How much we saved by DIY-ing our marble countertop
THE FARMHOUSE
Garrett has been fabricating our stone countertops for a few years now - it’s not exactly an easy DIY and definitely not for everyone, but it can save you a ton of money. Especially when you live in an area where stone fabricators are in short supply and crazy expensive. I’ve been asked before for a price comparison between DIY and professionally fabricated stone countertops, so today I wanted to share that number comparison plus a peek at our new marble vanity top!
board and batten, tiles, grout
psst: yup, we decided on just one sink for this bathroom
I haven’t been able to share a cost savings for DIYing stone countertops in the past because I haven’t gotten a bid from a professional shop in awhile. But this go-around, I went to our local stone fabricator to see what they had on hand. It turns out they were out of marble (everyone seems to be experiencing supply hiccups lately!) but proposed a creamy quartz remnant and gave me a full bid for fab and install. With so much carrara marble in the bathroom already, quartz wasn’t going to cut it, so Garrett and I made a trek over the mountains to Seattle to see what we could find at our favorite stone and salvage shops. It wasn’t until our 5th stop, that we finally spied the right piece of stone for this bathroom…
Pretty, right? The marble piece had been fabricated for a kitchen island then returned to the shop because the owners didn’t like that it had a filled fissure (an extremely narrow but long opening along the boundaries of crystalline structures in the stone - I dare you to find it!). Even with the existing sink cutout, the slab had plenty of room to fit our 6’-long vanity top, 4” backsplash, and a future sidetable top or two ;) It was a crazy CRAZY good deal at $200 (priced low because it had already been cut and required a certain type of buyer) but the store also had some pretty marble remnants that they would have sold us for $35/sf for 2cm and $45 for 3cm.
Professional bid
Back to the bid we got. Our local supplier priced out a 6’-long vanity top with 4” backsplash using a remnant from their yard. The price included the material, shop fabrication, and install and took into account the unique design and shape of our vanity top + undermount sink + faucet holes. Here’s the bid:
Quartz remnant $1300
Fab/install $1000
Total $2300
Now here’s the thing - a professional shop has better tools than we do. They have water tables and cranes and aren’t standing out in their driveway dripping wet with a makeshift work table, 5-year-old circular saw, and diamond blades bought on Amazon. They do this for a living and are good at it and our once-or-twice-a-year DIY project can’t come close to their level of skill. So we’re not exactly comparing apples to apples here on quality but here’s what it cost us to buy our remnant and fabricate it.
DIY Total
So what was the cost of our slab and install?
Marble remnant $200
Fab/Install $50*
Total = $250
*In reality, our out-of-pocket cost for this countertop was $200. Crazy, right?! But of course blades need replaced and polishing pads wear out, so I added $50 in the fabrication line item for incidentals. I literally spent more on a vintage oil painting for this space. Ha! And all in all, we saved $1,800 on this countertop by DIY-ing it.
Of course not everyone has the tools to DIY stone fabrication, so here’s a a fuller estimate on fab/install if you were starting from scratch…
$3 construction adhesive
$50 epoxy (for the seams)
$339 Wet Stone Polisher (for honing + coring for faucet)
$40 Diamond polishing pads (for honing and smoothing edges)
$10 4.5” Diamond blade (for Wet Polisher to cut sink cutout corners)
$40 Diamond core bit (for Wet Polisher to core faucet holes)
$154 Circular saw (for cutting)
$34 7” Diamond blade for a circular saw (for cutting stone)
$165 Clamps (general purpose)
$835 Total
We still need to drill the holes for the faucet (just waiting to get it in our hands first) and then this countertop is done!
psst: if you’re curious how Garrett fabricates stone, there’s a video on Instagram today and he shared his general process a few years ago in this post.
