Behind the Build: Installing Stone Counters
Know what it takes to install all the kitchen counters, a dining room buffet and a 680 pound slab of Brazilian quartzite down a flight of stairs? Lots of planning, a Tennessee strongarm and an amazing partner like Tithof Tile and Marble helping us with this stunning design and build custom home.
Video Transcript:
Tom Kenny, Partner, Scott Simpson Design + Build
This is Tom Kenny with Scott Simpson Design +Build. We’re at 2024 Burr Oak today, on a Saturday, bringing in all of the stone countertops, vanities, island tops. Should be a good day here.
These guys just put this countertop in – it’s the dining room buffet. It’s a piece of quartzite which I believe came from Brazil. They cut it off a mountainside and they gaged it and the guys from Tithof brought it to the fabrication area and they cut it, after we placed all the veining on the computer, we decided how we wanted to actually cut the slab and then they cut it and they cut all these and they polished all the edges put this little ease dent in, made these corners…it just slipped right in.
These guys just brought in the island countertops. They just flipped it on top of the cabinetry. right now. These guys are just making sure that it’s got the same equal distance all around before they take off the brackets, which are there to keep the piece of stone from breaking when they flip it. The important thing is – see how this countertop is two different pieces, but they’ve matched up the vein and the stone exactly that’s like a big time detail, that they’ve cut the stone out of these giant blocks and then they book match each piece in order to get the veining to look like this is one piece of stone and they fill it in. It’s like it’s one just giant piece of stone.
Tony Buchanan, Lead Installer, Tithof Tile & Marble
So, all of our faucet holes are drilled on a CNC machine. They stop about an eight of an inch from the face, and then just put something underneath it to catch the debris and it pops straight down, right into the little bucket and we’ll clean it up.
Tom Kenny, Partner, Scott Simpson Design + Build
We’re going to be bringing a 680 pound piece of Galapagos quartzite, down into the basement here. So this is where this piece goes right here. So this is a big wide piece. The smaller piece in the back with the sink isn’t as heavy, but this this is one single piece of stone. So this piece of stone that’s coming from Brazil, It originally started out as a piece of sandstone made of quartz, but when the two tech tonic plates crushed into each other, there was so much heat and so much pressure, it turned the stone into quartzite. It’s too heavy to carry so we built a Tennessee strongarm rigging above us, this is a block and tackle. We’re going to bring the stone in right here, hook it up straps, swing it out over the staircase and then these guys are going lower it down.
Tony Buchanan, Lead Installer, Tithof Tile & Marble
Everybody kinda just finds a spot where they fit in if somebody’s needed somewhere, we see. Somebody’s pulling the chain, somebody’s holding it from the top somebody’s underneath holding it from the bottom. So all the work that we did building the Tennessee strongarm and putting up the block and tackle and bringing all these guys here was to avoid having to put a seam in this countertop because you’d be able to see that seam through the veining. So all the additional work allowed us to have this entire piece in one single piece. You can feel the veins of the quartzite, so, it’s beautiful.