What actually happens between "yes" and "installed"
Nobody buys a stone benchtop often enough to learn the process — which is exactly why the process feels opaque. Here's the genuine sequence from our own Sydney facility, with the timelines that actually matter and the three moments where jobs go right or wrong.
Step 1 — Slab selection (you, with us)
Before any measuring: you stand in front of actual slabs and choose yours — by lot, by vein placement, by band direction. For statement marbles this is the single highest-value half hour of the whole project, because your slab is yours once reserved. Photos can't carry this decision; tone shifts under lighting and vein layouts that look similar in thumbnails are unrelated in person.
Step 2 — Digital templating (the 90-minute visit)
Once cabinets are installed and finished, our templater visits with a digital measuring system and records the space to the millimetre — every wall's wander, every cabinet's deviation from level, because no wall in Sydney is as straight as it believes. This is precision stage one: the benchtop fits because the template recorded reality, not the plan.
Scheduling truth: templating only happens after cabinets are final. If your builder calls us before cabinets exist, we'll say so — measuring a plan is how benchtops end up wrong.
Step 3 — Fabrication (where the craft is)
Your slabs move to our Rydalmere facility for cutting: sink and cooktop cutouts, tap holes, join mitres, edge profiles, waterfall drops. This is stonemasonry in the literal sense, and it's where the quote differences between companies live. What we check that cheap quotes skip: internal corner relief cut so joins close tightly, reinforcement rods over cutouts and thin sections, cut-edge polishing to full gloss (an unpolished edge is where staining starts), and handling that treats the slab as the one-of-a-kind piece it is.
Step 4 — Pre-install check (the moment nobody offers and everyone should have)
For islands and feature stone we offer a dry-lay: the fabricated pieces are assembled at the showroom so you see the vein flow, join positions and edges before installation day. Ten minutes here has saved more statement islands than any other step in the chain.
Step 5 — Installation day
Stone arrives, is maneuvered (this is genuine logistics — a Abisso Nero island can be north of 200kg), set, levelled and joined with colour-matched epoxy. We silicone the perimeter flex joint, check every overhang, and clean the site. You'll be asked to keep the area clear for a few hours; the epoxy reaches handling strength same day.
Step 6 — The handover
Seal where the stone calls for it, a written care card (the short honest one, not a legal document), and a direct number for any question ever. Our supply-and-install customers get one warranty from one company — no fabricator blaming the slab, no supplier blaming the installer.
Timeline reality, Sydney 2026
From template to installed: typically under two weeks for standard work; statement marble with complex fabrication and dry-lay adds days, not weeks. From your first showroom visit: it depends entirely on your cabinet program — which is why the right time to choose stone is early, so slabs are reserved and fabrication slots the week your cabinets finish.
See these stones in person. Visit our Sydney showroom at Unit J, 10–16 South St, Rydalmere — or call 1800 800 288 for wholesale, trade and supply-and-install quotes. Browse our full slab range →