Operating in Georgetown, TX, just north of Austin, Top Solutions has made substantial investments in technology, and as a result, it is fabricating and installing nearly three times as many jobs per day. Its facility includes a 19,000-square-foot fabrication shop with 8,000 square feet of additional space for a showroom and offices.

The company sits on 10 acres of land and owns a water well that pumps 40,000 gallons of water daily. This recycling system is used to run two Omax 80160 JetMachining® Centers, which are CNC-controlled waterjets that the company uses for cutting seams and anything other than squares or rectangles, according to David Owens of Top Solutions. The machines are able to cut a wide range of materials and thicknesses, and pieces as large as 6 x 12 feet.

Among the other machinery in the fabrication shop is a Wizard Radial Arm Workstation, a Velocity decorative edge shaping and polishing machine and two Cougar bridge saws - all from Park Industries. The shop also houses a Park Tru-Edge and two Park Pro-Edge IIIs, which are computer-controlled edge shaping and finishing machines. Some handwork is also performed with two Marmoelettromeccanica Master 3000 routers. Power is supplied by a 40-horsepower, 166 cfm Kaeser Worm drive air compressor.

Software used in the shop includes the CAD software that came with the waterjets for .dxf files and Design CAD Express for shop drawings.

With a total of 35 employees, Top Solutions primarily produces granite countertops in and around the Austin area for production and custom builders as well as individual clients. In the future, the company plans to develop its newest line of engineered stone and continue to grow its sink and monument business as well as purchasing a CNC router/stoneworking center.

Digital templating

In the digital templating sector, the company invested in three LT 55 laser units from Laser Products. “We looked at everything on the market and decided on the LT 55 because people at Laser Products guaranteed that their LT 55 would do the job or they would buy them back,” said Owens. “Before, we were fabricating five jobs a day, and only made templates for odd-shaped pieces. All seams were left for the installer to cut and fit at the jobsite. Some of the seams were not as nice as we wanted. The more our volume grew, the harder it was to find quality installers to do good seams. Our goal to have the best seams possible led us to CNC.”

Owens went on to explain that two LT 55 laser units were initially purchased at the International Tile and Stone Show in Las Vegas nearly two years ago. And because of the instant success that Top Solutions experienced with the laser units, the company bought another one a year later and has plans to purchase a fourth one in the near future.

“Laser templating was very easy [to learn],” said the fabricator. “It took 20 minutes at the stone show, and then 10 minutes after I got setup at the first job.”

According to Owens, the laser light unit and pda sit on a tripod. The beam is pointed to each end of the cabinet face, to the front and back of the cabinet ends and wall ends, and near each corner on the back walls. All the points with connecting lines are recorded on the pda by touching the screen while pointed at each target.

“This gives you the exact cabinet outline,” said Owens. “You can also adjust targets for overhang and get exact tops. Most kitchens we do are 75 to 150 square feet. The only template manipulating we do is added seam lines and square up ends that should and can be exactly square. We find very few cabinets that are installed exactly square. Templates are - on typical jobs - completed and ready for CNC in 15 to 30 minutes. The .dxf template files are downloaded - via sd cards - to the server for the shop to pull up when needed.”


Top Solutions employs five sub-contract install crews, and each team is taking two to three jobs every day. “We are installing nearly three times as many jobs a day,” said Owens. “The tops go in like a puzzle - two or three hours per job. Builders like that.”

Top Solutions
Georgetown, TX

Type of work: granite countertops for production and custom builders as well as individual clients; sinks and monuments

Machinery: three LT 55 laser units from Laser Products of Romeoville, IL; two Omax 80160 JetMachining® Centers from Omax Corp. of Kent, WA; a Kaeser Worm drive air compressor; a Wizard Radial Arm Workstation, two Cougar bridge saws, a Tru-Edge computer-controlled edge shaping and finishing machine, two Pro-Edge III computer-controlled edge shaping and finishing machines and a Velocity edge machine - all from Park Industries of St. Cloud, MN; two Marmoelettromeccanica Master 3000 routers

Number of Employees: 35 as well as five sub-contract install crews

Production Rate: an average of 12 countertops per day