Good Read...Applies to All

[Mark Imbesi]

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[KevinL]

I think we all know the problems in our industry. So how do we fix them? We have fights going over with the CRI SOA, the manufacturers and retailers selling crap to be installed in high traffic areas by installers that do crap work. Hacks that give us all a bad name. Walmart and QVC practically giving away "steam cleaners", No education to the consumer about buying or caring for their carpet, or choosing a professional cleaner. I say we start our own marketing blitz.

 

[sweendogg]

Its the same story across the entire flooring industry... take for instance all of the cheap turkish travertine out there that is being marked as chissled edge... little do the consumers know they have a nightmare growning under in that type of flooring.

 

[The Great Oz]

Don't lower your price to compete with hacks, got it.

This article might convince a few high-priced installers to keep their prices high, but just like us they may be better off lowering prices temporarily rather than sitting in front of the TV eating generic cereal.

I don't understand why the granite installers gripe about prefab countertops rather than embracing them. It's the same granite, just finished in China rather than locally. The quality of the installation would be the same whether the granite was prefab or not. For countertops in my straightforward kitchen, the cost of slab, cutting cost per inch, polishing cost per inch and edge treatment cost per inch amounts to over $15,000 installed. The very same granite bought prefabricated and mildly customized will cost less than $3,500 using the very same installer.

I might be interested in paying a little more to keep the fabrication local, but not $11,500 worth. These guys need to realize their world has changed and either get more efficient or adjust to far less work.

 

[sweendogg]

:shock: well... damn.. ok I guess when you put it that way... although you really can't argue that the two products are the same. That would be like saying a Ferrari and a honda civic are the same because they are made of the same materials. While it may appear a whole hell of a lot cheaper in this case...the life of stone regardless of granite, travertine.. etc is very dependent to how its extracted and finished. And it raises the question... WHY is it so much cheaper to buy from China?

 

[The Great Oz]

Baltic Brown comes from Finland and Uba Tuba from Brazil and is extracted by the same people the same way no matter where it ends up getting finished. (To me, rating the quality of travertine is like arguing which rusty Datsun is better. Travertine is for house flippers.)

I think there may be a few reasons why the same stone is cheaper: Labor cost - no explanation needed; Efficiency - a large automated factory can process far faster than a local shop that sets up every job individually; Material waste - the local shop makes you pay for waste, the factory is using those cuts to make everything from table tops to tiles to lamp bases to coasters so you don't have to pay for it; Attitude - the local shop rate is $365 per hour dammit.

There can definitely be quality differences though, and custom sizes just take too long to order and get. The granite installers do have to educate their customers about potential quality differences. In my given case there's no difference in the stone or quality of the finished product, just fewer choices in edge finishes.