CASSARINO STONE

They were very professional and very nice. I didn?t have to pay anything extra for my sink or anything else. I would probably not use them again, though.

It went well overall. I went to their place where they told me their process in detail. I went to Arizona tile to pick out and pay for my granite. Then they sent out a seperate contractor to demo my fireplace and countertops. The seprate contractor helped a great deal for me to get everything that was needed, but left much to be desired. While demoing my countertops they left gaping holes in some of the drywall. I had to patch that and everything before Cassirino could install my granite. They also put plywood down so that the granite could be installed, but when Cassarino got here to take the template, they told me that the plywood was not level. So I had to go home depot for some brackets and installed them myself. This helped me to get the plywood level on my own. It was a lot of work that I was under the impression that I had hired Cassirino to perform. I had the seperate contractor also demo my fire place. I put my own plywood there and was able to get everything completed without gaping holes. This saved me lots of money. When Cassirino came They installed the fireplace with ease and were able to get everything installed with ease. The only thing that was and still is unfinished is the fact that some of the plywood is showing where the granite meets the fireplace, but I only need to install black calking there to cover that seam up. I suggest you do the demo and plywood yourself, it is cheaper and better completed in the long run.

The job went extremely well: Before shopping for the granite, we made a scale drawing of the areas to be done. We chose Cassarino because they had a very good understanding of what we wanted and they never objected to anything we wanted to do. They actually wanted to help us figure out the best way to do this job. From our drawings they made some calculations and we selected a granite pattern - the actual sheets for our job - not just a catalog presentation. We chose to take out all of our old counter tops and cover all areas with 5/8" plywood ourselves, saving an estimated $800 (they estimated this cost for their men to do the job). Next, they sent a man out to make templates of the areas to be done and we went to the store to work with them on laying the templates on the granite sheets to match patterns, etc. They are experts at this and the final job shows that. The installation day came and we discovered a few areas that were not quite level. The installer said he could "work around" the areas, but I was able to have him work elsewhere in the house while I fixed a couple of things the template man had missed. The installer was very careful and a perfectionist. He often asked if what he was doing was meeting my expectations - before he would be satisfied himself. NO shortcuts was his way of working - get it right is his motto. He made beautiful tight seams, he made sure all the finer details were done as well as could be done - no shortcuts or "that's good enough" attitude or workmanship. One of the notable things about working with Cassarino is that they really involve the customer in all but the actual cutting phase of the job; calls from them to make sure the demo and plywood job was complete before the template man was to arrive, calls to remind us of the template man's appointment at our house, a call to remind us to work with them/see the templates on the stone, calls to remind us of the installer's appoinment at our house, and even a call while the installer was here to ensure we were happy with his work. They called a few days later to ask if we were happy with it, too. We paid them to cut some other items from the remaining stone: a table top, some cutting boards and soap dishes. They did a great job on all of that, too. And, it must be mentioned that their people always showed up when they were supposed to be there. One problem: Someone estimated the job to take about 5 hours, so the installer and his helper showed up at 11 AM on a Friday, but after working through lunch until almost 6 PM, he admitted it was going to take a lot more time. Installation was completed in about 3 -4 hours of Saturday. That elicited another call from the office to let us know the guys would be back Saturday morning to finish the job.