How to buy countertops
When making an important investment in your home, like installing new countertops, it’s always nice to know what to expect during the process. As Texas’ largest importer and fabricator of natural stone, Allied Stone has the system down to an art form. With a little preparation, you can ensure your stone purchase goes smoothly.
Planning
As you first start thinking about adding natural stone to your home, there are some steps you can take to make your first visit to the showroom productive.
The space: taking rough measurements of your current counter space will give your design consultant the ability to give accurate estimates of final costs. For new construction, bring your floor plans.
Use: think about how you are going to use the space. It doesn’t matter if you are accident-prone or you have 5 kids, we all interact differently with our surroundings. With over 500 colors and varieties of stone, there are many options to fit almost every lifestyle.
Budget: Our inventory of over 40,000 slabs gives us the ability to fit in many different price levels. Having a concept of what you would like to spend gives us the ability to steer you in the right direction based on your needs.
Visit our showroom
When you visit one of Allied Stone’s showrooms, you’ll get to see many different options for using natural stone. From classic to modern, we can jump-start your creative engines. Our Design consultants are working alongside you as you navigate the multitude of options.
One of the first things you’ll learn is there are 2 ways stone is sold.
By the Square foot based upon group level: Meaning you buy the amount you need.
By the slab: This means you have to buy in whole slab quantities.
All prices are based upon a per square foot price.
With the square footage information you’ve brought from home, a design consultant can then give you a preliminary quote. Our design consultants will help you match your needs and budget with the right options. If everything looks good, a deposit can be paid and material reserved. In some cases, you can pick your actual slabs for your project in our slab yard.
Production & Installation
After your deposit is paid and material is reserved, a template of the project must be made. Our template team will make an appointment to come onsite and take the exact measurements that will be used in the fabrication process.
Once the template is completed, your material is moved into our staging and production department. Using state-of-the-art CNC machines, waterjets, and hand sanding, your slabs are cut to the template measurements.
After production, our installation department will schedule time with you to install your stone. Depending on the size, installation can last several hours or even a few days. Our installers will carefully install your project based on the drawings and templates. If needed, they might trim countertops, install sinks, and drill faucet holes.
Once the project is complete, your design consultant will follow up with any questions and maintenance tips for your new surfaces.
We hope this guide helps you as you begin the process. At any point, feel free to ask us any questions you may have.