Category: Articles

By Jason Nottestad

When you’re in the stone business for long enough, you learn that mistakes are inevitable and expensive. If you want your company to stay in business, it’s important to learn enough from those mistakes to never make them again.

By Jason Nottestad

When I examine a well-crafted countertop job, I’m always pleased by what stands out the most: nothing.

By Jason Nottestad

Should you remove existing countertops when you measure for the template?

By Jason Nottestad 

For the total quality of the countertop experience, jobsite cleanliness is an important component. Last month, we talked about doing as much messy work in the shop and finishing a cook top cutout onsite. Now, let’s look at drilling holes, cutting the backsplash, and cleaning up the jobsite to leave it as neat – or better – than the installer found it.

By Jason Nottestad

With stone countertops, it’s the quality of the final product that that will make or break a job. A mis-measured or broken piece never makes a builder or homeowner happy, but (most of the time) people know the fabricator or installer is going to correct any errors that have been made; clients have an amazing capacity for patience when they understand the end product is going to be of high quality.

By Jason Nottestad

While the past decade has seen the quality of cabinets improve, the same can’t be said of cabinet installation crews. And that’s a problem for countertop installers.

By Jason Nottestad

For the installer, the whole world’s a stage. Think of the countertop process as a play, and the installation is the dramatic peak. The installer performs in front of the inevitable audience of designers, fellow craftspeople and customers who’ll, consciously or not, be the judge.