Our Process

The first step in your project is simply to get in touch with us and make an appointment with one of our friendly specialists to discuss your upcoming project.

Whether in person or by video chat, our friendly staff can give you a tour of our 4,000 square foot showroom with 14 full-size vignettes that will provide you with the ultimate design inspiration. You’ll enjoy a hands-on experience with our world class team guiding you through the process from start to finish.

While we have samples, full slabs, and inspirational displays for you to view, we do recommend that you bring your own ideas and inspiration as well. This could take the form of sharing  inspirational pictures, samples of your cabinets, tile, fabric and/or wall color…really anything that will help bring your design to life!

Our specialists will then explain all the options available for your project and make recommendations on the style of countertops that best match your unique requirements and achieve the overall design goal for your project.

While discussing your new countertops, we’ll also go over other options to consider upgrading during your project, including but not limited to sinks, faucets, and backsplashes.

To provide you with a project estimate we’ll just need a hand drawing/blueprint of your kitchen/bathroom cabinets for the project you are working on with accurate dimensions. If you feel like you’ll need help with this, we’ll send one of our knowledgeable technicians to your home to measure dimensions for you for free with no obligation.

Now it’s time to select the material that will soon become your new countertop! We’ll arrange an appointment with you to visit our on-site slab yard where we keep more than 65 different colors of slabs in inventory for you to pick the perfect slab for your brand new countertop.

Now we’re ready to start measuring your project space and create your project template!

Once you’ve finished making your material, edge, sink and stove selections, have returned your signed estimate and provided the required deposit, we’ll schedule a date to create your project template.

If you’re planning on keeping your existing tile backsplash, additional discussion may be needed prior to your template appointment. Since we cannot be sure if some areas of the counter might be higher or lower than the tile, keeping the existing tile makes it much harder for us to perform a quality installation and it takes much more time to template and install!

Things to remember for your template appointment:

• Please ensure that a primary decision maker is onsite during the template.
• Please ensure that all base cabinets are installed and secured prior to template.
• Please ensure that all areas the template person will use are clear from clutter and debris.
• Please ensure that all areas requiring measurements are clear of any items.
• Please ensure that any access information (locked gates, access codes, parking instructions, power supply issues, security alarm information etc.) have been communicated to your salesperson before the template appointment.
• Please ensure that children and pets are kept from the areas requiring measurements. Children and pets may be injured by equipment, or may accidentally knock the laser resulting in an inaccurate measurement. Additionally, excitable, or territorial pets may provide distractions that cause the template person to miss valuable information!

What to expect during your template appointment:

During your template appointment we’ll confirm your project details with you and check your existing cabinets to confirm they are level. If any issues are found regarding your cabinet levels, we’ll explain what options are available to address these. We can adjust our countertops during installation for cabinets that are less than 3/16th out of level, however, anything above the 3/16th threshold will require adjustments and may result in an additional cost. Absolute Stone will not install surfaces on cabinets more than 3/16th out of level as this is likely to result in damage to your counter, or cause the appearance of the final product to not meet our high quality standards.

During your template appointment, we’ll also discuss any overhangs on islands or bar areas, the required clearance and access needed for large counter pieces or islands, and the types of tiles and backsplashes that might be needed for your project.

While creating your project template, we’ll make note of any areas that may be damaged during installation including trim work or tile that may need to be cut for proper nesting of your countertop, and existing overhead or side cabinets. If any issues are found we’ll make sure to discuss these with you. Absolute Stone reserves the right to refuse to fabricate and install any project where customer preferences concerning the items noted above will prevent us from installing the product in a manner that our experience dictates will produce the best results. We will return your deposit in this instance, as long as there are no restocking fees associated with special order material.

Once we’ve confirmed the project details with you for the template area, we’ll then take accurate measurements of the project area using our laser template system.

After measurements are taken, we’ll then summarize all the information with you before leaving and may ask you to sign off on any special items required. Please note that changes to any project details are not permitted after the template appointment.

Finally, your template measurements will then be processed by our drawing department who will create a final layout drawing for your approval. Once you’ve checked dimensions and details thoroughly and are happy to approve, we’ll then move on to installation!

Now it’s time to install your dream countertops and make your kitchen or bathroom look fabulous!

One of our friendly team members will be in touch to schedule your installation appointment and we’ll ensure to confirm your appointment the day before your planned installation.

Things to remember for your installation appointment:

• Please ensure you have a primary decision maker onsite during the installation.
• Please ensure that any access information (locked gates, access codes, parking instructions, power supply issues, security alarm information etc.) have been communicated to your salesperson.
• Please assist our installation team in finding the easiest entry route to install areas. Mud, snow, and ice on driveways, sidewalks and stairways can produce unsafe conditions and your install will need to be rescheduled if these areas are too cluttered or unsafe for installers carrying heavy loads.
• Please ensure all travel areas the installation team will use are clear from clutter and debris. Natural Stone can weigh several hundred pounds and any clutter or debris in the travel and install areas might result in injury to people or damage to property.
• Please ensure that any items underneath sinks are removed
• Please ensure that all children and pets are kept from install areas. Children and pets may be injured by equipment or the surfaces. Additionally, excitable, or territorial pets may provide distractions and obstacles to the install team.
• Please note that gas to appliances will have to be disconnected before install. We do not reconnect electrical or plumbing systems and would recommend that you schedule to have any reconnections made after the install is complete.
• Please have any items such as faucets and soap dispensers ready and available.

What to expect during your installation appointment:

• Please note that Epoxy, Silicone, and other adhesives and chemicals are used in the installation process and our installation team may need to open windows or doors to adequately ventilate the space during installation.
• If any small adjustments are needed to be made to your countertops, our installation team may need to cut and polish countertop materials onsite.
• Our installation team may need to drill holes during your installation appointment. Please make sure to go over any concerns about placement of any drilled holes prior to the installers beginning to drill. Sometimes issues can arise due to the space available for faucet placement that may require a change of faucet, or a change of placement.
• If our installation team decides that adjustments are needed for any material that cannot be made on site, they will need to bring the piece to our shop. We will always strive to make these adjustments the same day, however, in some cases we may need to come back out another day to complete the installation of that piece. We will do our best to minimize any disruptions to your schedule if such an event occurs.
• Finally, enjoy your beautiful new surface and recommend Absolute Stone to family, friends, and post on social media. We love to take pictures of our work and may ask you to allow us to post pictures of your beautiful new surface!