At Arch City Granite we take great pride in our craftsmanship and the quality of our work. We utilize state of the art equipment and are staffed with happy, experienced granite installers to ensure artisan quality marble and granite countertops.
As a consumer you should know about the quality standards in granite fabrication and who sets these standards. The Marble Institute of America is the authoritative source on natural stone workmanship. Arch City Granite has been a member of MIA since 2007 and strictly follows the standards they set.
We like to explain and educate our potential customers the details of quality in granite kitchen countertops in order to better equip them in making an informed decision.
How do we make seams?
Arch City Granite, located in St. Louis, MO, follows these steps to make your countertops more visually appealing by constructing less visible seams. Our goal is to minimize the number of seams depending on the size of the slabs.
- We place seams in the least conspicuous areas. For example, we have placed them at the return of L shaped countertops so that the seam is away from direct view.
- We avoid seams in the peninsulas that are used as breakfast or family eating areas.
- Our CNC machines use a set of flat polishing tools to make the two joining surfaces of the kitchen countertops smooth and 90 degrees. This reduces the gap as much as possible.
- We use vacuum suction devices during the installation process. Our installers use a device called “Gorilla Grip” to pull both seaming surfaces together, leaving the smallest possible gap.
- Our experienced installers mix epoxy to match the color of your granite countertops, that way even the fill matches and makes the seam less noticeable.
Granite Countertops Reinforcement
Arch City Granite always reinforces granite countertops in all the narrow and vulnerable places, like the front and back rails of the sink cutouts, the front rail of the cook top cutout, and the underside parts of large tub decks that are made in one piece.
To do this a steel rod is embedded in an adequate linear groove that is cut on the underside of the stone and then filled with a high strength epoxy. The steel rod has a higher tensile strength that helps prevent any flexing of the stone that may lead to cracking.
Shiny Edge Profiles in Granite Countertops
Arch City Granite attains a permanently shiny polish on all edge profiles of granite and marble countertops. The great shine of granite edges is accomplished by polishing with clean water. We never use waxes to shine our edges because that is only a temporary solution.
Under-mount Sink Fabrication
The beauty of an under-mount sink is a very conspicuous feature of granite countertops. The cutout should match the sink shape exactly with a consistent overhang relative to the top of the vertical walls. Arch City Granite’s under-mount sinks are exceptionally beautiful because we use precisely measured digital files, or DXF files, of the sinks to do our cutouts, and the cutouts are done with our CNC machines. You can also read: How to select the right sink for your kitchen countertops.
Countertops Scribed to Fit Imperfect Walls
We find that many walls are not perfectly straight and many corners that are out of square. We find these deviations precisely with the help of our Proliner digital equipment that we use to measure your countertops.
Thanks to our CNC technology, we are able to scribe the backside of your countertops to fit any irregular wall contours, and without this technology, scribing countertops to the wall imperfections is practically impossible.
Rounding of All Exposed Corners
We always give a rounded shape to all exposed corners. This not only enhances the beauty of your countertops, but also hurts less if accidentally hit there.
Intricate custom designs
Arch City Granite is capable of fabricating high decorative custom shapes for islands in the kitchen, bar areas, or peninsulas because of our CAD (Computer Aided Designing) and CAM (Computer Aided Machining) abilities.
