Well, i don't have any positive things to say about any natural stone fabricators in my area to start with. . i am a contractor and in the home remodeling business . .so, I am working on a custom master bathroom that i designed and am installing myself. I installed travertine tile and mosiac accents throughout the bathroom. I designed the bathroom to have a full travertine shower seat, jambs and curbing to complete the look. I first googled local stone fabricators and Renaissance in blackwood nj first came up. .. i went and visited them and met with Susan who was nice in person and gave me a chunk of a noce travertine slab that they had. The color was perfect. I gave her sizes and she was going to get back to me with a price. She never called, i called her 2 more times and left messages and still no call back. So i decided to look elsewhere.
A friend gave me a recommendation of all granite in Pennsauken and went there but they didn't have travertine.. i did another search and found colussus in brooklawn. I first spoke with kathleen and told her about my experience with Renaissance, and she said that she has heard that they don't get back to people as well, and that a shower seat with jambs and curbing wasn't a big enough job for most people and that's why they probably didn't return all of my calls.
Kathleen was very nice and told me they don't have the travertine that i was looking for but recommended that i went to dente trading in Sewell to pick out what i wanted and they would fabricate it for me.
So (Dave) at dente was very helpful and i picked out my slab.In the meantime joe (kathleens husband and business partner) came to template my project. . I wanted it templated so no one could blame me for wrong sizes. They gave me a price of $850 which is kind of high for travertine, they also wanted paid in full before they would do anything. . (Wholesale travertine usually costs $7 per sq foot for a 2cm slab) the slab was 34 sq feet but i only needed 17 sq feet for my project, i understood that i was buying the slab for my specific project, (which is fine) So i paid in full and then the project went into fabrication.
I got a call the next week saying it was finished. So, when i went to pick up the material, neither kathleen or joe were there. They just had their workers which barely speak English (except 1 guy).. the seat had a 10 inch crack along the back part of the seat and white surface scratches. I refused pickup and said i would talk to the owners about it.
I emailed them when i got home about what i saw and they said they don't see what i was talking about. So i went 2 days later to reinspect and miraculously the scratches and cracks were sanded/buffed out and crack was filled in. I arranged pickup for later on that day. I asked what material and boards i would need to pick up the material. They instructed me 2x4s or to build an a frame to attach the material to and i said that i would do that. They told me to pick up by 4pm and joe said he would be there until 5. He also jokingly said that he hopes they crack on the way home so he could make them again and charge me again. I got there at 355 and joe was not there and had to deal with non English speaking workers.
I did get them home in one piece and found that when i tried to dry fit them into place, that nothing fit correctly and i had to cut everything myself to size. There was also a huge ugly white filler spot right in the middle of the seat (which i told them to pick the nicest cleanest part of the slab for the seat), which they didn't. I wrote them an email again about this on july 2nd at 9pm. I understand it was a holiday weekend and possibly they wouldn't get back to me on Friday the 3rd.
Joe did call when i was at work on Monday the 6th at 1030am and left a voice mail asking how the install went and didn't mention anything about any of the screw ups and concerns i wrote them about. I called him back 1 hr later (1130am), no answer. . and left a voice mail for him on Monday. I still haven't gotten a call back and it is now Friday. I do not recommend this company, and just wanted to write my experience.. i have emails and pictures if people would like me to send them read more