What Is Granite Templating
What the heck is granite templating?!
By now, your designer just finished taking you to a granite distribution warehouse or a slab yard. You had picked out the most beautiful granite you had ever seen. You can almost picture it in your dream kitchen. Now what do you do?
If you do not have a granite fabricator (the people who will cut your granite), the slab yard will recommend someone for you. I suggest that you ask your designers who they like working with first. This will ensure a smooth transition from the slab yard to fabrication to installation. After all, this is one of the highlights of your new kitchen, right?
Now you are ready for the granite templating. When should you schedule for this event?
When you are just replacing an existing countertop, you can schedule the templating anytime after you have picked out your granite slab. So basically, anytime you are ready to put down that deposit, you are good to go.
If you’re changing the look or the outline of the countertop, just make sure that the existing one has been removed. Be ready to show a drawing plan to the fabricator’s representative when he comes over to template. When you are doing a complete kitchen renovation, templating occurs after the cabinets have been properly installed. You want to make sure that everything is leveled correctly.
Finally, the rep comes in with his tools and balsa wood like the ones pictured above and below this paragraph. These pieces of wood are placed accordingly and are put together to mimic the base cabinets plus the overhang specified. They are then glued together with a simple hot glue gun. One thing to remember is that you want to make sure that all appliances, especially the refrigerator (if not in a built-in cabinet) and the stove are in place.
The picture above shows how the balsa strips are formed as a template for your granite after it has been glued together.
The dishwasher may be placed later. An extension of balsa strip with the right distance measured according to manufacturer’s specifications. Most often than not, this distance is about 24 inches. This appliance is usually slid in place after granite is installed but ask your contractor how he prefers to install the dishwasher.
With the range or stove, too many different manufacturer offer different specifications. It is best to supply the fabricator with all appliance specifications. By the way, you should also provide a copy of all appliance specifications to your kitchen cabinet manufacturer, if you haven’t given it to your designer. Also, the most important thing to remember is to provide the fabricator with the sink or sink template, faucet or faucet template, or anything else that would require cutting anything into the granite, i.e. air-switch, faucet spray, soap dispenser, etc.
After finishing the templating, the fabricator’s representative takes all of his template back to the fabrication shop. It is to your advantage to go to the shop sometime after templating to see which part of the granite you want to highlight on which particular portion of the counter.
This will have to be another blog, so stay tuned!