Rock Solid Granite & Marble Inc.

“Perfection Set In Stone”

Working with the Stone Slab

You heard the phrase “practice makes perfect”. It means pursuing excellence through a continuous process of improvement. Most of Nathan’s master design skills are not taught in the classroom or through books. It’s taught on the job through trial and error, and the designer must be receptive to learn something new on every countertop job.

Since stone is very unforgiving when mistakes are made, a countertop designer spends a considerable amount of time and effort planning and rearranging pieces of surfaces in his mind and on paper. There are several constraints in designing with stone slabs, including randomness and the imperfections of non-uniform vein patterns. Also, cutting the stone may cause alignment problems that affect the exact flow of individual veins. The countertop design must incorporate vein patterns into all counter surfaces, full-height backsplashes, waterfall panels, and edge profiles, etc. 

Hence, a countertop designer must patiently conduct exploration and experimentation before the stone is cut. When the design is finalized, the stone is then ready to be cut and polished by machines to the exact dimensions specified in the design’s template. After 25 years of experience, it is no wonder that Nathan’s countertops are always “Perfection Set In Stone“.

Revealing the Character of Stone

A top-notch designer brings out the “Wow” in luxury countertops, making them truly spectacular and in a higher class of luxury. As a gifted artist, Nathan studies the vein flow, patterns, and artistic composition in granite slabs, marble slabs, quartzite slabs, or quartz slabs, as well as stone imperfections, to design a harmonious flow across multiple surfaces. The nuance of each stone slab is unique. It requires exploration to cut various regions of the slab and capture the character to reveal the best aesthetics. It comes down to having the talent to do it.

Design Challenges

Nathan creates designs in 3 dimensions and across multiple luxury countertops. He needs to consider the stone’s composition, loss due to blade thickness, folding of patterns being cut into two separate pieces that overlap when assembled at right angles, precision tolerance between 1/16 and 1/8 of an inch and the allocated regions of the stone for different surfaces to keep the vein pattern flowing in the same direction without conflict. Additionally, some countertop materials require a 1/8-inch expansion space. Not only must Nathan visualize the final product, but he must also assemble a collection of surfaces to make the best artistic sense before the countertop system is fabricated and cut into individual surface pieces.

Price Trade-offs

An excellent countertop design must utilize the entire stone slab with minimal waste. Suppose the designer cannot effectively cut a slab to extract a natural vein pattern for multiple surfaces with minimal waste, the project may become more expensive. The cost can easily double due to the designer’s lack of expertise. Nathan designs each piece to be a surface component that functions within the entire countertop system, minimizing waste. He has done it for over 20 years.

Dealing with Nature’s Imperfections

Nathan must do it “As Perfect As Possible”. The design implementation can never be perfect because the stone slab has imperfections, defects, and discontinuity areas resulting from its natural composition and vein patterns, which change abruptly.

Nathan must compensate “As Perfect As Possible” for these flaws in his design to create a finished product that deals with the chaos and conflict caused by clashes of vein flow or an overactive pattern.

The countertop design must address these issues to create a template that guides the machine’s cutting of the stone. As you can see, countertop design is a best-effort task, where the results depend on the countertop designer’s talent and experience.

Countertop System

For large kitchens or bathrooms, Nathan employs an approach he calls a Countertop System. This approach defines the job as a functioning system of different surfaces that may include various levels of countertops, backsplashes, waterfall side panels, islands, and wall cladding. To learn more about these countertop features, click on countertop options. 

The design must exhibit a pleasing directional flow with a coherent and harmonious pattern on multiple surfaces. Since each stone slab is unique, it requires a designer with more experience and advanced artistic talent to create a design that uses multiple stone slabs.

It is more challenging to put the pieces artistically together as a seamless and intentional whole with a common vein flow. This complex design work requires a talented countertop designer like Nathan to produce world-class countertop systems that are the envy of anyone who appreciates them.

Best Pricing in Tampa Bay

Many customers think Nathan’s prices will be high because of the personalized and value-added service he provides for each countertop project.

 His business goal is to keep costs down, especially the countertop material costs, by shopping in his partnership network for the best price. His network offers a vast variety and inventory of engineered and natural stone slabs to choose from. To learn more about Nathan’s partnership network for stone slabs, click on Nathan’s Stone Suppliers.

 Each countertop job is project managed by Nathan to control the workflow throughout the process and utilizes relevant business partners to secure the stone slab, fabricate the countertop, and install the countertop.

For the countertop job, Nathan will manage the assignment of work within his network, utilizing the best resource available at the time to complete the job at the best price. Compare countertop prices and you will find you get more value with Nathan.

Nathan is involved with every step of the process to make sure the inputs for each step are ready to go by his quality standards. The output results of the countertop fabrication are checked for defects and exact measurements. After fabrication, the countertop components are assembled during countertop installation with a precision fit and personally quality assured by Nathan.

This approach provides a very cost-effective way to achieve excellent results. Nathan’s is well respected by his peers and business partners in the Tampa Bay area.

Nathan’s Concierge Countertop Design Service creates spectacular Luxury Countertops as a pleasant experience.