We just had ours templating done yesterday so things are still fresh in my mind. There were alot more things to decide than I realized. How much overhang do you want? What kind of edges? Build up around the sink? Is your sink on-site? Undermount/surface mount? Is your faucet on-site? How many holes and where? What kind of reveal around the sink? Backsplash or no? If backsplash, how much? Continue the same edge radius around the sink cut-out or something different? Are you doing any kind of overhang and if so, how deep and do you need support under it?

There might be more but that's what I'm thinking of as of right now.

Mags438:

You've already done the most important thing to make a smooth installation - picked your fabricator/installer.

Send a copy of the stove manufacturer's installation instructions to your fabricator. Tell them to make any openings meet these specifications and that if they do and the appliance still doesn't fit, you will pay them for any additional work required.

I always liked having cooktops on site so I could check them myself. I had a customer call back that his stove wouldn't fit in the opening I'd just made. I drove back, adjusted the feet, and it fit perfectly. He was trying to put a parallelogram into a square opening. He felt foolish and of course I couldn't charge for the extra trip he created.

I agree with all the input provided above. I don't know if these additional points are relevant to your install, but they were important to my husband and me for our recent successful (whew) granite counters install. Ours was a remodel, not a new build. Will there be seams? If so, are you and the fabricator in agreement about where they are going to be placed. If there are 2 pieces meeting in a corner, will there be 45 degree seam or 2 pieces butted up against each other? Will you go to the fabricator and oversee/ sign off on the placement of the templates on the granite? If they are installing an undermount sink, are they providing a harness? If you purchased the slabs outright, who owns any remnants (assuming you'd even want any). If you are paying for the job based on square footage and not full slabs, it's not an issue.

We just had our counters installed last week. I was very specific to what I wanted-sent him a couple of pictures as well.

I was clear to point out edge (just eased so that was simple), overhang, what part of the stone I wanted from the slab - he marked it with some sort of pen, where the holes would be for faucet, air switch and soap dispenser. He did provide input and we had a conversation over the hole placement, what would be best for spread distance. He offered his thoughts on it and why and I took them into consideration and ended up a little tighter than I was thinking since our sink is in the island.

As OCD as that may seem, my fabricator was actually appreciative that I spelled it out so there was nothing left to question and he knew what I wanted. He said the more vague or 'whatever you want' customers are it's tough sometimes because they can be the ones that once finished they decide they don't like this or that and in the end he wants a happy customer that has what they envisioned.

Ours went very smoothly. My biggest concern the day of was that for some reason they were going to drop it carrying it in. Our driveway isn't in yet and they had to carry that heavy beast through sand. :( All is well though.

Good luck.

Picking the right fabricator is more than 90% of getting a good install. Look at their past work and talk to their references.

Good point sjhockey fan. There are a lot of disappointed posters who have been surprised by that end result. We wanted the 45 degree and ideally would have purchased book-matched slabs, but it would have forced us to purchase a third slab and we just couldn't justify the cost or find a use for so much leftover product. Luckily our Typhoon Bordeaux has a lot of movement in various directions, so the pattern actually swirls in the corner .....like a mini typhoon. Off topic..... Is that Sharks hockey? If so..... You made it farther than us. Coyotes here.

That is Sharks hockey! (and I had Crema Bordeaux in my previous home, so I know what you mean about swirly!). Too bad for both of us, hockey-wise :-(

Also make sure they template the wall. It seems that people are disappointed because their walls aren't straight and that makes the stone look wonky. The choices are to fix the walls or cut the stone to fit, i.e., "scribe it in".

Unfortunately, I didn't "pick" the fabricator. I bought a harder soapstone elsewhere, supplier and fabricator have a relationship. Things happened so quickly, next thing I knew, stone was at local fabricator. Fabricator has expressed limited experience in harder soapstone. Supplier says fabricator will do a great job. .

So I'm trying to collect as much info as possible.

The biggest thing with inexperienced soapstone fabbers is that they tend to want to over polish it. Soapstone shouldn't be shiny.

Once our counters were templated, the fabricator sent us a drawing showing dimensions, edge type, seam location. We signed off on the drawing and our install went very smoothly. I guess a picture (drawing) is worth a 1000 words.

Thanks for all the great input. Countertop being templated now, so it was good to review these posts. Anne thanks for reminder on looking at layout; I'm a visual person. I can't go to shop to look at layout but they will email me the layout.

My thread below might help -

Here is a link that might be useful: what to check for when your stone counters get installed

I had a fantastic install today. Thanks feisty, I read it before each fabricator visit (I don't seem to retain too much info sometimes). I had to force myself to leave the room so I wouldn't be hanging over them. I'd just pop in when they went back out to the their truck...then I kinda relaxed. Attached is a photo of their detail work. Soapstone was scribed around some window trim, no filler or caulk.

Mags438:

That is excellent scribe work, but not how I would have done it. I would have cut the casing and slid the soapstone underneath.

I know treb...customer request, what can I say. They prolly honored my request to show me their skillset. :-). (Sometimes, after the fact I think -what were you thinking??). My DH talked with cab ppl about cutting out the window casing to fit cab; I spoke to countertop ppl about installing countertop - DH and I never spoke to EACH OTHER about it. Haha. Happens when there's 2 ppl making decisions.

Thank you also for your posts on what to look for and some things to do - these were taken from different slabs that didn't adjoin

Fabricator due in 8 minutes. Just reviewing this and a few other threads! Thanks all.