By CAROLE DICKEY

Myths were busted and mysteries explained during a recent workshop hosted by Stone Specialties of Tampa Bay, Inc., an Odessa full-service granite and marble fabrication company.

“We’re really a soups to nuts company,” said Roz Gil, an office assistant. “We take you from the signing of the contract all the way to installation.”

In fact, Gary Thompson, owner of the business, prides himself on the attention Stone Specialties devotes to their customers’ concerns, “holding their hands.” They keep an office staff of eight people ready to return phone calls, answer questions and make sure customers feel comfortable through the whole process, he said.

“Because nobody knows what granite is and hardly anybody’s been through the process before, and everybody has a horror story of letting someone into their home that didn’t finish a project or didn’t do it right or whatever,” he said. “It’s very traumatic to have somebody come into your home and tear it to pieces and put it back together again.”

That’s one reason they hosted a home improvement workshop in March, which included tours, a question/answer session, refreshments and a drawing.
Homeowners got an up close and personal look at the process of remodeling with granite and were able to browse through and compare dozens of slabs of stone purchased from sources in Brazil, India, the Middle East, China, Japan and Asia.

Some myths that were busted included the myths that granite is absorbent, it stains easily and loses its polish.

Rene Johnson, who attended the event with her husband, had driven by Stone Specialists many times, intrigued but never stopping. The workshop inspired her to check out the place.

“Now I can see that they are pretty much one-stop shopping for kitchen and bath, because they have the cabinetry, the flooring, the granite, the sinks – a lot more than I expected,” she said.

Joe Santos, a scheduler with Stone Specialists, explained how the process works when a customer places an order. After they walk their customer through color matching and granite or marble selection, they go to the home at no charge to measure the area and give the customer a price. The next step is to make a template that will be used to measure and cut the granite. And finally, the granite is installed, either 3 cm, or about 1.25 inch thick, weighing about 20 pounds per square foot, or 2 cm, about .75 inch thick, weighing about 12 pounds per square foot.

“Even a small kitchen of 50 square feet could weigh in with 1,000 pounds of material,” Santos said. “So we have to have a lot of heavy-looking equipment to help us out.”

Thompson, who has been in the business in one form or another for 25 years, stresses customer service.

“The reason we have gotten to the point that we have is because we value our customers more than anything,” he said. “Customer service is the most important thing to us.”

Stone Specialties, 8511 N. Gunn Highway, Odessa, is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturdays, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. For more information, call 920-9300.