State of the Art Stone Fabrication

Stone is a natural product that contains indigenous characteristics. These characteristics make the stone what it is, unique and beautiful. A customer may find certain characteristics unacceptable and the stone fabricator will work hard to avoid including those characteristics during template layout and the fabrication process. A final inspection is made of the stone and the fabricator will mark the unacceptable areas before template layout begins.     

After the stone is inspected and marked, it is then laid out and the templates are then arranged on the stone to ensure the best appearance of vein texture and color. The templates are also arranged to ensure appropriate flow from one countertop to the next countertop in your layout. This is where an expert Templater is required and is key to ensure the balance between both workmanship and artistry. 

The stone is then cut using either a water jet or a bridge saw. The saw jet (combination water jet and saw) has become the preferred tool used by fabricators. It is a highly specialized machine that can be programmed with specific information regarding which parts need to be cut and determines where to use either the water jet and where to use the bridge saw, achieving higher productivity, precision and quality. 

The cutouts for your under mount sink, cook top, or holes for the faucets are all made during the fabricating phase. A highly trained operator and a specialized machine are programmed with the exact dimensions used to achieve the most accurate results. Once all the holes are cut, the edges are shaped by a CNC machine before the stone countertop is taken to the final polish phase. 

The stone face is not polished or changed during this step. The only areas that need polishing are the edges. The edges of the stone will go through a 7-step polishing process. The industry standard is to use diamond polishing pads of increasing grit from 50 to 3,000 to polish the edge. The CNC machine shapes and polishes at the same time, leaving the edge shaped and polished. Also during this stage, edges of the stone are ground to remove any micro-chipping to achieve the best and tightest seam possible. This gives you a finished product where the seam should fit nicely together.

Both the edges and face of the stone are sealed during this step. Since sealer doesn’t degrade in an interior setting (like your kitchen or bathroom) it is pretty much a set it and forget it step. You may want to re-apply sealer every year or every few years depending on the type of stone to protect your stone from various types of damage and wear and tear. 

The final step is to, again, inspect the stone. The stone fabricator will ensure the edges are uniform around all sides. Then they will review the stone from multiple angles to make sure the light is bouncing off the edges uniformly, and the color of the top of the stone and the edges match perfectly. After the final inspection and review is complete, the stone is then ready to be installed.