What You Should Know Before Working with Porcelain Slabs
Industry veteran Ron Hannah shares his extensive knowledge of working with porcelain slabs and reasons why fabricators should not shy away from customer requests for the material
A group of fabricators met for a Fabricator Forum moderated by the Stone Fabricator’s Alliance (SFA) earlier this year during StonExpo, which is part of The International Surface Event (TISE), held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV. Among the pressing topics on the top of mind for participants was working with porcelain slabs. While their popularity is on the incline for design, many fabricators are hesitant to cut the material due to its fragility. Industry veteran Ron Hannah of Cadenza Granite & Marble in Concord, NC, provided some insight to the group on cutting, handling and pricing the material.
“Many years ago, when quartz came into the game, I said to myself that will never sell,” said Hannah. “I was at the train station watching the ship take off. I missed that boat. When porcelain came around, I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice, so I hopped on a plane to Modena, Italy, and got myself a tour of two factories. I walked away saying to myself, these people invested hundreds of millions of dollars in porcelain. It is not going away.”