Having search the internet extensively for marble suppliers and sent online queries, we managed to receive a couple of responses. It seems Sungei Kadut is the hub of most marble factories. Over the course of the research I found at least 10 supplier located there. There may be more smaller establishments peppered throughout the area. So it made sense to visit as many as we could since its all the way in the west.
Our first stop of the day was at GEM to view the shortlisted marbles. We had trimmed it to 2 over the week based on what we could afford.
The Kavala White marble looks ok, though the shade is a tad greyer than the slab we saw in the showroom. Meimei didn't seem too keen on the little spots across the darker grains.
The Volakas slab they were offering is whiter but the darker lines and grains were not impressive. There were also very visible watermark lines cutting diagonally across the grains. Somehow I just don't see the point of spending $2K above budget for this since it didn't stand out to me.
We thanked them for showing us the marble and went on to the next stop Hot Spring Stone. The prices were in the range of 180 to 240 per sqm including delivery, dry lay and sealant. I soon found out why they were offering such prices to home owners.
We were shown left over stock from various batches. Each batch had maybe 8-12 slabs which is not enough to fulfil the 56 sqm we needed. So it means we have to brave the varying tones and grains and may end up with weird areas in the house which don't match another section due to different marble batches. And considering that it wasn't exactly dirt cheap we went through a couple of light beige ones and then decide to leave. We are unlikely to find a gem at this place.
Anyways I wasn't disheartened about being shown sub-par marbles. It was always going to be a chance of luck to find something good with our budget. So undeterred we shoulder on to the next destination which is just adjacent to Hot Spring, TSM. We had read online that the prices can be pretty good but somehow it didn't quite met up to expectation. For the budget of $12k we could only get pre-cuts. Nonetheless we diligently check out the marbles to make sure we don't miss any opportunity.
We were shown 2 beige marbles, Botticino Fiorito & Lotus Cream, both which didn't impress at all. The 3rd one Jupiter White was the cheapest at $9K+ and Meimei seems ok with it. I wasn't keen on it, Meimei didn't want a alternating grain pattern layout and so the lines are going to be hard to match.
The last stop before lunch was at Sinbor which was on the other side of the Sungei Kadut area. Again we were shown old stock though the manager assured us that they have enough from a single batch to fulfil our 56 sqm. We were shown a couple of light beige creamy marbles which didn't thrill us at all. It was only to the end of the factory walk that the manager showed us a batch of white marble which is somewhat similar to Kavala White. This was named Panda White and it looks like they definitely have enough supply for our needs without having to mix batches.
Of all the marble we saw today, this has to be the most appealing one. Though personally it still falls short of the wow factor. Meimei find that this is much better than Kavala and has written that off. As for me, I didn't fell in love with it immediately. Well ... I know its not like we have cash to burn so realistically this is the quality we were always going to get. But still ... surely spending this amount of budget should get us something that looks better than homogenous right?
Anyways I wasn't disheartened about being shown sub-par marbles. It was always going to be a chance of luck to find something good with our budget. So undeterred we shoulder on to the next destination which is just adjacent to Hot Spring, TSM. We had read online that the prices can be pretty good but somehow it didn't quite met up to expectation. For the budget of $12k we could only get pre-cuts. Nonetheless we diligently check out the marbles to make sure we don't miss any opportunity.
We were shown 2 beige marbles, Botticino Fiorito & Lotus Cream, both which didn't impress at all. The 3rd one Jupiter White was the cheapest at $9K+ and Meimei seems ok with it. I wasn't keen on it, Meimei didn't want a alternating grain pattern layout and so the lines are going to be hard to match.
The last stop before lunch was at Sinbor which was on the other side of the Sungei Kadut area. Again we were shown old stock though the manager assured us that they have enough from a single batch to fulfil our 56 sqm. We were shown a couple of light beige creamy marbles which didn't thrill us at all. It was only to the end of the factory walk that the manager showed us a batch of white marble which is somewhat similar to Kavala White. This was named Panda White and it looks like they definitely have enough supply for our needs without having to mix batches.
Of all the marble we saw today, this has to be the most appealing one. Though personally it still falls short of the wow factor. Meimei find that this is much better than Kavala and has written that off. As for me, I didn't fell in love with it immediately. Well ... I know its not like we have cash to burn so realistically this is the quality we were always going to get. But still ... surely spending this amount of budget should get us something that looks better than homogenous right?
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