Marble counters--best quality at reasonable price?

Meant GRANITE counter tops!

best bet is to look for someone from an outer borough/nj. qualified to install and generally cheaper.

the biggest cost you'll have is the insurance to bring it into the building, if you live in one. my guy is a wholesaler and he told me that to bring the stuff into a manhattan bldg costs him almost $700.

my coop wanted to do the same. i just told them i had a delivery and that was that.

You generally would want to have the kitchen installer take care of this as part of the price of the kitchen. That way, the contractor is 100% responsible for a proper template, fit, delivery, no damage. If you are just replacing a countertop, you'll still need it installed properly and I'd recommend hiring someone to deal with this. My experience is that generally the money saved by buying things on one's own (with possible exception of lighting) is not worth the resulting headaches. For example, were i to do another kitchen reno, no way would I be responsible for appliances. The time suck between arranging delivery, dealing with mistakes, time lost from work, etc wasn't worth the moeny I saved.

kylewest, i disagree. my appliances would have cost me $5300 if i would have went with PC Richards or the like. i bought them for $3700 and got a 5 yr warrantee and still saved over $1K. my counters were $2800+ in Home Depot, i got them for $1900 and the stone was better quality. the granite guy came and measured, and created his own template as part of the price.

where did you buy your appliances?

@ab_11218: you may have misunderstood me. I agree you save money by doing things yourself. What I tried to say is that the money I saved was not worth it. I'd have gladly paid another $1500 for my $9000 worth of appliances to have had the damaged refrigerator that took a month and 100 phone calls to replace be someone else's headache (that is, the contractor's). I'd have also not had the aggravation of arriving late or leaving early from work 3-4 times, of having to arrange with the building for the deliveries, of tipping the delivery people and having to inspect everything since I was responsible. In the scheme of what the reno cost, I'd have been better just letting the GC get the appliances. Countertops vary a lot in price I suppose, but I'd prefer to negotiate the price with a contractor who is installing them than get them on my own and bear the risk of all that can go wrong.

You can definitely end up saving by taking on aspects of a job yourself. But doing so is rife with assumption of many expensive risks, and if one thing goes wrong, the money you saved by doing all the many tasks yourself could be gone.

I think the one thing I'd purchase on my own again is lighting. That was pretty easy with guidance from architect on some technical wiring issues.

I recommend Granite Tops in Mount Vernon. You can go to their showroom / stone lot and pick out exactly what you like. Their prices beat Home Depot and Walker Zanger by a significant amount. I had a GC remove the old counter and hook up the plumbing for a new sink. Granite Tops came to the apartment to make a template and did the installation of the stone. Make sure you already have your sink on hand so they can take the sink template with them before they cut the stone. I found them to be very professional, willing to negotiate on price, and very timely with delivery.

All so very informative. I am learning, the hard way, that trying to do things
myself (ie coordinate myself) so far is costing me much more.
Thanks

The eternal - how much is your $ worth?

I did the countertops separately, because it was thousand in savings. But I am not uber-picky, if there had been issues (which there were), I would just suck it up. So, I am not able to open one upper cab full way bcs of the way the marble backsplash was cut. Am okay with it.

And ordered all the bathroom stuff online (mistake!) Saved a lot, but there was a lot of hassle. One website turned out to be complete crooks (can't remember which one).

Homeclick, Ira Woods, faucets.com are decent. Ira Woods, especially.

The next go around I would buy from Davis Warshaw and Gracious Home (just negotiate hard to get contractor discount).

I did a reno on the UWS a few years back and I ordered all my own bathroom fixtures (tub, sink, faucets, etc.) from Homeclick. It was just a pied a terre and we knew we were not staying there so I wanted to save $$$. The prices/customer service were good but even so...I would probably not go this route again. I agree with nyc10023/kylewest--too much anxiety, time lost, back and forth with company because a sink arrived cracked (they replaced without a hassle but it still took a long time to arrange--and it was MY time). I had the contractor order the granite and when it arrived with the sink cutout incorrect--well--that was not my problem--and it felt good not to have to deal with it!!

Glad I'm not the only one weighing in and saying "think twice."