Around these parts counters are priced by the square foot so you don't have rights to leftovers if any (nor do you pay extra if they need another slab- the place I use will often order in an extra if the fit is close especially if there is a lot of movement- just in case)

In some places folks buy slabs at a yard and then pay a fabricator- in that case the leftovers are yours- or should be.

I haven't run into a situation where the fabricator charges by the slab but suppose that is another possible- in that case you should have rights to the remnants.

We bought full slabs and could have kept the remnants, but except for what we used (we made the kitchen counters and one bath vanity out of the two slabs we bought), we didn't want them. Some fabricators charge by the square foot though, and in that case, the remnants would be theirs (Fab B is wrong on this). Just look at the total price and quality of fabrication. If you want the remnants, factor that in, if you don't, it's irrelevant.

I bought a slab. The fabricator said the remnant was mine (but I didn't have to take it). Other places charged by the foot. The fabrication business is really weird--there don't seem to be any standard procedures and it's hard to comparison shop.

Yeah I have a big unwieldy chunk of marble leaning up against my shed. Clever me. Now I have to work out a way to get it into my new kitchen (did I mention I had to lug the thing when I moved?).

I asked to keep the extra large piece, from the 4 slab job..not big enough for a powder room counter...but maybe an outdoor table top? They had a HUGE area outside the shop with left over pieces and offered I could take pieces if I wanted more. We chose 3. I found one place that donates to the local Restore. I purchased a 6' X 12" piece for a fireplace mantle for $4.....yep! DIY project & it looks great!

When I decided which fabricator to use I figured the price per square foot.....

I would take the promise to keep remnants for you to use within 6 months with a grain of salt. It may work, but accidents can crack or damage them (shuffling through the remnants to get those for another customer out) or mistakes can happen. Sometimes there can be fabrication issues that eat into the remnants too.

We had our fabricator deliver all the usable (i.e. anything much more than pebble size) remnants to us. The sink cut outs and one cut out from a 3 gang switch we sent to Columbia Gorge Stone works to use to fabricate our wall plates.

The rest we stored in the garage carefully restrained by bungee cords on the garage wall. When we redid the family room end of the area, we used the biggest remaining pieces for the fireplace surround.

Our stone, Azul do Mar quartzite, would have been hard to match so I'm glad we kept the remnants. However remnants are quite heavy so careless handling or one just leaned against a wall slipping can be dangerous. So if you are going to keep them yourself, think about whether you can store and move them safely.

We used black granite from a prefab counter piece for the hearth and I would have let the fabricator keep the remnants since the thing cost about $10 per square foot. But DH who spent time finding the most pure plain black piece he could wanted to keep the remnants so we now have just about as much stone in the garage as before doing the fireplace.

Unless you are planning something where you are pretty likely to want to use the remnants, it might be best to choose first on quality of fabrication and cost rather than which one lets you keep the leftovers.

In my case, I found the slabs at the stone yard and the fabricator I chose purchased them (as is very common, stone yard does not sell to general public). My fabricator charged by the square foot to cover all aspects of the fabrication and installation, but the entire cost of the granite was included in my quote and I could do as I pleased with any remnants.

The quotes were itemized and they very readily provided me with a line item cost for the slabs. That helped because I could see the other fabricator was quite a bit higher on price because they were charging me significantly more for the stone. In your case, they just have a different pricing methodology. For Fabricator B to say it's "ridiculous" .....could be ignorance, arrogance, who knows? But I wouldn't fixate on it. Sjhockey said it well....just focus on the quality and the bottom line price.

As other posters have said, be careful what you wish for with remnants. They weigh a ton, difficult to store. There have been threads in the past discussing what to do with remnants. Our fabricator provided a cheese board (made from sink cut out remnant). We also paid extra to have a circle cut out of remnant that my husband turned into a nice lazy susan. The rest we told them to dispose of as they liked.

We do both.

Our Group A granites, which are the commonly available and inexpensive ones, are sold by just the square footage used in the kitchen. If it takes 90 square feet in 2 slabs to do your 60 square foot kitchen, the leftovers aren't yours. Those are kept to do vanities and other small jobs.

For any of the upgraded granites, that 2 slab purchase means that the leftover 30 square feet is yours. To deal with the headache (or foot break!) of storage. They will store it at the slab yard for a few months, but if your project is down the pike a bit, you need to get it out of there. And if you can't deal with moving it around by yourself, it doesn't do you much good unless you already have a specific purpose in mind for the extra.

HOW they price your job is not nearly as important as the QUALITY of the work that they do on your job.

Here we found the straight square foot thing at big box stores. With independent fabricators, you buy the slab(s) you need. I didn't ask about the extras because I'm not concerned about them. If, after templating, it looks like there is anything reasonable extra, I'll check. We'll do two baths at some point down the line and if the extras can be used, we'll think about it.

For me, it worked out about the same price-wise to do it either way for the area I REALLY wanted done in granite. But there are two odd areas in my kitchen that I'd consider something less expensive for. By going with the independent fabricator, we've got plenty of extra granite for those areas, so the cost will only be for fabrication. We'll likely do one or both in the granite.

In the bathroom we used the leftover for a floor saddle. Looks really nice.

I am a fabricator.

We do it both ways. If the customer selects from our inventory then they are only paying for whats used on their job plus a standard waste allowance.

If the customer picks slabs at a slab supplier then their job is priced including however many full slabs are required. In this case the customer can have the remnants if they want.
What they usually find is that large unfinished pieces of granite are of little value.

Their remnants are of no value to me since I have a couple thousand remnants already. The only exception is when the customer picks a color I KNOW I can move quickly as a remnant like 3CM White Carerra. In that case I will give the customer an allowance for their remnant(s).

My experience is pretty much what fabricator 2 told you. We bought our soapstone from a stoneyard but all pricing was through the fabricator. The leftovers were not mine. In fact, when we'd been shopping family members were also looking for soapstone for countertops. We asked about perhaps buying 3 slabs to split between the two of us rather than having each of us buy a full two slabs when 1 1/2 each house would do, but we were told this was not a possibility since we were using different fabricators (I'd selected my fabricator based on reputation/quality) and the other family member didn't have a choice as to fabricator because their general contractor arranged the fabricator. (My countertops did turn out better because the workmanship was better.)

Hi all,
I thought I posted a reply yesterday but don't see it - so just wanted to say thank you for all of the responses!

I agree - quality of work is most important. The only reason we were thinking of storing the granite was we may add an island one the cabinets are installed and the wall is knocked down. I won't be able to get this same granite so that was a consideration.

I think we made up our mind about the fabricator - I so appreciate everyone's input! thanks again.

There's a big remnant sitting in my garage, waiting for the next remodeling project.

I purchased a full slab of quartzite (natural stone) for my kitchen remodel, but needed only about 2/3 of the slab for my kitchen countertops. My fabricator gave me a choice of letting him keep the remnant (he has a full yard of remnants) or of bringing me the remnant and storing it in my garage (no extra charge for delivery).

I'm planning to use the quartzite remnant for two upcoming projects.

I purchased a remnant of marble (the one "bargain" in my kitchen remodel) from my fabricator for a baking center in my kitchen. The fabricator considers the remnants to be his "tip" since he can sell them.