Area Builders Tune Into Granite

Cynthia and Dennis Tune invested more than $500,000 in equipment to cut 600-pound granite slabs from Italy and Brazil into kitchen countertops for their customers in Northwest Arkansas.

With the price of granite dropping from about $100 to $50 per SF (through some sellers) over the past few years, homebuilders have taken to using it for countertops in mid- to upscale homes throughout the Ozarks.

The Tunes founded Tune Tile & Granite in February in downtown Lowell. The grounds are now covered with about 200 10-by-5-foot granite slabs from all over the world.

“We reject slabs because they simply do not meet our standards,” Cynthia Tune said, referring to fissures and blemishes in the stones. “Sometimes, they just aren’t pretty.”

Tune said most kitchens would need about 50 SF of granite to cover all the countertops. Cutting, formatting and installation of that amount of granite would cost from $2,500 to $3,000 at Tune Tile & Granite.

“It’s expensive, but it’s not to a point where it’s not doable,” she said.

Tune said granite countertops are beautiful and scratch resistant. A person could ruin a kitchen knife cutting vegetables on a granite countertop before scratching the counter, she said.

“It just looks so much better [than man-made material],” Tune said. “It doesn’t have a grout joint.”

Tune said the computerized machines they use cut granite within a tolerance of 1/32 of an inch.

Granite is a common, coarse-grained, hard igneous rock consisting mainly of mica and quartz, orthoclase or microcline.

Tune said granite comes in a wide variety of colors.

“There are as many colors of granite as there are colors in the rainbow, and some of them are more available than others,” she said. “Most granites have four or five colors in them depending upon the stone. We carry the more exotic [granite]. I think most of the stuff we’ve got is coming from Brazil.”

Tune said she has one type of granite, called Dala’s Dream, that is primarily turquoise in color and sells for $140 per SF because it’s rare.

The company’s sales have increased 10 to 20 percent every month since opening in February, Tune said. Tune Granite’s sales are split between 80 percent granite, 10 percent marble and 10 percent travertine. Tune said about 75 percent of the granite purchased from the company is used for countertops. The rest is used for floors and walls.

The company has 13 employees and occupies a 10,000-SF building.

“We need twice as much space as we have now,” she said.

Most of the cost incurred from importing and selling granite is from transportation, Tune said.

“As long as the world market stays where we can get the product, we’ll be O.K.,” she said.

Lisa Cabeldue, an interior designer with Classic Accents in Springdale, said one reason the price of granite has dropped is because of competition.

“A few years ago, there were very few places where you could get granite,” she said. “Now, there’s one on every corner.”

Cabeldue said many factors can contribute to the cost of granite, including thickness (either two or three centimeters), edge finishing and installation.

Classic Accents is owned by Elder Construction Co. of Springdale.