General

These days, perhaps more than ever before, it is popular to handle home improvement projects on a DIY – or do-it-yourself – basis. The appeal, of course, is the opportunity to save money over having to pay for professional installation. When you do-it-yourself, you can complete the job just as you want while saving hundreds or thousands of dollars in the process. What’s not to like?

It is true – handling projects on a DIY basis is a great option for many jobs. Assuming you have a little bit of skill around the house, and you have the right tools on hand, there are plenty of jobs that you can handle without the help of a pro. However, one of the best skills that a DIY-er needs to possess is the ability to know when to call in the experienced hand of a professional. It is a mistake to take on a project on a DIY basis when you don’t have the skills, tools, or experience to get the job done right. In most cases, that concept is going to apply to stone installation. If you are in the process of having stone counters or other surfaces added to your home, save yourself a huge headache and have the product professionally installed by an experienced team.

Stone is Heavy
Let’s start with the biggest, and most-obvious point of all with regard to this discussion – stone is heavy. Really heavy. If you are going to try to install your new counter on your own, you will need to have a plan for how you can move the product into place. You will need to have friends who are willing to help, and those friends should probably have an active gym membership as well. With a professional team, you will have installers who are used to moving around large pieces of stone on a daily basis. These installers will have the strength to handle the job, and they will have the gear to do so safely. An accident while trying to lift your stone can not only damage the expensive counter, but it can also injure someone (potentially in a serious manner). Saving some money on installation simply isn’t worth the risk you will take on by trying to do this yourself.

Getting It Right
A quality stone counter is a significant investment – and it is not one that you want to get wrong. When you attempt to install the stone yourself, you will need to make sure that you get the positioning right down to the smallest of margins. If not, the mistake is going to be obvious and the counter will never look as good as you had hoped. Again, this is where experience comes into the picture. A team of installers who know what they are doing – and who have done it over and over again – are far more likely to get this right than you are when doing it for the first time.

Working with Cabinets and Irregularities
Installing stone counter tops is more of an art than a science. Why? Because no two homes, and no two kitchens are exactly the same. Your kitchen is probably not as perfectly square as you think, meaning there will be some adjustments necessary when the stone goes in to make everything look great. Unfortunately, you might not know how to make those adjustments and ‘tweaks’ if you try to do the job yourself. With a pro on your side, however, you will have access to all of the tricks of the trade. Experienced installers have dealt with plenty of problems over the years, so they know how to get the job done even when things are a little bit less than perfect.

There are plenty of projects in and around your home that are a perfect fit for the DIY treatment – but the installation of a stone counter isn’t one of them. Work with a professional team, such as the team here at Stone World, and you can have confidence and peace of mind that the job is going to get done right the first time.

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One of the biggest challenges in the process of producing a quality stone counter top is the actual cutting of the stone. This is a part of the job that many customers don’t think twice about – but it is a major issue for the company producing the counter. Using the right equipment – equipment that can get the job done correctly, and quickly – is crucial to being successful in the stone fabrication business. Fortunately, here at Stone World, we have the power of the Robo SawJet on our side.

As you would probably guess, stones like granite and marble don’t come out of the ground already shaped perfectly for your kitchen countertops or bathroom countertops. Instead, it is up to a fabricator like Stone World to turn a raw slab of granite into a beautiful counter that can be installed in your kitchen, your bathroom, or anywhere else around your home. Of course, cutting an extremely heavy, dense product like a slab of granite or marble is a major challenge, which is why it is so important to have the right gear for the job. With the Robo SawJet, we are able to quickly and consistently produce beautiful pieces of stone in the perfect dimensions to meet the demands of our customers.

The Power of Water

It seems impossible that something like water could be used to cut something like natural stone – but that is exactly what happens with the Robo SawJet. A high-pressure abrasive waterjet is used to cut the curves of the stone, along with the use of a 20HP direct-drive saw to cut the straight lines. Cutting through granite and other stones is not an easy task, but it is made to look easy with the use of this impressive machine.

A Dual-Table System

One of the important pieces of customer service that we are focused on here at Stone World is delivering quality stone products to our customers in a reasonable amount of time. We know that you are anxious to be able to have your home improvement project completed, and we want to be able to deliver and install your stone as quickly as possible. With that in mind, the Robo SawJet is a great advantage because we are able to take advantage of its dual-table setup in order to produce more finished pieces in a day. While one piece is being cut, another piece of stone can be prepped on the opposite table. This greatly reduces setup time, and allows our team to be tremendously more efficient.

In the end, the reason we have invested in this powerful and versatile machine is because it allows us to offer a better experience to you, the customer. The efficiency of this machine makes it possible for us to offer great prices (while producing less waste impacting our environment), and the turnaround times that it can achieve mean we will be installing your stone as soon as possible. If you would like to learn more about our process and how it can help you have a great experience, please feel free to contact Stone World right away. Thanks for visiting!

Generally speaking, there are three (four if you include the flooring) main elements that are going to come together in order to create the overall ‘feel’ of your kitchen – the counters, the cabinets, and the appliances. Of those three, you really need to focus on the counters and the cabinets during the design phase of the kitchen remodeling process. The appliances are going to be picked out toward the end in most cases, and they will probably be either stainless steel or black in color. However, the whole spectrum of colors is available to you in terms of counters and cabinets, so you are going to want to make sure you get these choices right.

Here are some things to consider…

• Think Function First
• Don’t Look for a Perfect Match
• Variety within the Cabinets

Think Function First

Assuming you are going to go with some form of stone counter – and you should, of course – you are going to need to make sure that your lower cabinets are up to the task of holding up the counters. Stone counters can get to be rather heavy, meaning your cabinets need to have the structural integrity necessary to act as a reliable base. Pretty much any new cabinet is going to be up to the task, but you may have to check on the strength of refurbished cabinets before setting a solid piece of stone on top.

Don’t Look for a Perfect Match

While you do want your cabinets and your counters to work together visually, you don’t necessarily want them to match perfectly. In fact, trying to match these two elements should be avoided, for a couple of reasons.

First, you are going to have a hard time perfectly matching a stone counter to a painted or stained wood cabinet. You might be able to get close – but getting close would only highlight the fact that they don’t match exactly. More likely, you will want to use the opportunity of picking out counters and cabinets to feature two different colors that can play off one another nicely.

Second, you should avoid trying to match your counters and cabinets perfectly is the fact that the end result would make for a rather boring décor. Between them, the counters and cabinets in your kitchen are going to take up a significant amount of space – if they are all the same color, there won’t be much to break up the monotony of the design.

Variety within the Cabinets

If you opt for a natural stone counter, you are probably going to have more than one color represented within that slab. When that is the case, consider using multiple colors for your cabinets in order to play off the various tones included in your stone. For instance, you could choose one color to use for the cabinets under the island, while a different color is used on the cabinets which hang on the wall and sit under your sink. Adding this kind of variety is an easy way to create a unique overall design while keeping everything properly coordinated. You can’t have a great cabinet and counter combination without first having a great counter – and that is where Stone World comes into the picture.

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If you are in the process of installing a new kitchen in your home, and you happen to love to cook, you should look closely at granite as your counter top material of choice.

While there are a variety of stone counters that could work for your needs, granite is a popular choice among serious cooks for a variety of reasons. Whether you are a chef by profession or just a passionate home cook, granite is likely to take your kitchen experience to a new level.

The four primary reasons for considering granite countertops in your new kitchen remodel are…

• Can Stand the Heat
• Usually a Big Surface
• Sturdy and Stable
• Resists Bacteria

Can Stand the Heat

Most granite counters can tolerate having hot items placed directly on their surface without any damage taking place. This is a great advantage for cooks who might not always have a hot holder or trivet available when something needs to come out of the oven. Of course, you want to make sure that your specific piece of granite can put up with the heat, which will depend on the kind of sealer that has been used. The ability to deal with heat is a great edge over laminate counters, which need to be insulated from heat at all times.

Usually a Big Surface

In addition to having a quality stove and a great set of knives, one of the things that serious cooks appreciate in a kitchen is having ample counter space. Usually, when you opt for granite, you are going to carve out a significant portion of the kitchen to dedicate to the surface so you can show off the beauty of the stone. By having plenty of counter real estate to work with as a cook, you will be able to spread out and really get the job done the right way. Whether you like to make your own pizza dough, your own pasta, or anything else that comes together from scratch, having a big piece of granite will improve your cooking experience.

Sturdy and Stable

When you are hard at work preparing a delicious meal, you will want to have a stable work surface to use – and that is exactly what is provided by granite. Of course, you aren’t going to be doing things like chopping and slicing directly on the counter, your cutting board will have a stable platform on which to rest. There is no room for slippage when you are going to work with a large chef’s knife, so provide yourself with a work surface that can be counted on for stability.

Resists Bacteria

You always want to serve safe food to your family, and that task will get a bit easier when you use granite counter tops. Since granite is sealed, there are no microscopic pores for bacteria to use as a ‘hiding place’. You still need to follow the basic rules of safe food handling in the kitchen, but it is nice to know that your counter will not be serving as a safe haven for harmful bacteria.

You don’t even have to be a serious cook in order to appreciate the many benefits of a granite counter top, but those who do love to cook are likely to fall even farther in love with a granite surface. To find out more about how you can have granite installed in your own kitchen, please contact Stone World today!

With the holidays fast approaching, many people start to think about one thing – cooking. It seems that cooking and the holidays are forever intertwined, as all of the holidays have specific foods which are part of the common tradition. No matter which holidays and traditions are celebrated in your home, there is a good chance that food has something to do with the event.

Of course, celebrating the holidays with your favorite foods is going to be much easier with a great kitchen at your disposal. One of the reasons many people look for a large, functional kitchen when shopping for a new home is because they want to be able to cook with friends and family at the holidays. Specifically, it is kitchen counters that play a big role in how well your kitchen works this time of year.

Room for Everyone

The holidays are about spending time with family and friends, so you don’t want to have to kick people out of the kitchen because of a simple lack of space. When you have large kitchen counters with room to spread out, you can invite others to share in the cooking experience with you. Even if the others in the room aren’t lending a hand to the cooking process, having plenty of counter space will allow your guests to set down a drink while you chat about the holiday season and the year ahead.

The Right Surface

It is no secret that life tends to get a bit hectic around the holidays. If that is the case in your home, having a solid stone surface for your kitchen counters is a great advantage. Most stone surfaces can handle hot items without a problem, so you don’t have to hunt down a pot holder each time something comes off the stove (assuming your stone counter is heat-proof). Also, stone is incredibly tough and durable, so it can stand up to the pounding that might occur when you have large numbers of people over for parties.

Less Stress, More Fun

As mentioned above, stone counters tend to be tougher and more durable than the other options on the market today. What does that mean for you at holiday time? You won’t need to spend time during your parties trying to make sure every treats your counters nicely. Knowing that there isn’t much that can happen which will damage a solid stone surface, you can relax and spend time with your family and friends without stress in the back of your mind.

You probably aren’t going to want to invest in a great kitchen counter specifically for the holiday season, but the benefits that great counters provide during this time of year are another reason to consider having a beautiful stone surface added to your home. Contact Stone World today to learn more about the amazing products and installation services that we offer!