The Granite Guys

We selected this company based on the reviews, inventory selection as well as the fact we felt more confident in them compared to the other companies we obtained quotes from even though Granite Guys were more money. We were extremely pleased with the service provided during the various steps involved as detailed on their website.
1. Walter was very professional during the estimate phase as well as selection phase. He pointed out potential issues with our cabinets and did advise that some tiles on our backsplash could be broken but they had a very good track record. When we attended the showroom to review the inventory Walter again took time to personally show us the entire inventory despite the heavy rain. When we could not find a granite slab we liked Walter provided names and addresses of their suppliers to allow us an opportunity to find a color we liked. While we did visit two of the suppliers we actually found the granite we liked at the first supplier in the first 5 mins. We headed back to the showroom paid our deposit and the process commenced. The Granite Guys coordinated the process based on our upcoming holiday to ensure the purchase and installation would not be a lengthy process.
2. Three days after paying our deposit Kevin arrived to do the templating. Again Kevin was very professional and raised concerns as to whether the kitchen sink we wanted to install would fit. Kevin also identified potential issues with our cabinet installation and noted it for the installers but it may not have been fully communicated to installers as they were not quite prepared for what they would needed to do. That said the countertops fit perfectly which we attribute to the job Kevin did at templating.
3. Design / Template location. Two days after Kevin completed the template we attended the showroom to participate in the placement of the template on the granite. Again Walter was there to meet us and assist as well as one of the fabricators. We appreciated being able to participate in this process and we are glad we did. The only negative part of this process was that it seem initially to us, may not be the case, that there was an effort to try and squeeze the templates in as much as possible to allow for more usable remnants for the company. We say this because one of the templates was placed on the granite slab top to bottom rather then left to right.This just would not have looked right given our granite selection. When we pointed this out and after some discussion the templates were moved. We also determined the sink we originally wanted would not fit and a new sink was purchased.
4, Installation - Josh and Tyson handled the majority of the installation with some help from Kevin. The installers were very professional and it was very evident that Josh was the lead and had the most experience. He worked very hard to ensure the installation went smoothly completing much of the removal of the old countertops while directing the activities of Tyson and to some extent Kevin. He ensured the work areas were kept clean and dealt with the challenges of our cabinets to the best of his abilities. He answered any questions we had during the installation process. Tyson also worked very hard and did a great job although it was evident in the removal process he did not yet have the experience of Kevin. While everyone had hoped for a flawless removal of the countertops and installation of the granite we did not quite get there as we did have one tile chipped in a bathroom.

Closing comments and rating
We have never had granite installed before so we did not have a lot to compare The Granite Guys to. We were able however to compare our costs and what was included and not included and cost price to a neighbor who recently used a competitor. As previously stated The Granite Guys are a little more money and their pricing is not all inclusive (removal, installation, plumbing work). That said I prefer to know what i am paying for to determine what I can have done elsewhere if I wanted to do that. Although they did provide a sheet of what they were responsible for and what we were responsible for it may not have included everything as after the install we found out they were not responsible for putting silicone on the front cabinet and the granite (underneath). For a couple of dollars of silicone this did not make sense as one of their competitors does this. Clearly it is very important to ask as many questions as possible no matter how small and do not assume anything. We just did know what all we should have asked or did not think of it at the appropriate time.
The above said we are very happy with our granite and the service we received but given the install was not flawless (perfect) and some of the other things mentioned in the review we could not give them a 10. We believe a score of 8 out of 10 for our transaction is more then appropriate.
That said we would recommend The Granite Guys for your granite purchase and installations needs.