Recommendations Wanted: Granite Countertop Installers (Alexandria, McLean: countertops, home, to buy)

[DC Oldtimer]

We are upgrading our kitchen, and one item on the list is granite for the countertop.

If anyone has had a good experience (quality, price, or both) with a particular business in NOVA, would be grateful for the name. Also is there anyone we should not do business with?

Many TIA.

DCO

[normie]

We were extremely happy with work done by Dominion Granite about 5 years ago. Our granite had a design with "movement" (aka stripiness) and they matched the lines perfectly so that it almost appeared seamless. They even matched the counters to the backsplash, so that some stripes ran along the counters and then up the backsplash. They made a point of using the prettiest part of our slab for the island. They seemed to take extra pains to do a good job, I think it's because they genuinely enjoy this sort of work.

The price seemed very reasonable, about $5K for a large kitchen, including island and a desk.

I'd avoid Planet Granite. We were not impressed by this company, and friends who have used them said the worksmanship was hurried and sloppy. Of course, this was 5 years ago, so things may have changed.

[JfromReston]

I had an excellent experience recently with two bathrooms.

Sky Marble & Granite
SKY Marble & Granite (http://www.sky-marble.com/flash.html - broken link)

With my other two bathrooms I had the granite job from hell. One top got made five times before it was right the other two tops were 2 and 3 times. At one point I told my contractor they had to get a new granite company. I was so glad to be done with that project that I can't remember who the granite companies were.

I highly recommend Sky - they did it right the first time - had good customer service - and a great selection.

[tgbwc]

This worked well for us. It was nice that they didn't have to remove all the old countertops. Neighbors have gone with them as well.

Granite Transformations granite countertops - Our granite products are heat,scratch and stain resistant and can be installed right on top of your existing countertops! We are kitchen, bathroom and commercial makeover specialists providing revolutiona

[saganista]

Don't know Sky Granite, but we looked around pretty intensively in redoing our double-L kitchen in 2006, and we also ended up with Dominion Granite and were highly pleased with their work. They were easy to work with and exactly on time and on schedule throughout. Cost was fixed up front, plus or minus the stone. Everything was laser-measured to ridiculous tolerances, so it all fits perfectly, even in an older place like ours that isn't plumb or square anywhere anymore. We've got no 90-degree angles at all, but the counters are an absolute perfect fit and match. They also don't seal the granite. Instead, they do many more grades of polishing and chemically impregnate it, which produces a high natural sheen, rather than the epoxy-like shine that most fabricators produce.

Keep in mind that what you are picking here is indeed a fabricator. The stone doesn't matter. It can come from anywhere at all. Dominion in fact has virtually no stone in stock...just what they are working on. It's worth a trip out there though (Ashburn) just to see the Victoria Regia in the front office. Eye-popping. Anyway, they will send you off to the top three or four importers in the area which is where all the selection is. There are only about a dozen importers in the area versus some 300 fabricators. Most of those recommended importers are worth a walk-through to get a feel for what's available. BUT...once you've got your feet wet and it's finally time to cut to the chase, you will need to just get in the car and drive up to NSI Granite in Glen Burnie, MD. No backtalk, just go there. This is a dump of a place in some sort of abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere, but they are BY FAR the best source of stone in the area. The selection is simply staggering, going way beyond what you'll see elsewhere in terms of volume, variety, and quality. And they'll happily work with any fabricator anywhere on the east coast. They just put your stone on a truck. How far the truck drives, they don't care. The only possible drawback in this Dominion/NSI arrangement is that you could easily end up working with Eric at Dominion and Eric at NSI. It's confusing. But if you can handle that, this is a great way to go.

The other fabricator that we were impressed with was A&S Sales in Alexandria. They have a lot of high-quality stone in their shop (some of it from NSI) and also a lot of other related supplies and materials that are well worth looking at. They were very professional. They also seal their stone, so they might be a good way to go if you liked the high-gloss look better. Except for that, their methods and pricing were similar to Dominion's.

In the end, we went with Dominion and one of the higher-end stones from NSI. We got by (barely) with two slabs, and it all ran just about $7,000. It looks just great! One other tip...you can't at all tell what a stone is like from pictures on the internet. You have to go see it. Also, a slab is a huge expanse of stone. It can be difficult to fit the scale of what you're looking at to the scale of what will actually be installed. We found that we had to actually work at imagining the stone as it would ultimately be. Anyway, good luck. It's all an adventure...

[MKing]

We had a fantastic experience with GranitexInc in 2005. Very reasonable priced and you could not find the seam were the granite met unless you knew where to look, everyone was always amazed by the job they did! Good luck!

[DC Oldtimer]

Thanks so much to all of you. This info is VERY useful to us!!

[normie]

Pictures of work done by Dominion:









It's fun to look at the original slab and guess which sections each of the counter tops were cut from


The cat inspected the job after they finished installing it. Looks like she likes it. Were her tabby stripes the inspiration for our granite choice? Hmmmm.... maybe they were!

[blossom4792]

Apologies - I could maybe find the actual name if needed. We used a place in McLean (22101 - on the second floor of a nice storefront close to Starbucks and above a large grocery store sort of off of Old Dominion). Sorry I can't remember the name - it's been a couple of years. We used a beautiful charcoal with flecks of green. All went well, the price was fine, the service was fine.

[Nancy in Nokomis]

Also remember to buy a kit and re-test your home for radon after you install a granite countertop - I just read that you should do this.
I am interested getting it myself - just wanted to let you know.