The total cost of ownership of your hard surface material comes not just with the purchase of the material but with shipping charges, fabrication, installation and maintenance. We believe this is one of the ways that BottleStone is a cost effective and efficient purchase over some materials which may very well be less expensive on a square foot basis. It is not unlikely that your fabrication and installation costs could be more than half of the overall job.

Estimating
Estimating is even easier than granite and marble. It has been sized to meet the needs of most installations with very little waste. Seams can be hidden nicely, and there is consistency from slab to slab so "leftovers" from one slab may be utilized within the same job for backsplash or other needs.

Fabrication
BottleStone can be fabricated into shapes, sink cut-outs, and a variety of simple edge finishes (bullnose, pencil, ogee, etc.). Your fabricator, with traditional granite tools, can fabricate Bottlestone without any special training or tools. It actually feels a little "softer" in cutting than granite and seams can virtually disappear leveraging the same techniques used with granite. The fabricator may want to talk to our customer service personnel for assurance if they haven't worked on Bottlestone before – there is no reason there should be any premium for working with this material – and it is safer than most of the materials with which most fabricators are used to working.

Installation
Standard natural stone installation methods are also used. In many cases, Bottlestone is lighter than other surface materials making installation even easier. Standard adhesives with which builders are familiar may be used without concern.

Maintenance
BottleStone is as hard or harder than granite, marble and other surface materials. It is also a ceramic that has been fired at over 1500°F. Then, after it has been through the kiln, a penetrating sealer is applied. This sealer helps prevent staining. However, almost no material is completely stain free. Sometimes installers will complete installing BottleStone by adding an additional sealer and possibly a clear or colored wax (butcher block or furniture waxes are frequently used) – please try it on a left over piece to make sure it provides the appearance you want. From time to time (6 months with normal use) depending on use, you may want to re-wax the surface.
If the material does stain, and normal soap and water doesn't remove it, please try a laundry stain remover such as OxiClean or Incredible Stain Remover and Deodorizer.
If at some point, the surface needs to re-done, consider using lacquer thinner to remove any existing sealers and waxes to start over from the base material.