Selecting Stone

When planning your stone countertops or other stone projects one of the most important and satisfying tasks is to select your material. You may elect to use granite, marble, soapstone, or one of the other natural or manmade products for your project. Please review 'Stone Countertops 101' for some ideas. Once the material choice is made, you need to select a particular color and often a particular slab. Here you have many choices and considerations:

• Many popular stones like Ubatuba, Absolute Black, Butterfly Green, Giallo Antico and others, plus the manufactured stones, are very consistent in patterns and are similar in color. It can be safe to choose these stones from a photo or sample tile. Please consult your designer.
• Some people may be willing to select consistent stones as noted above without travelling to view the full slab, but want to verify the tone. We can usually provide a small slab sample for your approval.
• Online sites can provide a quick way to view colors that have been suggested to you, that you saw in a sample, or otherwise would like to preview without travelling. See our 'Online Slab Views' page to try for yourself.
• Kitchen & Bath showrooms and our showroom have a huge selection of tile (usually 12"x12") samples that you can choose from. Be aware that colors, even for the same stone from the same quarry can vary dramatically. Use these samples as a guide to your selection but view your stone before fabrication.
• Stones that are inconsistent in color, have patterns or 'movement', should always be approved before fabrication. Exotic stones should always be viewed in person.
• The most effective way to select stone is in person.
• We stock the most popular colors at our facitlity in Temple, NH. See the 'Stock Colors' page. Here you can view approximately 40 colors in full slab and over 1000 remnant pieces. We have catalogued our remnants and they can be viewed on the 'Remnant Inventory' page. If you have a particular color in mind, please call to verify availability.
• Stone Distributors import stone from around the world. You can view up to 250 colors in full slab at these warehouse facilities. Once you choose a slab they will 'tag' it with our name and yours. They then ship it to our facitlity, where we fabricate your project.
• Our craftsmen are expert at choosing where to cut the various shapes of your project from the full slab. For stones with lots of movement, this is a very imortant task particularly where seams are required. Rest assured that we will make the best possible choice. If you wish, you can direct how you want your template laid out on the slab. Coordination of this process will delay your installation beyond the one week turnaround.

The staff at RE Marble & Granite is always available to assist you in your decision. Please give us a call!