Blog · Technology
What 12K slab scanning changes about the way you approve a countertop
For most of the industry's history, the layout of a countertop was decided by the fabricator, on the shop floor, with chalk on the slab. The client saw the result on installation day. Sometimes the best part of the stone ended up under the sink. A high-resolution scan of every slab changes who makes that decision, and when.
The old way: chalk, a tape measure and trust
A skilled fabricator can lay out a kitchen on a slab by eye and get it right. But the client is not in the room, the slab is standing on an A-frame, and the layout is a set of chalk lines that only the fabricator can read. Vein direction, where the seam falls and which part of the stone becomes the island are all decided without the person who has to live with them.
Scanning every slab on arrival
Every slab that comes into our yard is scanned at 12K resolution the day it arrives. The scan captures colour, veining and defects at a level of detail where you can see individual crystals. It becomes the slab's file: it is what you see when you browse the inventory, and it is what the layout is built on.
Because the scan is dimensionally accurate, the template of your kitchen can be placed on it at true scale. Every piece is drawn on the real stone, not on a drawing of the stone.
Approving the layout on your own stone
The template goes on the scan, and we send you the layout: this is the island, this is where the seam falls, this vein runs across the sink and turns down the waterfall. You can ask for the island to move a foot to the left to catch a particular vein. You can decide the busy corner goes under the cooktop rather than on the island. Nothing is cut until you say yes.
For book-matched projects this is the whole game. The mirror line is set on the scan, and the two halves are approved before the saw starts.
From the scan straight to the CNC
Once approved, the layout file goes to the saw and the CNC without being redrawn by hand. The cut you approved is the cut that happens. This is where most of the precision in a modern shop comes from: not from a better blade, but from removing the translation step between the plan and the machine.
What to ask any fabricator
Whether you work with us or someone else, these are the questions worth asking before you sign.
- Will I see the layout on my actual slab before it is cut?
- Where will the seams fall, and can I move them?
- Is the layout file sent directly to the machine, or redrawn by hand?
