer behind this was comforting. I used Lowes again recently for a Corian kitchen, with the same positive experience. Take your plans down to your local Lowes store, and see what they can offer. (I'm not affiliated with Lowes in any way, I'm just a VERY satisfied customer.)

We went all over town looking for our stone and bought it at Avanti in Frederick - they were absolutely wonderful after we had a terrible experience with Stone Surfaces - RUN from them... Avanti usually doesn't recommend but we got in a bind, and they sent us to Thomas Marble and Granite in Gaithersburg - tiny mom/pop store and they were very very nice and have low cost Blanco sinks.

I am in Annapolis. I am using Granite and Marble Corp. Just put down a deposit but their pricing was very good. Will let you how it turns out.

pcjs, did you use Thomas for fabricating, or did you just buy your sink there? The person we are hiring to do the tile recommended Thomas for the granite and fabrication. He said he has used them for several years (he lives in our neighborhood and has worked on some of our neighbors' houses). So if they have a slab we like, we'll go with them. Their prices are good.

We used ADI in Rockville for our kitchen 3 years ago at the recommendation of our realtor. We were very happy with the service. I checked the BBB before signing the contract. The contract for the kitchen countertops was very explicit. They let the customer help layout the granite once they have the template - so for example with our granite we wanted the section of the granite that had more green it it to be one place. Also if there was too much of a color we didn't like (say gray) we could try to minimize where it was in the layout. We have gone back there for a smaller project (remnant piece) for our dining room bar/bookcase area and so far so good.

As for the pricing - they have a warehouse and the material price tends to depend on how long the piece has been there. They could probably work with getting the material from elsewhere but that may not be as good of a price as if they had a slab that had been in inventory for awhile. I remember them being in the same ballpark as other places and at the time they were one of the few places that would guarantee that they would not need to cut a seam for the L run of countertop we had. I think we paid a little extra for a 3rd person to carry the piece in (very detailed price quote) but it was very important for us not to have a seam.

http://www.adicorp.us/

Both - we found the granite at Avanti, they sent us to Thomas (after we had no clue what to do after Stone Surfaces pretended to hold our slab - I spent weeks deciding and went to Avanti several times - they were wonderful - they thought they had sold it all at that point, but couldn't probably take me crying so they found two slabs, had me look at it one more time and recommended them even though they normally don't recommend due to liability issues). Then, I was waiting and waiting for my Blanco sink online that never did come, and happened to go into Thomas's showroom, and they had it cheaper and right there/exact one... so I bought both the sink & granite and they solved both issues... it was installed less than a week later. :) Their prices were very very reasonable.

We got our soapstone from Designer Surfaces in Frederick. They also do granite, solid surfaces and quartz. We were very happy with their prices, materials, and installation.

Here is a link that might be useful: Designer Surfaces Unlimited