Think Rodding Before Rolling

October 6, 2003

It’s Friday morning: – all of the pieces of the job are done and loaded for transport, and your installer has location instructions and work order. You plan to visit the project later in the day to make sure everything is on track, and to pick up the check.
Then, your cell phone rings about a half hour later. It’s your installer on the phone with the news that after crossing the railroad tracks on the way to the job … well, the big island, the centerpiece of the kitchen, is now two unequal pieces.
Now, you have to make another call that goes something like this: “Hi, Ms. Nightmare Client, yes, this is Kevin… Not bad, and yourself? OK, I’ve got good news and bad news … well, the good news is that we got your kitchen – yes, the one with the giant island done on time. It was beautiful – especially that big island ….
The bad news? Well, uh … that darned giant island … yes, well uh … it’s not in one piece any more. You know that railroad crossing? Yes, that one with the really bad dip in it … well my installer was driving as slow as he could ….
Re-make the island? Well, that was the last matching slab of the $50 dollar per square foot granite we could find … gee, I don’t know what else we can do … I’ll get back to you, OK? Have a nice day.”
At this point, you should be waking up in a cold sweat, and saying, “I’d better start putting reinforcing rods in the stone that I fabricate.” And, bad dream or not, you should be rodding more often than you think.
This nightmare scenario happens for real almost every day somewhere in America because a fabricator doesn’t think that the stone being fabricating could be weak enough to break in transit. After all, granite is one of the hardest stones on earth. It’s strong and shouldn’t break. Wrong.
Most of the jobs that break in transit (or during install) happen because of three general reasons:
1. The fabricator didn’t know any better.
2. The fabricator forgot to put in the rods.
3. The fabricator chose to not put in rods.
The practice of rodding stone is becoming a method of choice for fabricators who want to ensure that the work they spend so much time and effort fabricating gets to the job site in one piece.
Over the years, I made a habit of illustrating this technique to my customers, and went as far as making a small sample of with a rod imbedded in it. This whole exercise used to fall under the heading of why my product is better than my competitors.
Now, more and more fabricators are adopting the rodding technique, but it still helps to reinfoce this feature to your prospects. I always tell my customers that this technique is cheap insurance.
One of my best friends in the business, Eugene Medrano of New Home Interiors Granite Division in Phoenix, makes a habit of rodding all of his long (48” or longer) pieces – regardless of whether the piece gets a sink or cook-top cutout or stays whole.
His insistence on rodding dramatically reduced the number of pieces broken in transit and during install. Eugene’s philosophy saved himself extra time and cost, and keeps his jobs installing on schedule.
In general, 3/4” (2cm) thick stone benefits more from rodding than thicker pieces, such as 1 1/4” (3cm). However, there are exceptions to this: Stones that are very fragile, such as veined marbles, and stone sold as “granite” but actually is gneiss and schist loaded with fissures that open up on you in a heartbeat. (And, I’ll talk more about making sure your customer knows what’s coming, as far as stone, next month.)
The actual process of rodding is very simple. You cut two slots on the underside of a piece along the long dimension. A typical rodding slot will be 3/8” wide X 3/8” deep. A 1/4” reinforcing rod is inserted into the slot, and a mixture of flowing epoxy (if the stone is granite) or flowing polyester (if it’s marble or limestone) is poured into the slot.
Remember that epoxy glues should only be used on granites, and polyester glues on marbles and limestones (and NOT the other way around). The reason for this is that most epoxy resins will create a migrated stain into the marble or limestone; in time, your customer will be calling you back to fix the problem (like a total tear out and re-do). Polyesters can bond to granite, but the strength of the bond is nowhere near what you get from epoxy. Most polyester resins do not stain the marble or limestone when applied. Try testing some flowing epoxy on a scrap piece of Statuary Vein or Carrara marble to see this in action – it’ll make a believer out of you.
The flowing glue is allowed to crest up over the slot to insure that the cavity is completely filled. After 24 hours, the excess hardened glue is ground off flush with the surrounding stone, leaving a much stronger piece.
There are a number of products that you can use as the reinforcing rod. Most fabricators I’ve talked to like to use 1/4” stainless-steel smooth rod. Some fabricators will use a threaded rod that is galvanized; others use electrician’s fish tape (generally 1/8” in diameter) or even 1/4” X 1/4” brass square stock.
I prefer the stainless-steel product because of its ability not to rust if exposed to moisture. There are even non-metallic products such as polymer/fiberglass composites that also have a potential for success.
Just because you’re rodding a piece, don’t let your install crew or your customer think that it’s unbreakable, especially with island overhangs. Some of the self-appointed stone experts at many big-box home-improvement centers (you know the ones I’m talking about) seem to think that if a 16” overhang is rodded, it won’t break – especially if their customer refuses to have those ugly corbels installed under the stone for support.
Here’s a news flash; the Marble Institute of America’s Design Manual notes that, for 3/4” (2cm) stone, the limit on unsupported overhangs is 6”, and 10” for 1 1/4”/3cm. Otherwise, the first time someone hops up and puts their wide wazoo on an unsupported overhang (oh yes, but it was rodded) and hears that sickening cracking sound, those ugly corbels will seem a lot prettier than the bill for a brand-new countertop.
Remember the three general reasons of why jobs break in transit (or at install)? Well, by now, it’s pretty apparent that none of them are good, and – if you’ve completely read this article, you know better. For a little extra work, rodding can be very cheap insurance. Happy Fabricating!
Kevin M. Padden operates KMPadden Consulting in Phoenix.