A lifetime change for the house…

At Granite & Marble Crafts, the team have carefully curated the products that they use and are always on the lookout for the newest and up and coming trends in stone surfaces. This company have been in business for more than 15 years and are proud to say they are one of Ireland’s leading manufacturers in this industry.

Their product range includes Silestone Quartz, Sensa protected Granite and Dekton all by the leading producer and distributor Cosentino. Sustainability and environmental protection are key to the team at Granite & Marble Crafts which is why they choose to use Cosentino.

They create their products using innovative initiatives to reduce carbon emissions such as their use of recycled materials in their products and manufacture exclusively with renewable energy.

Worktop trends have evolved in 2023 and are even more exciting than ever! Kitchens now act as an additional living space rather than a place to prepare food and with that being said this company believe the worktop is an essential component of the kitchen and the surface you choose is the foundation of your decor when designing your kitchen space.

“Primarily we use Silestone and Dekton; Dekton is becoming more popular but quartz silestone would be the main part of our business at the moment.

At present, 80% of our work would be done with silestone as it is a superior product and we also give a 25 year guarantee with it. We are getting more and more enquiries about Dekton as a lot of Architects are in love with this product at the moment,” explained James Picking.

“Dekton are also bringing out floor tiles so home owners can run the floor tiles throughout the entire house; it is a game changer with what is happening at the moment. If you have a good designer, they can really make things happen for the home owner!

“Customers would usually come in contact with us through a kitchen company and we would encourage the customer (s) to come down to our showroom so as they can see the full slabs as it gives them a good idea of what they are going to get. From there, we work off their drawings.

Some people have their colour picked in 30 seconds, others need a bit more time and they need to meet our design team and see all of the colours and maybe take a trip to Cosentino (our main supplier) in Fonthill. Customers also take their samples from our showroom to test them out in the environment the product is going into,” he continued.

“We are never in a hurry with a customer to get a sale so if customers need to come back here a few times to make enquiries there isn’t any issue with that as buying and installing this product is a big decision and it is an expensive one but it is a lifetime change for the house.

We can guide the customer but ultimately the decisions are left with them. We definitely encourage the customer to bring a good sized sample home with them so they can test it out in the finished environment before it is installed.

As to any advice he would offer customers?

Take your time when choosing this product, shop around and have a look in various showrooms at the various quartz and Dekton worktops. There are new colours coming out all of the time; white has been prominent for the last 10 years and 90% of our worktops would be white so if I could give someone a little bit of advice and go against the grain a little bit, there are lovely greys and darker shades in the Dekton range. There is fabulous material out there and we can step away from the white if the customer wishes,’ finished Mr Picking.