The template appointment is the most important hour in a countertop installation — and the one most clients have never seen described. By the time we arrive, you've chosen your stone, signed a deposit, and waited two or three weeks. By the time we leave, the dimensions of your kitchen will have been captured to the millimetre and you'll know exactly when you'll be cooking on the new counter.
Here is what happens, in order, during a template appointment in a typical Ottawa kitchen. The whole thing usually takes 60 to 90 minutes.
Before we arrive
We send you a one-page prep note about a week before the appointment. The two things that matter:
- The cabinets need to be in their final positions. If anything is still being adjusted — height, level, alignment — we can't template accurately. We'd rather reschedule than redo.
- The sink and faucet need to be on site (in the box is fine — they don't need to be installed). We need to confirm cutout dimensions and faucet hole spacing against the actual hardware, not a spec sheet.
Arrival and walk-through (15 minutes)
We arrive with a digital templater — a small device that captures three-dimensional shapes by measuring laser distances against reflective targets we place around the room. Before we set it up, we walk the kitchen with you and confirm:
- Edge profile (eased, bevelled, ogee, full bullnose, mitered waterfall)
- Overhang on the island (typical is 38mm; for seated overhangs we go 250mm with support)
- Seam locations, if multiple slabs are needed
- Sink position confirmation against your cabinet's sink base
- Backsplash treatment (4-inch stone splash, full-height, or none)
The actual templating (30–45 minutes)
We place small reflective dots along every edge — typically 30 to 50 of them in a standard kitchen — and the templater captures the position of each one to within half a millimetre. It builds a digital model of your kitchen in real time on a tablet. You can see the model as it's being built.
Walls in Ottawa homes are rarely square. Older homes (anything pre-1970, common in Westboro, the Glebe, and Rockcliffe) can be off by 15–20mm across a 3-metre run. Newer builds (Kanata, Barrhaven, Orleans) are tighter but not perfect. The templater catches all of this and the stone is cut to match — not to a theoretical square that doesn't exist.
Sign-off (15 minutes)
Before we pack up, we walk you through the digital model on the tablet. You see exactly where seams will land, where the sink cutout goes, where the overhangs end. You sign off on it, on the spot.
If anything changes between template and install — a cabinet shifts, a sink gets swapped — we re-template free. It rarely happens, but the policy means you don't have to worry about it.
What happens next
We bring the digital model back to the shop the same day. Within 48 hours, the slab is being cut on a CNC bridge saw. Within ten to fourteen days, we're installing.
In total, the timeline from your free consultation to a finished kitchen is typically 3 to 5 weeks. The template appointment is the precise moment when an abstract idea — "we're getting new counters" — becomes a concrete date with a stone that has your name on it.
