I considered doing that. I saw some really good deals on granite. Unfortunately, it was no longer such a good deal when they quoted me the price to do the cutting...it just wasn't worth it...It was very frustrating since I had thought I could get a good granite counter top for our bathroom for $100 or so. Didn't work out that way.

You *could* go to a stone yard - you know, where they sell huge slabs of granite. Our local stone yard has amazing remnants! You might get a better deal on the remnant and the cutting than if you went through a private party. But the cutting is still going to cost more than you'd like, probably.

This post was edited by gladys1924 on Sun, Jun 30, 13 at 18:30

Each area is different. Some areas like mine you can't find fabricators that don't work for stone yards. I had looked at granite on craigslist but couldn't find a fabricator.

Other areas fabricators work on their own.

Have you looked at remnants from stone yards? I got my vanity for about the same cost as laminate. We had to pick it up and install ourselves which was no issue.

I had seen an ad on CL re. Remnants. I went to the place and priced out apiece for a 30 in. vanity. With me supplying the sink, quote was 390 if they in stalled and 190 if it was DIY. Not exactly the deal it was portrayed in the ad. For that kind of $ , I could go to the big box stores.

For one of my vanities, I wanted to go somewhat inexpensive. I ended up finding a company that shipped custom solid surface counters. I don't know how their prices compare to the US, but they were much cheaper than what I could get in Canada (and I didn't have to drive 5h to drop off a template and later pick up the counters).

I got a 72" corian vanity top with 2 sinks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Solid Surface

The stone isn't the expensive part. You could get it for free and still have to pay the $30-$40 a square foot fabrication costs. It's actually cheaper to go to a fabricator who has a bone yard than it is to buy someone's scrap off of the internet. Most of the time, the stone's already been paid for, and all you are really paying for is the labor.