How much do granite worktops cost? What actually sets the price

A square metre price assumes you buy stone like carpet, cut to the exact size you need. Stone does not work that way, and there are three reasons the number in a price guide rarely matches the number on a real quote.

Fitting is close to a fixed cost. Templating, cutting, delivering and fitting take a similar amount of time whether the kitchen is small or large. A small kitchen pays nearly the same fitting cost as a bigger one, so its price per square metre looks far higher.

Extras are often itemised. Many fabricators charge separately for each cut-out, drainer groove and tap hole. In one Surrey fabricator's published example, those lines made up about a sixth of the whole bill, and most headline figures leave them out.

You pay for whole slabs. This is the big one, and it is the part almost no price guide explains.

Granite comes out of the quarry in blocks and is sawn into slabs. A typical granite slab is around 3000mm by 1700mm. At the standard worktop depth of about 625mm, simple arithmetic says you get two full 3 metre lengths from one slab, with a strip left over that often becomes your upstands. So one slab covers roughly 6 metres of ordinary worktop, before joins and saw cuts.

Go past that and you are buying a second slab, whether you use all of it or not. One homeowner on a UK DIY forum put it simply, saying their kitchen used just one slab and that once you need more than one, "your cost goes up a lot". An island is the usual culprit, because a deep island top can eat most of a slab on its own.

You can see the size of that step in the quartz prices we do publish. A one slab quartz kitchen sits at £2,000 to £2,500 fitted, and a two slab kitchen at £3,000 to £3,600. Roughly £1,000 of that jump is the second slab. Granite behaves the same way, and granite slabs are often larger than quartz ones, so the same layout can sometimes fit into fewer of them.

The practical move is to ask every fabricator how many slabs your layout needs, and whether moving a join, shaving an overhang or splitting the island would save one. Where the joins land matters for looks too, which we cover in our piece on planning worktop joins. Slabs set the base. The extras decide whether the final invoice matches the quote.

These are the items most often charged one by one. Check each against every quote you get, because two quotes that look close at the headline can be far apart once these are added.

For what it is worth, we include every cut-out, the drainer grooves and pencil edges as standard, because we would rather quote one number than a list. If you are unsure whether you even want grooves, our explainer on what a drainer groove does helps.

Then there are costs that sit outside many quotes altogether. Taking out the old worktop is often not included, nor is a skip for the waste, and fabricators a long way from you may add a distance or difficult access charge. Ask about each one before you compare. Which brings us to the comparison everyone makes first.

Not reliably, any more. UK price guides now put fitted granite slightly above quartz on average, which surprises a lot of people. Older advice said the opposite, and many buyers still walk in expecting granite to be the budget stone.

One buyer described being told granite was "significantly cheaper", then finding the real quotes "much closer than expected". Two replies in the same thread made the point that the genuinely cheap granites tend to be the older, speckled styles.

Fabricators who publish price bands often put their cheapest granite in the same band as their cheapest quartz, with the rarest granites at the top alongside the most expensive quartz. In our experience most granite kitchens finish in a similar place to quartz, which makes our published quartz prices a fair first guide. Our side by side comparison of quartz and granite covers the differences that matter more than price. What separates one granite quote from another is mostly the stone you fall for.

Granite is sold in grades. Standard grade means common, widely quarried stones. The higher grades are rarer stones with more movement and colour, and the top end is exotic imports. The spread is wide. One national retailer's dearest granite costs more than three and a half times its cheapest for the same area.

Exact positions vary by supplier, but the pattern holds. Statement stones usually look best on an island rather than right round the room, which also keeps the slab count down. You can browse the granite colours we work with to see where your favourites sit.

The finish moves the cost too. In one published price list, a leathered finish adds about a third to the cost of the stone compared with the same granite polished, because leathering takes extra workshop time. Thickness is the other dial people reach for, and it saves less than you might hope.

A little. UK guides put 20mm granite at 15 to 18 percent less than 30mm. But only the stone gets cheaper. Fitting, cut-outs and upstands cost the same, so one fabricator works out the saving on a whole kitchen at 7 to 11 percent.

The same fabricator makes a point worth hearing. They do not recommend natural stone at 20mm, and use the thinner size for quartz and porcelain. Our guide to choosing between 20mm and 30mm covers the overhang limits. Fitting is the last big piece, and it is where timings catch people out.

UK guides put a standard granite installation at two to three days, and up to five for a complex job with lots of cut-outs and shaped edges. Many specialist fabricators roll templating, making and fitting into one charge. Check that templating is in yours, because some quotes leave it out.

The gap between templating and fitting is usually 7 to 10 working days at the suppliers who publish it. One homeowner who bought their kitchen online said it took about two weeks for the templater to arrive and another fortnight to fit, which left them roughly a month without a worktop or sink. Book templating as soon as your units are in and level, and read up on what to have ready on template day so it only happens once.

With the cost drivers covered, here is how to keep the price sensible without ending up with a worktop you regret.

Pick an entry stone. Black Pearl and Steel Grey sit at or near the bottom of most price lists, and a mid tone like Steel Grey hides daily life better than a polished black.

Plan to the slab. Ask how many slabs your layout needs before you finalise it. Trimming an island or moving a join can save a whole slab, which is the biggest single saving available.

Choose polished over leathered. Polished is the standard finish and costs least.

Ask about remnants for small jobs. For a utility run, a vanity top or a single short worktop, an offcut left over from another job can be a cheaper route than a new slab.

Compare itemised quotes including VAT. Line up stone, fitting and extras separately. A lower headline often turns out to be a cheaper stone or missing extras.

One warning from the forums, because it is the expensive kind of mistake. Two separate people in the same UK thread said dark granite overwhelms a kitchen without much daylight, and a third said dark tops are a nightmare to keep looking clean. Two others bought samples and tested them at home with red wine, curry sauce and coffee before deciding. A few samples are cheap insurance on a worktop you will live with for decades.

We look at the stone and price the job. You get one itemised figure including VAT, with every cut-out, the drainer grooves and pencil edges already in it. You approve photographs of your actual slab before anything is cut, our own fitters usually install it within three to five working days of templating, and it carries a 10 year guarantee.

Measure your runs, count your cut-outs and send us the plan or a photo of the room. We will tell you how many slabs your kitchen needs, because that is the number that sets your price, and you can hold every other quote up against it.