Page 19 - Demo

Slippery rOck Gazette
Three Things I Wish Customers Knew About Natural Stone
OctOber 2020|19
First and foremost: A good job takes time.
ASa natural stone fabrica- tor and sculptor, I can appreciate the timeless beauty and durability that only a build- ing material like natural stone can provide. After all, I work with it every day (well, five to six days a week, but who’s counting?) and have done so for nearly thirty years now. I see the depth in the material, the luminosity, and the interplay of light refraction be- tween different minerals com- bining into one beautiful, unique form. Man has tried to copy Mother Nature’s beauty by arti- ficial means but has fallen short
every time.
Not so many years ago, it was this one-of-a-kind beauty that drove in new customers, primar- ily countertop buyers, and ex- panded the market exponentially, a market once reserved for public spaces and the super-rich. These days however, there seems to be a stone fabricator on every corner pushing the universal business
Joey Marcella
Photos Courtesy Mario and Son
www.marioandson.com
cry of “better, faster and cheaper” to the masses. Advances in ma- chinery, diamond tooling, mate- rial handling and software have allowed just about anyone with a little ambition to set up a shop in order to get in the fabrication game, and as a result, our cus- tomers seem less interested in the stone and more concerned about cost and schedule, ignoring the qualities of the product itself.
...Which leads me to the very first and most important thing I wish customers knew about nat- ural stone:
1: A good job takes time.
That doesn’t mean that a well- run and efficient shop can’t pro- duce a job very quickly. They can. But in the natural stone business, things can and do go wrong from
time to time. Machines break down unexpectedly, pieces break, employees call in sick, etc. and when the “finish line” doesn’t move, something’s got to give, and that something’s more likely going to be a compromise of qual- ity to meet a deadline. A deadline that in many cases is arbitrary, just simply set by the client be- cause they want their product.
My recommendation to con- sumers is to set clear expectations about schedule but communicate with your fabricator. If they need an extra day or two, be flexible.
In my shop, almost all jobs go in on schedule, but in a given week there are always one or two that I wish we had an extra day to work on for the sake of the client, not because we are running behind necessarily, but because the stone dictates it. There are so many new stones on the market, many we are fabricating for the first time.
2: Look beyond the color.
So many people choose a stone based on color alone. Yes, we all understand that it’s one part (and usually a substantial one) of a
design theme, but it’s important for the end user to understand that they are buying all the stone’s attributes, perceived flaws and all. When that “perfect” color is laying horizontal on a large is- land with an even larger picture window casting it’s reflection on it, revealing various natural pits, fissures, artificial resin fill spots, etc., the reality of natural stone will be front and center, and for many unsuspecting customers, a shocking and unwelcome surprise.
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