Okay. Last year I was quoted $55 sq ft from one place on Carerra. And promised 30% off. That person is no longer with the company, but they said they would honor whatever he promised.

Got the quote last nite. Wrote to them immediately, including the original guy's email, about the 30% off.

He wrote back that they took off 10 and that he would take an additional 10% off (the already marked down price). Not what I had in mind!

I may have found a better place. They say they can beat the price by at least $1k and he is calling around pricing stone.

BUT...The unacceptable quote I got was for $8,435.95 on 100 sq feet of tops. I am really shooting for a quote more around $5-6k.

Will keep you posted!

The truth is there are not a lot of remodels going on now. The second guy did tell me that if I went with granite--which they have a lot of--he could price it better. I think it depends on what they have sitting in their stone yard and how flexible you are in your choice.

It all makes sense. Supply dictates price. But why does it seem as if Carrara is in limited supply? One place even told me that 3mm carrara didn't even exhist. What?? I had already seen it and knew it did.

The slab we looked at is gorgeous but has some pitting in the honed surface. I wasn't sure if I should let it worry me. I can't say that the pits bothered me all that much. Especially since I know that with time, I will have caused my own pits. It's a large slab so it would allow us to not have any seams.

Earlier this morning, we had decided to pass on it. But after speaking with my DH again (I was very sad), he told me to go ahead but try and get the price down.

$8500 would have given my DH a heart attack... literally!
We've been quoted $3100 for about 45 sq ft, on that particular slab. I would love to negotiate the price down a few hundred dollars. To the best of my knowledge, they only had 2 slabs of this size. Both slabs have this pitting. Can I try and use that for negotiating?

I would totally use it for negotiating! Use whatever you can.The price to sq footage you have been priced comes to $68 a square foot. I am assuming you are in the Chicago area, which would be more expensive than where I am in North Central Florida. But that still seems high for carrera.

What I am finding out in my research is that carerra is the most common and least expensive marble. Apparently, there is no lack of supply.

However, most granite fabricators don't use it a lot so they don't have it lying around. This kind of sucks in terms of being able to pick out a slab.

I have talked to three places so far and they all are offering carrera at $55 sq/ft and then we are negotiating down from there.

The problem I am running into is that honed will cost more than polished. Like, a lot more.

And it never hurts to ask, right? If they won't come down on the price, see if they'll throw in some extras for free. Maybe they'll give you an upgrade on the edging, or you could ask to have a couple of cut-outs or scraps finished on the edges. (You could use them for pastry boards, shelves, etc. One GWer did a niche with a marble shelf behind the stove top. Looks awesome!)

As far as the granite goes, I've looked at several yards and found slabs I think I can use (they're cracked down the middle) on sale for $300 each. I'm going to meet my fabricator there to see if they'll be possible. If not, my fabricator gets discounted prices at a couple of other yards. It's my experience that granite yards will give much better prices to fabricators than they will to a homeowner who's wandered in off the street. The variation is about $5/square foot on the relatively inexpensive granite I've chosen.

Lessons learned:

1. Fabrication costs are highly negotiable
2. Have your fabricator contact the granite/marble yards for a price; they can often do better than what you'll get on your own.

I feel like such a champ!

And place number two comes has a very good reputation.

Good luck, Chicagoans! Hope you get some good deals.

In my situation I told the fabricator I could only spend XX
and he searched for slabs that he could afford
so that he could still make a profit and I did not have
to go over budget. How did I come up with the price?
I met with 6 different installers/fabricators.
After that I chose the one with a good repuation and
the fact he was willing to work with me to bring the price
down was awesome.

In this economy you can do it. You can get a better
price. It never hurts to ask.
~boxer

I found this site for marble, and there is a price view for each type of marble.
I have not ordered from them and I am not plugging them; I'm just amazed at the price difference. Are they maybe quoting tile and not slabs?? Under 20K sq. ft....doesn't compare to what is quoted here.

I tried getting a hold of her yesterday and didn't hear back until late. I will call her tomorrow, when she is back in. If I wasn't attached to the slab, I would continue to price other fabricators. She said she is holding the slab until monday since we didn't get a chance to touchbase yesterday.

Thanks for all your input. I really appreciate it.

Wallycat.....looks like Ann is quoting 15 x 15 tiles...which makes sense since it is a tile company. The prices for that don't seem outrageous, considering how high end the company is, and I am sure their quality is great.

Thank you for the advice everyone!

Any idea of current honed Carrera price range per sf price for < 50 sf w 3 cm edge? I think it may allow one large slab.

If you have done any recent searches and install, would you share your experience in our area? Did you find any yard or fabricator that you especially liked in this process?

Thank you very much.

Edit: the Carrara was priced about the same as the marble we chose, maybe a bit less. We told them our budget and they showed us the Venato and the Carrara.