My sister works at Lowe's but lives three hours away. Too bad because she would oversee my project if I lived closer. Not only that but granite in the Detroit area is $41 per square foot and here in Grand Rapids they charge $59 for the lowest price group. Lowe's actually makes a small profit. The installers set the price and they compete with all the other installers in whatever town they're in. Even if I did pay a little more I'm buying an insurance policy. I have to eat the $1500 for my island that we're replacing. If I bought at Lowe's I wouldn't. Now I just have to choose my granite wisely. I don't want to go through any more misery than I already have.

Can you post a picture of your island? I am getting Silestone and am aware of the pooling but would like to see what you are talking about.

I'm thinking of getting Cambria for one of my bathrooms. I thought it had a warranty against defects like that!

What is pooling?

I hope you have better luck with your granite.

How do I post a picture? I'd really like to share!! I wonder if anyone else with Cambria has experienced what I have with the resin pooling.
ps..thanks for your advise, planning nut. Even though my sister works at Lowe's it doesn't mean I haven't shopped around. I really think the installers set the price. I suppose you have to be aggressive when shopping within a budget.
Busymom....they told me it wasn't a defect!!!

Will Lowe's let you pick out your actual slab? People on this board have reported that some of the big box stores don't let you - if that's the case, you won't know what you're getting until it shows up. Most people find that they do better working directly with a fabricator, but if you happy with Lowe's, then good luck.

I haven't posted a picture before so I'm not sure. There is a thread that tells you how. If you have it on Shutterfly or a site like that, I think you can put the link to that in your post.

I've heard through Expo, and I'm sure it's the same as all big box stores that you pay for the slab in advance but then can go pick out the actual slab at one of their several suppliers. My problem with that is what do you do if you don't like any of the slabs their suppliers have.

RE Lowes...in our area Lowes has contract with a fabricator. We priced a countertop with Lowes, then decided we might want some other granite than what was displayed at Lowes. In our case, we ended up talking directly to the fabricator who offered to either to with us to the granite yards or simply let us go to the granite yards alone and look around a bit. We had his cell phone number to call with questions on pricing (why does the eye go to those exotics?) I'm guessing Lowes is making about 10%. Fabricator told us whenever we wanted he wanted to be sure to meet us at the yard, eventually to help choose our slab....from the point of view of a person who knows a heck of a lot more about granite that we do, and also to talk about how the slab would lay out in our kitchen. Don't know if this process is consistent across all of Lowes...but it is where we live.

Good luck!

I spent $6000 on Cambria countertops for my kitchen and have not been pleased with the results. One seam is practically invisible, but the other seam which is in a very conspicuous area is very obvious. The two pieces that meet don't match well with one piece having lots more white than the other. For that amount of money, I expected perfection but was disappointed. We have since sold that house and the counters need to be replaced in our new home. I won't be buying Cambria again and am seriously considering going back to Formica.

What is pooling?

the resins that act like glue to hold the quartz together can 'pool' up and show up as blobs or blotches in quartz countertops.

for this reason, most fabricators insist that customers go and ok and tag their specific slab before it's purchased and cut. that's what ours did.

i'm not sure why anyone who's expecting perfection wouldn't take the time to go and sign off on the actual slab you're going to get. i've done that with all three remodels. obviously, that won't prevent all problems, like the seam and matching issues the previous poster mentioned, but it would've saved the OP $1500 and a lot of headaches.

I had complete trust in the fabricator (Lakeside Solid Surface in Muskegon, MI) over my Cambria top, in fact, I was never offered the option of "tagging" a slab and never even thought to do it. I am not a perfectionist to a fault but I do believe that you should get what you pay for. Good thing I didn't have to deal with any seams because now it's obvious that the fabricator had no sense of artistry or they would've cut around those large blobs. I think they saw a sucker in me and they figured they'd dump a poor piece of quartz my way. Shame on them!

here's the old cambria top...

and my new beautiful top in granite!

That granite is much, much nicer!

yep. you certainly had a legitimate gripe. that resin pooling is really ugly. i cannot believe that any fabricator worth his salt wouldn't just reject that slab the minute it got to his shop. i can only imagine what the portion that he cut out for the range must've looked like.

that's really too bad. well, at least you've got something that you like now!

Remodelfla--for my granite, EXPO sent me around to local granite yards when their regular suppliers didn't have the granite I chose (not their fault, the quarry was no longer producing it). It took us several weeks but we eventually found an acceptable substitute. EXPO still has their regular supplier do the fabrication...they pickup the slab from the granite yard.

I don't know what would have happened if they had the granite I chose but I didn't like any of the slabs.

The spots on the Cambria countertop occur often and are not considered defects. FYI.

But I can see why you wouldn't like it.

you've got to be kidding me. that's not considered a defect?

does it show those orange blobs on the samples? does any of their literature or website photos show them?

if that's their company line, that's just weak. a reason not to patronize them, imo.

kitchenwitch....you are correct. Cambria's position is that these are not defects and they have the disclaimers to support it. However, (edlakin) those orange blobs are NOT in my samples, NOT on their website and NOT on any of the slabs that my (new) granite fabricator has in his warehouse. In fact, my new fabricator tells me it is the most extreme case of resin pooling he has seen. *sigh* Live and learn.

At any rate, I am so incredibly happy with my new countertop! There's not one thing I can think of to complain about. My Lowe's experience was SUPER!!

I have a pooling splotch of white 3" wide 6 1/2" long on my large island. I'm very unhappy. The installers told me I was stuck with it. They said they've installed white countertops that have one black pooling spot on it, and Cambria won't replace. Stay away from Cambria. I tried to shop local. If I'd gone to Lowe's they wouldve replaced mine if seen from 7 feet away. I can see my defect, a whole room away. And shame on Cambria. I had several kitchen countertops with the same product. They easily could've cut around that pooling spot and used this piece on my counters to not waste it. They've sent people out twice to look at it. I'll update you if they do the right thing.

We fell in love with the Cambria sample, but to our extreme frustration and inconvenience, have had the same problems as so many here, with no resolution. The installer (Art-stones, Jacksonville, Florida) did a terrible job with cutiing for aesthetic flow, and the seams seem done by a child. The piece of Cambria has OBVIOUS color variations. No one suggested we should examine the slab. Not being pros, we assumed the sample we selected in store wwas an accurate representation. Not even close. Cambria agreed to send a field representative ( Shirah, SP?), whose first words were 'oh, yes, I see the problem". Then, called days later to say they would call the installer, but they weren't going to do anything to acquire a matching piece for us. No word still from Cambria, or installer. Please Cambria, you make a beautiful product, but your rep even acknowledged ours looks terrible. Do right by your clients!!!

I'm the one who commented on the large splotch of white on my island on Feb. 22, 2016. I also was not offered the chance to go pick my slab. I wish I had. I suggest you do so. Or pay 1/2 and finish paying after the installation. Fortunately, the island wasn't measured correctly. So the top wasn't quite large enough. I would've lived with it, but since the spot was there, too I had it replaced with the correct size. They came and replaced my island with a beautiful piece with no large pooling spots. It is very beautiful, and I'm happy they did the right thing. I'm very thankful they corrected the problem. On my other counters, they put in a seam and it is the best seam I've ever seen...or should I say, you can't see.

I'm a kitchen designer, and we have sold Cambria for years with zero problems whatsoever. Literally zero. I would blame the fabricator in this case. They should reject a slab that has that kind of defect.