experience with picking slabs of stone?

socal_bride

last weekend we went to a stoneyard and found the most beautiful slab of carrara. it's got great veining, and even has touches of gold in it, which I've never seen on white carrara before. we put it on hold, and we'll be going back this weekend to find a second slab that we like (we'll need 2 slabs for our kitchen). 

my question... when looking at slabs, did you just look at one or two because you liked them and figured there wasn't anything better in the stack, or did you look at all of the slabs in the pile to see every one? I feel like I want to look at the entire stack of slabs just so that I'm thorough, but not sure if that'll be really annoying to them (since it takes a bit of work to move them out of the way), or if I'm just being OCD about it. what was your experience?

decoraholic

I probably would have looked through the entire stack of slabs if they would have let me This was for granite, but I assume it's the same for marble. Most of the places we looked insisted that if they were from the same lot that the ones behind it would look almost the same. They don't like to move them because it can damage the stone. On our final pick I think I looked at the top 3 of the stack.

nicoleskr

it's tons of work depending on space and availability of the crew to move each slab. If you don't love the slabs, look at the next one. Don't keep looking if you love one though- it makes it more confusing first of all, and honestly, if you like one your time is better spent doing something else.

But, that said, if you need 2 slabs, put 3 on hold. I've seen it too often that something happens to a slab making it not useable because of veining or breaking. You dont want to have to go back again. GL!

FoxinFiji

Don't they have a picture of each slab as they inventoried it?  Looking at all of them is unreasonable.  It's not like flipping through small samples at the showroom.  It takes a lot of man power and equipment to move each slab.  If you get it and try to get another one or two from the same lot. 

On a side note are you sure it's carrara?  If I'm not mistaken there are different names for carrara that has gold streaks in it.  Or it could be a different type of marble all together.  

atlcatlover

Once we picked the color we liked we were told they would have us come back to view each slab individually to pick out the one/s we liked best.  In the end we only needed one slab so we didn't have to go through that, but they were more than happy to accomodate us if that is what we had wanted or needed.

queenbone

It depends upon how consistent the slabs are, but if you need 2 I'd ask to see at least 4 at your appointment and pick the two you like best.  From those 4 you'll get a pretty good idea how consistent the veining would be in the rest of the stack.