Empire Marble & Granite

I am a general contractor that builds about 2 custom homes a year. They last one they helped me with was 6500 sq ft single family 5 full baths; marble counter tops in kitchen, quartz in master bath and granite throughout rest. All of that work (which came out great) was not what I was impressed with I had a zero clearance fire place that we were jugling with how to finish. Jose spoke right up and said he had an idea on how to finish it. I let him show the client samples 4 DAYS later her installed a beautiful marble enclosure.
I have used Jose and his daughter for the past few years. Not once have I had a problem with punctuality nor quality. Are the a smaller crew but the amount of work that is output from their shop if quite frankly astonishing.
Price Great
Quality Great
Talent Great
Will continue to use.

I found Jose Gonzalez of 50 Prospect St, Somerville, MA 2 143 through Googling for countertops in an effort to save money. A big mistake. When I drove to his dilapidated office, which he was in the process of relocating to 130 Smith Place, Cambridge, MA 2 148, he gave me a very good price, $ 1,260, on installing granite countertops for my kitchen. He showed me a sample of stone which he said is the stone he would be using, and asked me for $ 600, which I gave him. His conduct was outrageously unprofessional, he joked about having sex with his girlfriends in my house and taking my money to use on a vacation. His niece who was present at the interview apologized for him and he said he was just kidding. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, we scheduled him to come in to measure my counters, and he showed up for that, but he did not make a template, which I found out later was a substandard practice: when you install a granite countertop you make a cardboard template so that the stone can be cut to fit the actual counter. We scheduled the installation for today, Monday, April 28, 2014. By this time I had read the almost unanimously negative reviews about him and I was very nervous. I explained to him that it was very important he come through because I am in the midst of a renovation and other work that comes next, like installing woodwork around the counter is contingent upon his doing his work on time. I also implored him to please do a good job, having read reviews detailing his shoddy workmanship and outright swindling of people, including reviewers who alleged that he took their money and then disappeared. This is exactly what he did to me. Two days before the installation, Saturday, April 26, 2014, I called him and reminded him we had scheduled the installation, and he said, «So, you want the work done on Monday?» «Yes, we had scheduled it. Jose, it is very important to me that you do it Monday, if you don’t, it’s going to screw up the job.» He said he would have to check his schedule, that he didn’t have his schedule in his head, and that I could call him tomorrow, Sunday. «Really, what time?» «Oh, any time.» «No, Jose, give me a time to call, and I will call.» «OK, how about noon?» I called him Sunday, April 27, 2014, at exactly noon, and nobody answered. I called his other cell phone number he gave me, and nobody answered that, either. He called back later on that day, and promised that there was no problem, and that he would be showing up Monday as scheduled, «in the morning between 10 and 12.» I said I would have to be at work, but I could leave the house open for him so he could come in and do the work. At this point I was very uncomfortable and I basically begged him to please make sure he comes by. «Don’t worry,» he said. «You will come home from work and you can inspect the countertops and see that I did a good job.» On Monday, April 28, 2014, I arranged for the apartment to be available for him, including leaving a sign on the door and leaving a schematic, including a blueprint of the kitchen faucet, so he would know where to drill the holes, as well as the kitchen faucet itself in the apartment. I also left my phone number on the note. I came home from work eagerly and nervously anticipating either a countertop installed well, a countertop installed poorly, or no countertop at all. I found no countertop at all. I called his phone numbers several times, both 617 625‑9777 and 617 959‑7437, and nobody answered. Nobody called. I am left with no work done, $ 600 lost, and no explanation. I realize by publishing this review I might make it more difficult for me to recover the $ 600, but I want other people to avoid the nightmare of working with this man. He is a dishonest person and should not be in business.

I went to Empire for a simple countertop installation amounting to 20 square feet of granite. Here are the positives: I got a decent rate and they were able to do the job on short notice. However, DO NOT GO TO THESE GUYS. It’s not worth the trouble. Jose came out to take my measurements with the understanding that the job would be done a few days later. He measured for a 4 inch back splash. I commented that I thought it might be too high considering the height of the ledge on the side. I said to myself, «well I’ll just trust Jose. After all, what do I know. I. don’t do this for a living and he does.» I started to get nervous when he called me up the next day to ask me if I remembered what the measurements were for one of the pieces of countertop. Anyway, that situation got resolved. Then comes the day of the installation. Word of advice: hire a plumber beforehand to have your sink removed. They did the installation, which Jose «supervised.» He left before the end but made sure he got my check for the rest of the payment. When the guys had finished polishing, they asked me to look things over. I was so stressed out that I didn’t do a good job inspecting. Ok, that’s my fault, but again I don’t do this for a living. I realized that the ledge piece was not level because the back splash that it was resting on was too high! Plus they couldn’t fit the granite piece that went under the ledge! I found this left on my kitchen floor! I called up Jose and told him what happened. I told him that the problem was as I had suspected. The backsplash was too high and that his guys left without finishing the job. Jose got extremely defensive when I told him the wrong measurements were taken. He said that I didn’t even want a backsplash in the first place. I was flabbergasted. I said, «well if I didn’t want a backsplash, then why did you make one?» He told me it was because he felt like it. I couldn’t believe it. In the end, he did make it right but his guys had to come back two more times. Do not trust this place to get the job done right the first time. It’s not worth the sleep you will lose.

I’m writing this review on a Monday, which is the 3^rd day we were told to expect a counter delivery from Empire. Once again, we are disappointed to report that our countertop will be delayed yet ANOTHER day. After several days of no-​shows and poor installation (which they have agreed to fix at no cost, to their credit) we spoke with the owner first thing this morning, who assured us a noontime delivery. When 4pm rolled around, we finally called and were told that we were first on the list for tomorrow morning’s delivery.
While Empire is affordable for budget-​minded kitchen projects, they are really bad at keeping any sort of schedule… which is really obnoxious when we are trying to just get our project finished.
I wouldn’t hire them again.

I agree with R.W. wholeheartedly, these are really nice folks and knock themselves out to make you happy.
One thing I would like to add – this is a small operation and all sorts of unexpected problems occur. In my case, the installation was really difficult but they did a great job. I am sure it took far longer than they had anticipated and another customer probably got delayed because of me. I imagine a problem like mine and others happen all the time. So if your normal mode of travel is a broom and you expect the organization to be exactly on time, then plan on paying thousands of dollars more at other places with no guarantees of promptness.

I got my countertop installed from these guys about a month ago. Here are the pros and cons:
Pros:
Affordable pricing, very reasonable
Countertop came out nice
People at the office were nice
Cons:
Not punctual (made me wait all day and didn’t show up, came next day instead)
You have to stay on top of them, call them all the time to find out when they are coming, their scheduling and administrative system (if any) is a mess
DO NOT use their plumber!!! He was not on time (a day delay), scratched up my Grohe faucet ($ 700 retail), could NOT remove the Grohe faucet from the old sink, I showed him the instruction manual which he could not read in English or Spanish, cut open the old sink (which I could have sold) while trying to remove the faucet, still couldn’t so gave up, then wanted to be paid for the part of the job (sewer). EXCUSE ME?
Conclusion:
If you are really on a budget and you are either working from home or home maker, not under time constraint, you can go with this place. And make sure to BYOP-​lumber.

This is a solid place for your countertop needs. Locally owned and operated in Union Square, it’s tucked in next to the used radiator shop across from Dunkies. After getting $ome craaazy high figure$ from other places, we ended up going with Empire because we liked dealing with Jose and their price was just right…$ 1500 less than other places we checked out. Keeping the renovating loot locally in town is important to us, so we stayed away from the big companies (Lowes & Home Depot).
They have very large slabs of rock all over the property, keeping overhead costs down by not really having a showroom… everything is outside! It was strange seeing finished counters stored outside, but makes sense once you realize they’re just large rocks! We picked out a schweet dark granite.
Templating took about 45 minutes a few days after signing the contract, and install was about an hour. After all was said and done, took them a week to template, cut/​fabricate, and install the finished product. Everything looks great, couldn’t be happier… especially with the fatter bank account. :P