StatWatch: June 2009
Dimensional-stone imports remain in the doldrums, lagging far behind last year’s totals. The road to recovery may still be a few intersections away.
Category: Articles
Look Us Up
Monthly columns that give rave descriptions of the articles in an issue are the refuges of lazy editors – after all, that’s the job of the table of contents. Other bits of self-promotion, to me, always look a bit goofy.
St. John the Divine, New York
By K. Schipper
NEW YORK – A fire at The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine one week before Christmas 2001 certainly wasn’t the worst calamity to befall New Yorkers that year – but the effects lingered long after city firefighters left the building.
Cutting Edge Granite, Evansville, Ind.
By K. Schipper
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Defining Cutting Edge Granite isn’t easy.
Thin-Veneer Natural Stone
By K. Schipper
If you’re at a loss on how to sell thin-veneer natural stone to customers, try going inside.
Sources of Stone: Afghanistan
Hidden in the rugged Hindu Kush and the Pamir mountain ranges of Afghanistan, there’ a great wealth of mineral resources: deposits of some of the world’s finest marble.
Concrete Plans
By Tom McNall
So here’s the deal: Your sales are down, you’re competing against new guys in the business (and the old ones who just won’t die) giving away countertops for $20 ft² and doing shoddy work, and one look at your payments get you thinking about how long you can keep going.
Now stop, clear your head, and ponder this question instead: “How do I apply what I already know to make more money?”
August 2009
MATERIALS SEMI-PRECIOUS STONESMarble of the World, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., introduces the Exotica Semi-Precious Collection, featuring 19 unique colors and designs, each hand-made from individually cut-and-bound semi-precious stones. The collection is suited for both residential...
Lifting Large Stone Pieces
One of the questions I hear the most at jobsites from homeowners and contractors alike is: “That stuff must be pretty heavy, eh?” (Or, where I’m at now in the South, “Reckon that stuff must be right heavy?”)
Spall: Mistake in Identity?
Decades ago, in the heyday of National Lampoon, then-editor P.J. O’Rourke ran a feature called “What’s Your Sign?” Unlike the fictional humor in the rest of the magazine, the feature offered a page of reader-supplied photos of business signs from real life – because a room of comedians couldn’t think of that much good stuff in a year, let alone a month.