I put in two or three countertops a month, but have always (wisely, I think) left the granite to those who work with thick slabs of stone everyday.
Yesterday I spoke with a customer who wants to know if I would consider installing granite they are ordering from DIYgranite.com. Anyone have experience with it. The company claim to make it “easy” to do-it-yourself.
I’m still wondering. I have diamond blades for some of my saws/grinders and the company is supposed to supply tools too. I have seen the granite guys save the dust from cutting and grinding to use in epoxy seams. Any other feedback or tips would be great.
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I built a house last year for a guy who ordered his granite countertops over the internet. I don't know if it was the same outfit you're referring to.
The pieces came polished and bullnosed and were pretty decent, but a miter cut had to be made on site to form an ell, along with a cooktop and sink cut out.
The granite was shipped with instructions and some clamping and alignment tools.
The illustrations on the instructions were very poorly hand-drawn and the written portion was incomprehensible. I've never seen anything so bad, and the HO and I were amused at the little copyright symbol posted on the instruction sheet. (It was, honestly, the only clearly legible thing on the sheet).
The HO finally had to hire a local granite guy to do the install and ended up saving nada.
If you dont foresee the problem in post 2, just put it in and charge a lot.
Now you are a granite guy.
Oh and ahh wear your mask.
-zen
Thank you, but I told them I'm not really a granite guy...I basically said, "hire me for this one at your own risk." But a granite guy on another job did pay me a compliment this week. He said that the base cabinets I set were perfectly level, square, and secure. It was the first time he didn't have to shim or reinforce something in a long time > : ) He just set the slabs and walked away. Maybe he'll bail me out if I get in over my head.I'll wear a mask for sure. I may make a plumbers putty moat around my cut lines and fill the cut area with water to keep my blade cool and keep some of the dust down. I love playing with electricity and water.
i'm sure not a granite pro,but i did my own and found it wasn't rocket science. i used a diamond blade in my circular saw [dry]. worked pretty good for 12.00.use to cut sink hole,did a 45degree in corner,then used a grinder to rough grind a radius for the sink [used a 4" diamond blade in grinder]. to finish the edge i bought some diamond pads that go on a 4" grinder on ebay 3.00 a pc,last a longgggg time, i bought about 6 different grades from 50 grit -2000 grit. i bought 3 slabs,only needed 2,3rd one broke in pcs. it's called learning curve,i wouldn't mess with 2cm again.you might look at buying slabs [about 600 per slab]and having them cut by a machine shop with a water jet, really slick way to do it,can cut curves whatever.you might look at one of those water circular saws at hd for 80.00 instead of feeding electricity and water together.before long you'll be doing nutin but granite. larryhand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
Thanks for the tips. I just might give it a try. I'll have the HO get a quote from the local granite guy too (the one who said nice things about me, he's good and relatively inexpensive). I'm OK with loosing this one, but it would be a paid education. I used to stay away from tile, but now I ain't skeer'd of tile.I'll just think of the granite as very large, very heavy tiles <g>.
thats it ,it's just a 5'x9' tile and if it breaks-you have a lot of 12"x12" tile. i took my broken slab and cut fireplace hearth,mantle,top trim pcs for the stairway post,even put a few in the backsplash area,none of which could have happened if i hadn't been lucky enough to have broke the slab! hence my sign on name. if you do cut the sink hole in place,less risk of snapping tha little 2" pc in front of sink,lay 2x4's tight under neath it so that when you get to the last few inches of the cut it doesn't want to hang down. i actcually went ahed when i set the top and put a little silicone between the 2 so it was secure. have fun larryhand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
This will be a "U" shaped counter, but this company uses 90 degree butt joints with slabs already cut to size, instead of 45 degree miters to be cut on site. I would have to do the sink cut out (drop-in) and cooktop cut out. I might need a diamond hole saw to cut the radiused corners for the sink cut out or some other magic trick I am unaware of. I have not made any promises yet, next dicussion will be on Friday.