Bone yard

[ragdoll]

I had no idea that we had such an amazing stone supplier in the city here. On the edge of town. Has a yard full of stone slabs as far as you can see!

They have two GIGANTIC piles of remnant pieces. Some are little bits but there are tons and tons(literally) of granite chunks that are 1'x'1 to 2'x3'... all polished, all 1" to 1.5" All FREE. They said take as much as I can. Is that the way it usually is at these places? I have some great ideas around the house with the stuff there. I grabbed a 1.5' x 2' piece of Pearl Blue and a 2'x2' piece of Uba Tuba... going to make some granite shelves. I'm going back this weekend to test the suspension of my car.

[chuck stevenson]

Chad,

Go for it.

A lot of fabricators give away cut-outs from sinks and stove tops.
And a lot of them sell them by the SF.

[Shaughnn]

Chad,
Pull out pieces which are 6"-8" wide and at least 24" long. Excellent caps for shower curbs and if you can find pieces of the same stone which are large enough for a corner shelf or a niche shelf, you've hit GOLD! Matched curb treads and shelves can really add that extra bit of "Bam!" to even mundane ceramics. And I hear that there's a little money to be made in that kind of upgrade too.
Shaughnn

[Waltman]

Shaughnn,

For the curb, are you talking about capping the whole curb, or just the top? Likewise for the shelf and niche?

Do you have a pic of something like that? I wanna make sure I'm visualizing it correctly. Sounds like a great way to tie my shower in with my granite tile countertop. Will 12x12 granite suffice for the curb cap?

[ragdoll]

That shower idea is exactly what I was thinking(the shelves). The curb is a really great idea, too! Thanks for that. I'm finishing the 3rd bath in my house and will be tiling up a shower for it, perfect.

I'm just getting into tiling so I'm excited about anything to do with natural stone anyways. Add all of this free stone to that and I'm excited 5x more!

Ha. Dork, I know.



I layed a wooden paint mixing stick(thanks Lowes :P) against one of the slabs to give an idea of size. The stick is 1 foot long. Yeah, they are big stones. And I put ALL of this into an Audi S4, ONE trip. Poor car.

Here's a sample shot of each one I grabbed.












There are dozens of different types(colors) in the yard. I just grabbed a bunch of certain colors until the suspension on the car looked frightening.

Everything is 1.5". Good stuff. Tomorrow I'm going to grind/smooth out a cutting board/stone as a gift for my mom's kitchen. I think she'll like it. I might go back to the yard first to see if I can find something in 3/4" - 1" to do it in but most everything is 1.5".

I'm just going to keep going back for more and more. If nothing else I can take out the pebble walkway around the side of my house and lay down solid granite.


Can you tell I'm excited?

[ragdoll]

I was thinking of going back and grabbing more Uba Tuba and then cutting 12-15" x 22" strips of it and making a vanity top. Think that'll work? Obviously it'll all be custom fabricated to fit, but I have nothing to do anyways.

[chuck stevenson]

Chad,

Great find!

Rent a Ryder truck with a lift gate and get all you can store.

With a source like that you could buy a few tools and go into an internet dam topper, threshold and shelf business.

[Shaughnn]

Chad,
That's a lot of really great raw stock. Congrats! Now you've got a whole new realm of tools you can buy.
Shaughnn

[ragdoll]

Think there is any good money to be made in this stuff?

Yeah, more tools... Yesssss.

I still need to find a decent tile saw. I would think cutting this stuff with anything less than say, a TM-150, would be difficult. Even then...

I think I may need to buy a few more diamond blades for my angle grinder and go to town. If I screw up... meh, I have a seemingly endless supply.

I'll have to take a picture of these mountains of stone for ya guys. There was a darker gray granite in there, had a pebble like look with very little variation(if any)... they had so many large pieces of it in there I swear I could do my entire countertop with it. I started organizing them next to the pile and had maybe 5-6 pieces that were about 2.5'-3'.

If it wasn't so much to ship this stuff, I'd totally start doling it out to all of you guys and see if I can put a dent into the mounds of stone.

[ragdoll]

I just measured that taller piece in the foreground. 11"x42"

The tall uba tube in the back. 9.5" x 43.5"

I have some good piece for a shower curb.

[Shaughnn]

Chad,
The FTS-150 is just a little too small for that sort of cutting. Try this ad . At $500, it's a pretty good deal, as long as it's got the folding stand, cutting accessories and the drain plug. You'll need to buy a better blade for cutting thick grainte, but it's a good solid tool to start with.
Best of luck,
Shaughnn

[muskymike]

Hi Chad. Great find. Where's Plover?

[ragdoll]

Thanks for the info Shaughnn. Not sure if a $500 saw would be wise for someone that will never make the money back. Ha. Unless you think there is some real/actual value to what I have here.


MuskyMike, I have no idea where Plover is. But I live there. Where you?

Central Wisconsin. It's attached to Stevens Point. 20 minutes from Wausau. Only about 45,000 people in the Point/Plover area. Easy to miss.

[muskymike]

I'm up by Hayward. Too far for me to drive for some pieces.

[ragdoll]

200mile drive. Yikes. What the heck are you doing way up there, anyways?

I'm really into motorcycles so if you have a bike and want to ride, come on down and we can cruise around. You can even take a backpack full of granite home with ya.