Natural Stone Ordering: Details Matter Before the Job Starts

Words: Rob McKay
Photos: Instone

A lot of problems on a stone job can be traced back to the order.

I’m on the supplier side, so I see it regularly. A mason can do everything right in the field and still end up fighting a job because the wrong material was ordered, quantities were off, corners were missed, or somebody assumed the stone would look exactly like a sample from two years ago.

Most of that can be avoided. It just takes a little more work before the order gets placed.

Start With The Actual Product
Color is usually what gets everyone's attention first, but there’s more to an order than picking a stone that looks right.

The same natural stone may be available as full bed stone or thin veneer, and depending on the product, you may also have different faces, cuts, sizes, and patterns available.

Those differences matter.

Full bed stone needs proper support, typically a footing or masonry ledge. Thin veneer is an adhered product and doesn’t require the same support, but there is additional fabrication involved in sawing the stone down. The material cost, installation method, weight, and coverage can all change depending on what you’re buying.

So before getting too far into pricing, make sure everyone is talking about the same product.

Corners are another thing to confirm early. Flats and corners are normally ordered separately, and corners are generally figured by the lineal foot. They’re easy to overlook when someone is concentrating on the wall square footage.

Finding that out while you’re placing the order is easy to fix. Finding it out when the mason is halfway through the job usually isn’t.

Take The Time To Check Your Quantities
Stone takeoffs aren’t particularly difficult, but small mistakes can get expensive.

Start with the wall area and subtract your openings. Then look at the corners and determine how much wall area those corner pieces will cover. That needs to come out of the flat quantity, so you aren't buying unnecessary material.

Waste depends on the job.

Ten percent may be enough on a straightforward installation. If there are a lot of cuts, arches, columns, radius work, or a random pattern that requires more sorting and fitting, I’d rather see some additional material figured into the order.

Natural stone doesn't behave like a manufactured product where every piece coming out of the box is identical. The mason is going to sort through it. Some pieces will work better in certain areas than others, and there will be cutting and breakage along the way.

Be careful with tonnage estimates too. Coverage per ton varies quite a bit from one stone to another. Density, thickness, shape, and how the stone is processed all affect it.

If you need a coverage number, ask for the number on the specific product being quoted instead of relying on what another stone covered on the last job.

Samples Aren’t The Whole Story
This is probably one of the more important conversations to have with a customer.

Natural stone varies.

A sample board, showroom panel, or photo gives you a good idea of what a product looks like, but it isn't a guarantee that every pallet will match it exactly. Quarries move through different areas of the deposit, and color, veining, texture, and other characteristics can change.

That's part of using a natural material.

It’s also one of the reasons I recommend ordering the entire job at the same time whenever possible. If you come back six weeks or three months later for another few hundred square feet, the additional material may not look exactly like the original shipment.

Sometimes it matches very well. Sometimes it doesn’t.

It's a much easier conversation to have before the job starts than after the second shipment is sitting next to the first one.

Don't Assume Everything Is Sitting In Stock

Lead times can vary quite a bit with natural stone.

Some standard products may already be inventoried and ready to ship. Others have to come from the quarry. Fabricated pieces such as hearths, sills, caps, treads, or other custom-cut material can add additional time.

Weather matters too, especially with northern quarries. These are outdoor operations, and winter conditions can affect production.

If a project includes custom fabrication, I like to identify those pieces early. A job can have 98 percent of the material on site and still be held up because one hearth, sill, or cap hasn't arrived.

Ask about lead times when you quote the project and then check them again when the job is awarded. Things change.

Think About Delivery Before Delivery Day
Another thing worth discussing early is how the material is actually getting onto the site.

Stone gets heavy in a hurry. A truck may be able to get to the address without being able to get anywhere close to where the material needs to go.

Look at access. Can the truck get in and back out? Is there enough room to turn around? Can a forklift or Moffett operate on the site? Is the ground firm enough? Where are the pallets going to be staged?

Those questions sound basic until a truck is sitting in the road with several pallets of stone and nobody has a good place to put them.

When the load arrives, somebody should also check it before signing the delivery paperwork. Count the pallets, compare them with the bill of lading, and look for obvious damage, broken bands, or shifted material.

If something doesn't look right, document it then. It is much easier for everyone involved to figure out what happened while the delivery is still fresh.

Give Your Supplier Enough Information
The more we know about the job, the more useful we can be.

Tell us what pattern you're installing, what kind of joint you're planning, whether the project has a lot of corners or radius work, what the schedule looks like, and whether there are fabricated pieces involved.

Those details can change quantities and lead times.

I've had plenty of conversations where one extra question at the counter uncovered something that would have become a problem later. Maybe the corner quantity didn't look right. Maybe the customer wanted a dry-stack appearance, but the takeoff assumed a wider joint. Maybe there was a custom piece nobody had accounted for.

That's part of what a good supplier should be helping with.

We see a lot of stone orders, including the ones that don't go according to plan. Over time, you get a pretty good idea of where the trouble usually starts.

Spend a little more time on the order before the material moves. Confirm the product, check the quantities, understand the variation, ask about lead times, and have a plan for delivery.

It isn't complicated, but it can save a lot of aggravation once the crew is on the job.

Natural Stone Ordering: Details Matter Before the Job Starts

About: Resources

Dust Mitigation in Masonry: Practical Strategies for Safer Job Sites

What Does That Marking Actually Mean?: Understanding the Standards Behind Your PPE

TERRA Footwear Renews as a Silver Partner in 2027

PROSOCO Recommits as a Cornerstone Partner in 2027