Engineered Stone: A Bigger Share?

December 4, 2002

By K. Schipper

Although natural-stone purists will debate its quality, engineered stone is finding its way into the vocabularies of everyone from high-end designers and architects to homeowners looking to do a little remodeling in the family kitchen.
With demand for the mix of pulverized quartz and polymer resins on the rise, fabricators and installers have the choice of either taking on engineered stone – or watch business go down the street to a competitor who’s already selling the stuff.
Those who’ve already added engineered stone to their shops and showrooms say it really isn’t all that different from fabricating and installing the natural product. While none of them think the engineered line will ultimately replace natural stone, they do believe it has a place in residential and commercial work.

TRULY MARKET-DRIVEN
Engineered stone may be the bane of those who see it as an unholy intrusion into the market of natural stone, but the material (which includes 97 percent of natural stone in its mix) is gaining visibility with end users, with brands such as Avanza®, CaesarStone®, Cambria®, CompacMarble®, Legacy®, Silestone®, Technistone® and Zodiaq®,
Ask fabricators who are now working with both natural and engineered stone why they’ve expanded their lines, and the answer is generally pretty simple: Their customers want it.
“We consider ourselves to be market-focused,” is how Steve Rosser, general manager of Richmond, Va.-based Luck Stone Corp., puts it. “As customers expressed an interest in it, we wanted to be in a position to meet their needs.”
Richard Christ, vice president of the countertop division of Gulf & Basco L.P., in Houston, says adding the engineered product makes his company more attractive to commercial specifiers and helps ensure they’ll be considered for more jobs.
“There are a couple different commercial markets where you see engineered stone specified,” he says. “It may be a small part of a big job, but it’s a matter of packaging the surfacing contract and adding some value to the customers by offering all these products.”
Cornelius, N.C.-based Solid Surface Products, for example, shows its origins by name. However, today Jon Lancto, its chief executive officer, says the firm now sells both natural and engineered stone.
“Our customer base of dealers, home centers and builders is requesting all three products,” Lancto says. “It’s truly market-driven.”
Micheline Santello, a co-owner of Mundelein, Ill.-based Carrara Marble & Mosaic, says that, for her, engineered stone allows the company to strengthen its position in some markets where it wasn’t as strong.
“We saw the home kitchen and bath market was going up, and our background has been more commercial with some high-end residential,” she says. “We thought this would compliment what we were already doing, and let us serve more of the mid-range customers and serve people who were looking for something a little different.”
Despite the attributes and advantages natural stone offers, it isn’t always the best answer for every customer and every project, and it’s generally where natural stone isn’t at its best that buyers begin looking for the engineered alternative.
Santello, for instance, says with many customers, the question of maintenance can be an issue.
“On a residential level, with most couples, both partners are working and engineered stone involves little maintenance compared with natural stone,” she says. “On the commercial side, because it meets national standards for being antibacterial; that makes it more attractive in restaurants, schools, hospitals and other medical settings.”
Additionally, she notes that as a flooring material, engineered stone can meet the requirements of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) without requiring a honed surface and non-skid sealer.
Although no one will deny that natural stone offers a, well … more natural appearance, depending on the client, the aesthetics of engineered stone can also be attractive.
“For one thing, it offers a greater assortment of lighter colors, says Luck Stone’s Rosser. “There are people who just want a lighter colored stone, and while there’s a wide assortment of granite colors out there, the stone does have its limits.”
Color aside, there are other aesthetic concerns that draw some people to the engineered product.
“We have people who come in looking specifically for engineered stone because of the look,” says Lancto. “There are others who won’t even consider it because they want a more natural look.”
Carrara’s Santello agrees. “In natural stone you have variation,” she says. “You have the depth and the actual crystallization of the natural stone. Each piece is unique. However, if you don’t like the inconsistencies or the depth of the look, engineered stone offers an alternative because it’s consistent.”
And, she adds that in her market, where resale of residential properties is a big concern, that consistency can often add to the value of a project because there’s less risk involved.

BEYOND PRICE POINTS
Surprisingly, one factor that’s not favoring engineered stone is its cost. In part due to the drop in prices for many types of natural stone, engineered stone may actually cost slightly more, depending on the manufacturer.
“That’s a big surprise to a lot of people,” says Solid Surface’s Lancto. “They walk in thinking engineered stone isn’t natural stone and so it should cost a lot less. Overall, the typical job in engineered stone is more-expensive.”
While most sellers of DuPont’s Zodiaq stone sell that line for more than their natural-stone products, dealers in Silestone from Cosentino S.A. – such as Carrara’s Santello – say their prices aren’t quite what they’re getting for nature’s handiwork.
“The Silestone is broken into four different groups, and you know your low-point numbers and your high-point numbers,” she says. “Natural-stone prices are based more on supply and demand, and some of them can still be outrageously expensive.”
And, even when the price is higher, the engineered stone does come with some features that natural stone does not – such as a warranty.
Still, it’s not like hoards of clients are clamoring for the engineered product, at least initially. Launching the new addition to their lines, fabricators say, has involved a fair amount of educating consumers about it.
The experience of Jason Ashcraft, vice president of the Tyler, Texas-based Ashcraft Marble Inc., is fairly typical. “We added engineered stone before customers started asking for it,” he says, “but now that we’ve added it, they’re asking for it.”
What seems to be making a difference with many people’s knowledge of engineered stone is seeing it in some of the national home supply chains or the Internet. Gulf & Basco’s Christ, says that early on probably only a few people out of 100 knew about engineered stone. However, as its manufacturers have begun brand-building, that’s changing considerably.
“The thing is, it’s still not widely distributed,” Christ says. “When someone does see it at Home Depot or on the Internet, they contact us directly to get more information and that helps. For instance, people go online to research their home-remodeling project, and that has had a big impact on our industry.”
Because of the extensive research residential customers often do before beginning their remodeling projects, Santello says residential customers in her market are often more-aware and -knowledgeable about engineered-stone products than her commercial clients.
Don Hinckley, president of the Springfield, Vt.-based NBC Solid Surfaces, believes companies such as his are definitely helping to build the engineered-stone market, and having a brand name available helps considerably in making those sales.
“Part of the thing with Zodiaq is the DuPont warranty, and we push that pretty hard,” Hinckley says. “The DuPont name and the DuPont oval have a pretty good reputation, and we’re definitely pushing that brand.”
And, having that brand is key in dealing with engineered stone. Unlike natural stone, which is freely available from sources worldwide, the engineered product is often sold by manufacturers to selected fabricators, who then get an exclusive territory.
Beyond that, however, most of these fabricators say they don’t take different approaches in selling either natural or engineered stone.
“We carry a large line of product, and we just lay those products out and say, ‘Here are the advantages to this product, and here are the advantages to that product,’” says Ashcraft. “We generally let them choose their own way.”
Carrara’s Santello agrees. She compares it to a car dealership, where one buyer may want a luxury sedan and the next is just looking for low-cost basic transportation. Steven Vonesh, Carrara’s vice president of sales, estimates that as much as 70 percent of his staff’s time is spent educating would-be buyers on the pros and cons of each product, engineered and natural.
It’s a good approach, says Christ, and one his company follows, as well.
“We display them in our showroom with different applications so people can see them side-by-side,” he says. “Then, we educate them about the products and give them information so they can make intelligent decisions. Some people weigh a particular characteristic real heavily and others just don’t care.”

EASY INTEGRATION
Selling a product for a particular job is, of course, only half the battle. The bottom line also depends on how smoothly and easily that job is fabricated and installed. Those whose companies work with several different substrates say that, despite a few potholes, it’s not that difficult to integrate engineered stone into an operation versed in the real thing.
If anything, engineered stone is a little easier to work with.
“One of the huge pluses I see is that it doesn’t have to be hand-selected,” says Christ. “And, if you make a small mistake on one piece, you can just grab the next piece and fix it. You certainly can’t do that with granite.”
NBC’s Hinckley, meanwhile, notes there’s no worry about hidden fissures with the engineered product.
One big difference between the two is that because it’s lighter and stronger than natural stone, the component parts of an engineered-stone project can get bigger, says Santello.
“Once we realized the actual strength, we started making the pieces larger,” she says. “There are fewer joints required on counter work, and that’s nice in itself. It facilitates the fabrication, and installation is easier because there are fewer pieces to pull together and level off.”
There are some differences in the way the two products are finished, however.
“From a cutting standpoint, it’s not that different,” says Luck Stone’s Rosser. “We find no challenges in cutting the stone. It does have to be polished a little differently, and we’ve developed some different techniques for polishing the man-made stone versus polishing granite.”
Santello calls it fine-tuning, and says that at Carrara Marble, there were some problems that needed working out when the firm first added engineered stone.
“There was a little bit of a learning curve,” she says. “We have to use a couple different procedures, a couple different wheels and a couple different grits. But, for the most part, it’s very simple. There were no major changes of equipment or anything like that.”
Other than adapting to working with larger pieces, these fabricators say their installers haven’t run into major issues on that part of the job, either. If anything, Solid Surface’s Lancto believes training crews to work with engineered stone has improved their handling of the natural product.
“I think our installers find installing the engineered stone easier,” he says. “But, it’s made natural stone installations look better because DuPont came in and trained the installers how to make better seams, and that’s gone into their work with natural stone, as well.”
Those already selling engineered stone are surprised by the strength of the market, and they expect it to get stronger.
Some of that is simply due to the growing market for what Luck Stone’s Rosser calls “premium countertop materials.” While he says engineered stone currently makes up less than 10 percent of his total business, he expects that will grow along with the rest of the market.
NBC’s Hinckley agrees. Stone currently makes up about half his business and engineered stone runs at about 12 percent of the total. And, while he expects that the 50-50 split between stone and solid-surface products to remain, he sees the percentage taken by engineered stone growing.
“With the engineered stone I think we’ll be seeing an increase, mainly because the supply chain is going to get better,” Hinckley says. “The product has improved, and it’s definitely going to have a spot in the marketplace. I don’t know if it will be as strong as solid surface, but it’s going to be a strong market.”
Solid Surface’s Lancto is so sold on the product that he predicts its sales will eventually surpass those of natural stone – if the manufacturers can keep up with demand. He can even envision a time, he says, when his company would quit selling natural stone to go strictly with the engineered product.
“At that point, we’d have less a commodity-oriented product,” he explains. “Stone isn’t a commodity, but it has some similar characteristics, including no protection against anybody opening a stone shop across the street. With the engineered stone, you get some territory protection in the brand you choose to fabricate, so you can hold a higher profit on engineered stone.”
Ashcraft Marble’s Ashcraft puts it much more simply. He says currently the company’s sales are about evenly split between natural and engineered stone, and he expects that to continue.
“There’s always going to be a demand for granite,” Ashcraft says. “It carries a pretty good name, too. I just think you have a lot of customers who are very cautious about what they buy. The engineered stone gives them the look and feel of natural stone without some of the problems.”