Large jobs equate to slabs of material required, where small projects like bars, vanities, table tops are typically fabricated using remnants. This is a way to save money as remnants are more cost effective in the majority of cases and the smaller the more relevant it is to use remnants.
So savings is the plus, the negative is you are relegated to selecting from available inventory at the particular fabricator.
The policy on remnant inventory is – it’s there for us to fabricate, not to sell to other fabricators or direct to clients in raw form. The really small projects ore often “Fabricate only”. In those instances the fabricator is not going to send someone to measure, and then run a crew out to install.
The pre-production drawing with precise dimensions is the responsibility of the client, and must be produced on a provided document and signed. Finalization includes payment in full – up front (by check to avoid the credit card fee pass through of 3% added to the total)
Clients are called on completion for pick up in 3-4 weeks.
When you finalize the order, we need 1 of 2 things – your choice.
A fabricator provided and completed form (Fab Only Sheet) with the project detail drawing and “exact and precise measurements”–
Or – Clients can provide a cardboard template of the piece you would like us to custom fabricate. This will be used to duplicate the dimensions required.
This is imperative, to avoid “do overs” which result in pricing adjustments upwards. Whatever detail is provide – requires sign off and is fabricated accordingly. If after fabrication – the client wants a half inch shaved or other modifications after finalization, that becomes project #2, and there will be a charge for after sign off modifications.
Large Projects needing slab materials.
While we do have some inventory of material to select from at our fabrication location, we are not a stone warehouse. This material is mainly consignment and is a small representation of what is available.
At MGT Stone in Barrington, we work through our network of Stone Wholesale partners – using roughly 30 independent stone warehouses in the Chicago area.
Our Partners source their material from the origination quarry (Typically in either India or Brazil) and it is shipped in bulk by boat, rail and truck to their warehouse locations. They arrive in bundles. Blocks of stone that have been sliced like a loaf of bread. Bundles can be
The Stone warehouses only sell to fabricators, so they would be classified as Wholesalers.
When a client selects their material from a whosevers’ inventory, a “hold sheet” is emailed to the clients preferred fabricator.
Once we receive this detail, we plug in the size of the slab (s) and material cost, along with the calculated area for the project.
Our pricing algorithm generates a cost per square foot based on that custom project using the variables above.
Once the client’s decision has been made on which material at the respective price point.
If the selection is natural stone – We move to the all-important “fine tuning” phase.
Since natural stone is highly variable – Like a fingerprint. No two slabs are identical.
We recommend a 2nd visit by the client to identify which particular slab out of the bundle gets to be used for their project.
A bundle is a group of 5-7 slabs in sequence from the block.
The staff then emails a “Selection Sheet” locking that material to your project and your fabricator. We, the fabricator use this sheet to attach a PO and then the Partner ships the material to us.
We know this additional trip can be inconvenient, but, this is critical to assure you don’t have any surprises.
The huge advantage, if the stone is dynamic, you get to help determine how and where in your project, any of the unique characteristics of the stone will appear and how they will flow across the project area.
If your material has little to no pattern, Black or Silver Pearl Granite is a great example, it may be advisable to skip this step if you prefer.