Cookson, being one of five family members in the tile contracting and fabrication business, has been in the stone industry for the past 20-plus years. After working out of his garage for a short while, he spent two years in Monterey, CA, installing slabs for CL Frost, a company for which his uncle ran the slab shop at the time.
“After that, I came back to Brentwood and started working in the rear of a parking lot on weekends with a portable Ghines Vector saw and work benches to hold up the slabs,” said Cookson. “After a short time, I realized I needed help, and so I turned to my friend Craig, who was interested in stone fabrication at the time. We became partners and started California Stone Co., and in 1990, we moved into a 1,600-square-foot shop - producing everything by hand.”