Granite counter top blanks

[Paddy]

Any one buy granite counter top blanks and DIY? Blanks are standard counter top width with edging in standard lengths. Our new kitchen has no corners so for me, just cut to length.

Patrick t

 

[jcims]

Any one buy granite counter top blanks and DIY? Blanks are standard counter top width with edging in standard lengths. Our new kitchen has no corners so for me, just cut to length.

Patrick t

Will you have to join any pieces or just cut and install? The joints look like they might take a bit of experience to do correctly. As far as cutting goes, I'd say that's a DIY kind of job for just about anybody that's willing to do a little homework, but you're obviously going to want to get the best blade for the material and dig around for some tips on cutting it without cracking/flaking/etc.

You'll also want to have some shims handy just in case, and of course figure out how you're going to fasten it to the counter. Seems like all they did for ours was lay a bead of silicone around the inside perimeter of the counter top and let gravity do the rest. We had planned on 'upgrading' to granite later, but ended up getting a sweet deal that was only about 30% more than laminate. The island took a full 4x8 sheet (minus a small sink cutout), that took six big boys and everything they had to get it in and down without wrecking something. Sad thing was there was a big scratch along the surface, so they had to come and replace it... :confused2:

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Any one buy granite counter top blanks and DIY? Blanks are standard counter top width with edging in standard lengths. Our new kitchen has no corners so for me, just cut to length.

Patrick t

You can make a cardboard template of your countertop and some granite shops will cut it out and bullnose the edge for you carryout.

You can go to a piece of granite and do all the cutting yourself if you're interested. Granite Tools specializes in countertop and memorial tools and products. You can buy blades and polishing pads to do it all yourself.

Here in north Texas we have multiple granite sales where you can buy granite and marble. There are also vendors of tools for the granite shops.

If your pieces are small some granite shops will allow you to go through their cut offs. You can get them at a discount and then do it all yourself.

Somewhere here on TBN is some pictures of me making some iron tables with granite tops that I got as cut offs. I cut them to fit and then had the granite shop bullnose and polish them for me.

 

[Paddy]

I need 4 pc that are retangular. No joints. All sections are under 7' long. I have cut large slabs of marble and small pc of granite. I just throw a diamond blade of my table saw. Wife sprays water via a garden sprayer. I have found if you need good edge, you cut the slab several inches long. Then if you get a crack at the end, trim off the last inch or two. The weight is gone so better as a final cut.

Now I'm looking for a souce for blanks, if anyone knows of one?

Patrick t

 

[clemsonfor]

Around here you can get granite installed for $24sq/ft this is material and labor of course.

 

[BruceWard]

Around here you can get granite installed for $24sq/ft this is material and labor of course.

Where are you located? Great price!

 

[clemsonfor]

this is in the SC/GA area. I live in Greenwood SC. We are 45 MIns above Augusta, GA, and about 45 mins away from Elberton, GA, the self proclaimed granite capital of the world. There is some crazy amout of granite quarries in around this town of several thousand. They make something like half of all the headsones in America, maybe of by 10% either way. They sell some exotic like South american granite at that price to not just grey local granite. I have seen this price all the way into NC as well advertised on billboards. A guy i worked with actually got their kitchen done at this price and the work was top notch and they paid about $2,500 and their kitchen is my size 100ish square feet.

The guy told him that if someone trys to sell you granite by the linier foot they either dont know what there doing or there trying to screw you. He said granite is sold by the sq/ft. I always thought counter was linier foot? formica tops are still this way i think.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I need 4 pc that are retangular. No joints. All sections are under 7' long. I have cut large slabs of marble and small pc of granite. I just throw a diamond blade of my table saw. Wife sprays water via a garden sprayer. I have found if you need good edge, you cut the slab several inches long. Then if you get a crack at the end, trim off the last inch or two. The weight is gone so better as a final cut.

Now I'm looking for a souce for blanks, if anyone knows of one?

Patrick t

Google "granite slabs" or something like it. Any granite shop will sell you pieces of granite.

What's interesting is when you need four pieces under seven foot long the first thing that comes to mind is how you're going to match up the patterns etc. Professionals make their cuts to match countertop and back splash. They also do their cuts so that the pattern continues through piece to piece.

Of course that kind of detail isn't really noticed by the average person unless it's not there.

 

[dfkrug]

Any one buy granite counter top blanks and DIY?

I did it myself when I built my house back in the 90s. It was very
rewarding and not hard at all.

I bought 3 pieces of pre-bullnosed granite for my U-shaped kitchen. I
bought a 6x3 piece, bullnosed on 3 sides for a peninsula, one piece
6x2 with 2 bullnosed sides, and one 6x2 with one bullnosed side. All for
$600, or about $14/sf. My color choice was mid-range; pink was less,
blue was more. I also got matching 12x12 tiles for the backsplash. You
can get even better deals now, if you are close to a port.

I made a lumber A-frame for my PU to haul the pieces from the warehouse,
then set them on 2x4 boards on my driveway, where I cut all my seams,
and my 2 corner miters.

I cut the seams using a 9.6V Makita 3 3/8" circular saw with ultra-thin
kerf diamond blade. I used a straight edge, clamps and the garden hose for
a continuous stream of water. The cuts were much more accurate than
ones I did with a dry diamond blade on my 7 1/4" saw.

I cut off the corners in 2 places and ground and polished 2 custom
bullnoses using a diamond blade and a set of diamond polishing pads from
HF tools.

I cut my sink hole (for top-mount sink) on the cabinets dry to avoid
breaking it. That was a rough hole cut with an angle grinder and $15
diamond blade.

 

[Paddy]

Harv,

Matching section to secion is not very critical. It just happens all tops are seperated by cabinets, double oven or the stove top. If I had to do but or corner joints, I would not tackle this.

I will have to polish a few ends though.

I have searched on line for slabs. I get many random installers around the country. Or, China exporters selling full containers!

Two promissing sites so far are; Findstone.com and Build Direct. I've got time but you'd think this would be common product.

Thanks for all the replies.

Patrick T