Remnant Stone Slab for a Buck
Using pieces of a remnant stone slab can save you huge amounts of money on your next home building or remodeling project. We should know…we recently installed a new shower and used a remnant piece of quartz for the shower ledge. The best part is, the quartz cost us a tiny fraction of what similar materials typically go for.
Remnant Savings
Whole stone slabs typically range in price from $20 per square foot all the way up to several hundred for the rare stuff. When we say stone, we are referring to granite, marble, and man made quartz. And this is just the cost of the material. By the time you add in the fabrication cost for fabrication, it can get really expensive. A remnant stone slab is a piece of material that was left over from a previous countertop job. There are typically no defects, they just didn’t fit in with the kitchen or bathroom that was cut out of the slab. The piece of Caesarstone quartz we purchased for our shower ledge was only a dollar…a piece that would normally go for over a hundred bucks.
Where to Buy?
Most countertop companies have a remnant stone slab section in their showroom that you can look at. If you don’t see them be sure to ask. Countertop companies would sometimes rather sell you a new slab because they can make more money so the remnants may not be out in the open for you to see. Another great place to find renmant stone slabs is at your local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Our local ReStore has many different shapes and styles at some great prices.
Shower Ledge out of Remnant Material
Drawbacks
The biggest problem with remnants is trying to find pieces that will fit your particular project. The smaller your project is, the better the chance you will find what you need. For our shower project, we needed a piece for our shower ledge…6.5″ wide by 50″ long. We found a great piece of quartz that matched our subway stone wall tile color. The only issue was…we had to place a seam in the middle of the ledge. No big deal. This is much better than placing tile on the ledge and having 16 grout lines that can potentially leak at some point in the future.
Cutting Stone
Of course you can always have a professional countertop company fabricate your new stone for you. But if you have a small job like the shower remodel we just finished, you might want to do it yourself. With a special diamond blade, you can cut quartz, marble and granite with a circular saw. To find out how we did it, check out our latest video…Remnant Stone Savings.\
