M. Teixeira Soapstone — Attraction in Glen Rock

First off, shout outs to Maria and Bart for their excellent service and support.

I found out about M. Teixeira about 15 years ago when some friends of ours asked us to help with their kitchen remodel. Having spent several years planning, they became taken with soapstone given all of its wonderful natural properties, resistance to staining and temperature, and its general beauty. Our friends found soapstones.com and ultimately ordered half a dozen 84x30" slabs that we then worked hard to cut and fit into their kitchen. They had an undermount sink so we had to cut a hole that looked pretty. That was probably one of the harder things I've ever done. But it was spectacular. And the service they got from M. Teixeira was outstanding as was the value.

When my wife and I decided to remodel our own kitchen, we knew we wanted to go with soapstone. We looked at local kitchen suppliers but had a hard time finding what we wanted and the costs were...substantial. I wasn't really wanting to do all the cutting we did with our friends' kitchen, but I saw on soapstones.com that they offer fully fabricated slabs that are ready to install. After pestering our sales contact Maria with dozens of questions, we set aside a weekend to build templates from 1/4" plywood, carefully scribed to our 60 year old wavy walls, crated them, shipped them off to New Jersey, and held our breath. About two weeks later, our soapstone arrived on a semi truck. The crating was excellent. There was probably $200 worth of wood protecting our stone. Everything survived shipping without any issues. The palette was around 2100 lbs which is about twice what a standard palette jack can carry. Assuming there had been one on the truck. Since we didn't have a heavy duty fork lift sitting in the garage, we uncrated the stone right there in the truck and called in a friend to help carry each of our 9 slabs up our 300 ft driveway to the kitchen. We hastily built a little cart from furniture dollies to make that easier. Kudos to the driver from the freight company for being patient and willing to wait the hour+ it took us to get everything unloaded.

As we brought each slab in, we set them in place and were delighted with their appearance and how the seams worked out. They all fit perfectly with one exception where the scribing from our template didn't quite get transferred to the slab. More on that in a bit. Now it was time to seam and glue. Having never really done this before, and having to deal with the one slab not fitting between oven and side wall, we asked for help. Maria handed us over to shop manager Bart. Bart guided us through how to get that one slab to fit (tl:dr: it's easier to cut drywall than it is to cut soapstone). Then gave us ample and spot on advice on how to do the seams, what epoxy to use, what order to do the seams in, how best to caulk things in place. We did several FaceTime calls so he could see exactly what we were doing and then he would show us in real-time how we needed to do it. This was a tremendous help. Kudos to Bart.

As for cost, the quotes we got locally for similar stone came in at $12,000. Our order from M. Teixeira came in at a hair over $5,000. Yes, we had to do all the measuring and templating, and then carry a ton (literally) of stone in and take on the task of epoxying the seams and caulking them down. But making the templates was kind of fun. It was an easy weekend project. Cost about $350 to make, crate, and ship them to NJ. Then we spent about a $100 on epoxy and caulk. Still saved a boat load of money and we're thrilled with the product and service we got from Maria and Bart.

I highly recommend M. Teixeira Soapstone. Would love to work...

Having done kitchen and bath remodels for 10 years I worked with a lot of products. I always knew someday my kitchen would have soapstone, hands down my favorite counter-top material.

My experience in working with M. Teixeira, specifically Diana was very detailed, hands on, with great back and forth as we worked out the design details of my kitchen. As I am in Ohio we had to do everything via email based on my measurements. Diana definitely knows her way around measurements and layout, she also had a few suggestions which made my installation easier.

We had a snafu with the delivery mainly because of myself not fully reading a previous email. We had so many one on one conversations that I neglected to pay close enough attention to an email regarding delivery. So when the 1300+ lb delivery was at a local distribution hub and not at my house I was not happy.

Even though I was frustrated and didn't show it in the nicest way, Diana still went to her boss for me to plead my dilemma. Being the honorable business that they are, they waived the delivery fee for me and arranged to have it brought to my driveway. I should have paid closer attention to the email, I acted poorly and they still made it right. Not many companies would do that. I cannot say enough good things about the company or Diana.

Now, let's get the the actual counters. They are beautiful and came exactly as ordered. I enlisted some help from my local watering hole to set them in place, then seamed them together, sanded and oiled them up.

I could not be happier with the finished product and much thanks to Diana and M Teixeira who worked very hard to make it happen. Thank you so very much. I would recommend them to anyone looking for a professional, extremely competent, and honorable...

Update: I do not recommend using a soapstone sink. The company did send me a new sink, however I had multiple plumbers, countertop installers, and even a general contractor in to help install it and they all said they could not do it as the countertop would split. I emailed the company to see if they had any installation recommendations and they did not. I used a builder and, as predicted, the countertops cracked. I ended up having to buy all new countertops. This time I went with quartz and a stainless steel sink. So basically after paying thousands in 2016 for new countertops & sink, I had to pay thousands in 2023 for new countertops & sink.

We have lovely countertops (5 stars) but we also purchased a sink and I am writing a review for the sink in particular. The sink was installed in 2016 and was designed in such a way that it leaves standing water (ie, there isn't enough slant to fully drain), which isn't ideal. In 2020 the sink started leaking and Texiera contracted with a local soapstone provider (because I believe they sold their local practice in my area) to do a service call. The service call revealed it was a fabrication issue so Texiera covered the repair and we were told that would solve the issue. Recently the sink has started leaking through the seams and I've asked Texiera if the sinks are such that we have to start caulking every 2 years or if there is another issue or for any advice, but I haven't received a response to my emails so I'm not sure. So if you're looking into sinks I'd just make sure it fully drains and then ask about leaking expectations at the seams. For now, I'm going to caulk but may end up replacing it with a stainless steel sink if it continues to leak every year or two...