Sourcing Natural Stone for Hotel, Countertop and Floor Projects: A Buyer's Playbook

Project stone is different from resale stone in one way that changes everything: the stone must arrive complete, consistent, and on the construction schedule. This playbook is how to structure a project order - from lobby floor to island - with a single supplier that produces its own stone.

1. Break the project into stone packages

Walk the project and list every stone area: lobby and corridor floors, elevator halls, bathrooms, countertops, feature walls, exterior and wet areas.

Each area becomes a package: variety, thickness, finish, sizes, quantity. A 20-area project is 20 quotes - send them together and price the container mix at once, so packing and freight are planned as one.

2. Selecting varieties by area (the usual logic)

The pattern that works across most projects:

• Floors: granite (durability, value) or limestone and travertine (warmth); flamed or bush-hammered where there is a slip risk.
• Feature walls and islands: high-movement marble, book-matched in the factory.
• Countertops: quartzite for daily use, marble where the client accepts the care.
• Wet areas and exterior: dense granite, honed or textured.

3. Specify so nothing is ambiguous

For each package: variety (with the approved sample, and the slab number where it matters), thickness, finish, sizes and tolerance, quantity with waste, and packing preference.

Add waste for cut pieces - industry practice is usually 10-15% for floors, less for large-format slabs. Decide it per area and write it into the order, because "we will add a little" is how shortfalls happen.

4. Schedule against the construction

Production lead time is 25-35 days from confirmation, before ocean freight and destination clearance. Work backwards from the installation date: confirm the stone before the floors are ready to receive it, not after.

Large projects can be split into staged shipments - feature zones first, floors later. Agree the split in the order so the packing plan and the schedule match.

5. Consistency across a large order

Ask for stone cut from the same block or batch where the design demands it. For feature walls, book-matched pairs are dry-laid on the factory floor before cutting.

Colour sorting: we can sort slabs by tone before packing where the project needs a narrow colour band - state it in the order.

The numbered slab photo set (see the photo guide) is your consistency record from factory to site.

6. One contact for the whole package

Because export (Xiamen Shenglei Trade Co., Ltd.) and production (Fujian Nan'an Haocan Stone Co., Ltd.) are one company, the same contact carries your drawings, specification, inspection and shipping documents. There is no translation loss between a broker and a factory - because there is no broker.