Swirled with color and nature's own designs, these huge slabs, wrested from the earth, have become the gleaming, preferred surfaces in modern, upscale homes.
By JUDY STARK
Published July 26, 2003
[Times photos: Brendan Fitterer]
The finished product, a granite countertop, is on display in the showroom of Leverette Home Design Center.
Chris Balatsos makes a cut in a granite countertop with a rail saw equipped with laser sights, four motors and a water-cooled diamond carbide blade at Leverette Home Design Center in Port Richey. Brazil, China and India are major suppliers of granite.
The diamond carbide blade that cuts through granite must be replaced monthly at a cost of $400.
Slabs of granite.
That shiny granite kitchen countertop, the surface of choice in most upscale homes these days, started out as a slab of stone in a quarry, most likely in Brazil, China or India.
Granite is blasted out of the earth with an expanding chemical mixture that is injected into holes drilled in the rock. Huge blocks of stone weighing 20 to 30 tons each are sliced with saws into inch-thick slabs about 10 feet long. They're polished, then loaded onto container ships. Florida-bound granite typically enters at the port of Miami.
From there the stones are distributed to slab yards, where you, the consumer, may first make the acquaintance of the slab that will become your countertop.
"It's a custom job, start to finish," Rosi Lehr of Leverette Home Design Center in Port Richey said as she led a tour of the slab yard in Port Richey recently. The center also carries high-end kitchen appliances, cabinetry and accessories. "We encourage people to be involved as much as possible."
Granite is formed when sediment (made of crystallized minerals) is heated and cooled under extreme pressure. That process gives granite its unique colors, patterns and veining.
No two slabs are identical, and within the same slab the color may range from light to dark, and the pattern may be uniform or may expand into a larger, varied grain.
That's why it's hard to pick a granite from a small sample, and why buyers like to examine the slabs and make sure they like what they see on the full slab. It is, after all, "a lifetime purchase," Lehr said. The pale pink you like at the left side of the slab may turn into coral at the other side. The subtle veins may morph into thick, prominent lines across the surface. A tight grain may loosen up on the face of the stone.
Some buyers come to the yard already knowing the color or pattern they're looking for. Visit granite retailers' Web sites and you'll see samples with names that are fairly consistent throughout the industry. If Leverette doesn't have what a customer wants, it can probably find it at a slab yard in Tampa, Orlando or Miami.
The slabs of granite come in two thicknesses, Lehr said: 2 centimeters (3/4 inch), typically used for bathrooms, entertainment units or fireplaces; and 3 centimeters (about 11/4 inches), a heftier look most often used in kitchens. It's a matter of appearance and aesthetics, Lehr said, not wear. Granite is the second-hardest substance known, right after diamonds.
An edge can be laminated onto a slab "to bulk it up," giving an illusion of greater thickness, Lehr said.
When customers come to the yard to select their granite, "we encourage them to bring samples of their cabinets, their flooring, their fabrics, their paint," she said, to make sure everything will work well together.
Once customers have signed off on their slab, an employee will go to the home to take detailed measurements and create a template out of plywood that shows the exact specifications to which the slab will be cut.
Customers will indicate whether they want a 4-inch backsplash or one that rises to the bottom of the upper cabinets. Will they have an overmount sink (with an edge that covers the cutout hole) or an undermount sink (mounted under the countertop with no edge showing)? They can choose a decorative edge, such as a bullnose, ogee, or beveled; or may select a standard flat edge; and can indicate where they want rounded corners.
Back at the Leverette fabricating shop, a few blocks from the showroom and slab yard, workers cut the slab to size and shape according to the template using a diamond blade cooled by water. The decorative edge is routed out. The stone is polished. Cutouts to drop in a sink or cooktop may be carved out here or on-site.
The process may take as little as two or three days, or up to seven working days, depending on the size of the job and the elaborateness of the specifications.
Three or four workers are required to install a granite countertop. Granite weighs a minimum of 160 pounds per cubic foot, the Marble Institute of America says. Workers use epoxy to glue the seams and an industrial adhesive such as Liquid Nails to fasten the countertop to the base cabinets.
Granite prices begin at $45 per square foot, installed, for 2-centimeter slabs, Lehr said, about the same as solid surfaces such as Corian. (Thicker slabs and cutouts, edges and other special treatments will raise the price.) Granite is more expensive than laminates such as Formica, which typically start around $18 installed per linear foot (12 inches long by 25 inches deep) for a square-edged countertop with a separate backsplash.
Laminate and solid-surface manufacturers offer patterns that resemble granite, a testimony to its desirability. Engineered stone, such as DuPont's Zodiaq, is made of quartz, resin and pigment to resemble granite, but has a more uniform appearance. It starts around $50 a square foot, installed.
Granite must be sealed annually with a penetrating sealer to protect it from liquids or grease. It will chip "only in cases of severe abuse with a hammer or impact tool," the All Granite and Marble Co. of Ridgefield Park, N.J., says on its Web site (www.allgraniteandmarble.com) As a hard substance itself, it's unforgiving when fragile items such as glasses or plates are dropped on it. It will dull knives, so homeowners should cut on a board, not on the granite surface. It's okay to place hot pots directly on the surface.
Stones and solid surfaces are the countertop of choice in homes priced at $350,000 and up, said Gopal Ahluwalia, who compiles statistics on homes for the National Association of Home Builders. "You're looking at the upscale market," he said. "It's not in the average home. The average homeowner wants it, but no."
Ahluwalia theorizes that granite's popularity derives from an effort by consumers to keep up with their neighbors. "In focus groups we ask, and the answer is, "Our friend or relative had it,' " he said.
Granite is the most widely used kitchen countertop material, according to the National Kitchen and Bath Association.
"In three years, we haven't done solid surface in a kitchen: only stone," said Daniel E. Ashline, a Pinellas County remodeler whose company bears his name.
"About 95 percent of our business is granite," said Sharon Armstrong of Armstrong's Kitchen & Bath Ideas in St. Petersburg. Clients "see it, they see it in the magazines, they see it in other people's homes. They want something that's lasting and won't scratch. People are very attracted to it."
Sometimes clients choose two granites, she said: a solid tone on the wall, a contrasting color on the counters or island. The highly polished, reflective look of granite is popular, but some clients are requesting honed granite, which has a matte look "that doesn't show fingerprints and everything that reflective, polished granite does. If they want the softer tones of a soft limestone or soapstone, they can get this in a very similar look but still have the good characteristics of granite."
- Information from allgraniteandmarble.com, marblecityca.com, This Old House magazine, Consumer Reports and the Marble Institute of America was used in this report.
Granite facts
Granite is a growth industry. Total production of ornamental stone (including granite, marble, limestone and slate) rose from 21.7-million tons in 1986 to 62.4-million tons in 2000, an increase of almost 300 percent in 14 years, according to the Ornamental and Dimensional Stone Network.
