Granite countertops (St. Augustine: appliances, credit card, house)

[Salantai]

We are planning to replace our tile countertops with granite. We've looked at a few places but can't decide whether to start with an installer or start with a granite "yard"? We're mostly doing it for resale so price is an important consideration. But not the only one. Can anyone share any experiences they have had with installing granite countertops in the St. Johns/Southside area?

[stevep]

Most granite places have their own installers, so you probably should look at the granite places because they'll give you one prices for labor and materials. It's best if you bring in the dimensions of your countertops, so that they can give you a good ballpark figure. You also want to get a price for removal of your old tops (if you're not doing it yourself), plus the plumbing to hook back up the new sink, garbage disposal and dishwasher. Some also charge for cutouts for each electrical outlet and there are usually different prices depending on what type of edge you choose.

[JBtwinz]

Check Lowes and Home Depot, they can arrange everything and both play the no interest game and Home Depot has the 10% off for new Credit Cards. They are both hurting, where it used to take two weeks for someone to come out and measure for carpet, they now can come out in a day and install a few days later.

It's amazing watching HGTV and seeing a lot of people turning their noses at a potential home (Property Virgins) because of the lack of Granite Counter tops and stainless appliances. We have a beautiful kichen but we have a really nice beveled formica. Good Luck

[abvavgjoe]

As stevep said, make a sketch of the job with dimensions to get estimates. We faxed the sketch to several fabricator/installers. We used Sal's Marble in Jax Beach. They were nice people, professional, very helpful and did a good job for a reasonable price.

I would recommend starting out by looking around at Granite Express on Philips Hwy. They're a wholesaler and have a large yard, so it's a good place to get an idea of what granite you want. You can either pick something there and have it delivered to your installer, or pick something out at your installer's yard.

Also, if you're doing your bathroom vanities, you can get a cheaper price by using remnants your installer has on hand. We used 2 slabs of Brazilian Blue Pearl from Granite Express for the kitchen area, 2 remnant pieces Sal had on hand for the vanities and got a free kitchen sink. We paid $4750 total for everything; measuring, fabrication, removal of the old counters, installation, etc. You can save some money if you're handy by hooking up the supply/drain lines and disposal yourself. I did it with vey little past experience. It's pretty easy. You can probably reuse a lot of the lines you have now. You'll probably need some plumber's putty and a few pieces of PVC pipe from Home Depot and that's about it. I say try it, if you can't get it done, call a plumber.

Good luck with your project.

[yamahastar]

It would be easier to reduce the asking price of the house than go through all of this. Then the buyers can pick out what they want. You can list it as a "counter-top allowance".

[Salantai]

We would reduce the price and do an allowance if the countertops were decent. But they are an ugly tile and caused me to want to walk away when we looked at the house originally. We only bought because the market was insane then. Now that it's not, we don't want to have anything turn OFF buyers.

Has anyone used Empire Marble/Countertops on Phillips or Stone World on St. Augustine Road?

[stevep]

I've used Stone World several times... very quick with installations, prices are great and easy to work with. You're doing the right thing... buyers are picky, they either want everything finished, or a huge discount to deal with the hassles.... and the majority of buyers don't want to deal with the hassles, so you'd be limiting your potential market of people if you're making them change the countertops.