Sell Countertops Slab by Slab, on Holds That Expire

A slab is a record, not a SKU. The dealer's client did not pick "Calacatta, 3 cm." They picked slab 1147 in your rack, the one with the vein running the length of the island. That slab has a number, a photo, a size, a thickness and a finish, and it exists once. A storefront that only knows the color name will sell it twice.

Jumbo or standard decides where the seam goes. Cambria's FAQ lists a standard slab of 122 by 55.5 inches and a jumbo of 132 by 65.5 inches, in 1, 2 and 3 cm thicknesses. Roughly 47 square feet against 60. It also tells buyers to "confirm the maximum piece size that can be produced from a slab with your fabricator or installer." For a long island with no seam, the slab size is the whole question.

A price is often a level times square feet, plus a list of extras. One New Jersey fabricator's published price guide puts it plainly: "Material cost is calculated by multiplying square footage of material installed by the material price level." It runs ten priced levels, from $40 to $120 per square foot, plus a variable level above, prices edges by the square foot, and counts cutouts one by one: $80 for a cooktop, $250 for a large or double sink, $10 for a fixture hole. That guide is retail. Cambria notes that "Our trade customers such as kitchen and bath dealers, fabricators, and contractors establish Cambria retail prices."

The order is part product, part service, and the service has conditions. The Natural Stone Institute's consumer guide to countertop installation says that "Prior to templating, your fabricator will also need to know the exact make and model of sinks, faucets, and appliances going in or against the countertops." A stone fabrication company quoted there is blunter about cabinets that are not level at install: "If they're not, we can't set the stone." A template booked before the sink model is known is a truck that comes back with nothing, and a top cut for cabinets that are not level cannot be set.

A hold runs on two clocks. If the slab is still at your supplier's yard, you are on a hold too. One Southeast stone importer's hold policy reads: "After 30 days, your fabricator will need to either pay for the slabs or have them delivered." So the hold you give a dealer on a slab you have not bought cannot outlast the hold your supplier gave you. A dealer who sits on a hold for five weeks has cost you the slab, or the money for one no homeowner signed for.

Remnants, laminate and solid surface each run a different stock model. After a cut, what is left is a piece with its own size and rack location, the vanity top a cabinet shop is looking for. If nobody measures and photographs it, it is not for sale. Laminate and solid surface do not come from a picked slab. A postformed laminate top is heated and bent to form its backsplash and front edge, and a solid surface top can carry an integrated sink. One order, three inventory models.

Every slab and every remnant as its own record. Slab-level inventory is configured during implementation against the ERP's piece records: a photo and dimensions for each numbered slab, with thickness and finish, and a hold that expires unless it converts. Remnants are entered the same way after the cut. A fit check that compares the job's longest piece with each slab's dimensions is built during implementation, so a dealer sees only the slabs that can yield the top.

Holds that expire, quoted through Uncap Quotes. The quote for a held slab runs through Uncap Quotes, which runs configure, price, quote inside the Shopify admin. Quotes carry validity windows and a full revision history, so the hold date and the quote date are the same date. A hold rule that keeps any slab still at your supplier's yard on a shorter window than your supplier gave you is built during implementation. A dealer asking for more time is an exception that approval routing sends to the right approver. When the homeowner signs, the approved quote becomes a Shopify order in one click.

Level pricing, edges and cutouts on one quote. Negotiated prices, tiers and volume breaks apply automatically to the dealer's account, and pricing and terms pull from the systems you already trust. The countertop rules sit on top: installed square feet times the material level, the edge priced the way your sheet prices it, a count of sink, cooktop, faucet and outlet cutouts, and whole-slab pricing where you sell a picked slab whole. Those rules are built during implementation on top of the configure, price, quote workflow.

Templating, fabrication and install as line items. Uncap Portal lets a Shopify store "sell services and rentals alongside standard ecommerce products, through one checkout." Templating, fabrication, tear out and install sit on the same order as the material. Requiring the sink, faucet and appliance models before a template date can be booked, and a cabinets-level confirmation before an install date, is built during implementation. Dealers get real multi-user accounts with roles and permissions, and each buyer sees their assortment and pricing. NET terms, invoices and payments sit in the portal too.

The platform question, answered on architecture. Uncap's published products do not include numbered slab holds with an expiry; on Shopify, they are built during implementation from your data. So the useful question is where the slab record lives and how directly the storefront reads it. Uncap Connect runs inside Shopify rather than as separate middleware, keeps pricing, inventory, customers and orders current on both sides in real time, and syncs customer-specific pricing, credit terms and tax rules. Once slab records sync, a slab sold at the counter stops being offered online, and the ERP stays the system of record. If your slab and remnant records live in shop software rather than the ERP, how those records reach the storefront is confirmed during scoping.

Laminate and solid surface on the same quote. Postformed laminate with its bent backsplash, flat-lay laminate in custom shapes and solid surface with integrated bowls run through the same quote workflow, with their rules configured during implementation. A cabinet shop ordering a quartz kitchen and a laminate laundry room places one order.

Numbered slab records. Number, photo, dimensions, thickness and finish for each slab, configured during implementation against the ERP's piece records.

Holds that expire, on two clocks. A dealer holds a specific slab against a quote's validity window, configured during implementation. Slabs still at your supplier's yard get a shorter dealer hold than the supplier's own, built during implementation.

Piece fit before color. The job's longest piece checked against each slab's size, jumbo or standard, built during implementation.

Level pricing per dealer. Negotiated prices, tiers and volume breaks applied automatically through Uncap Quotes, with material levels by installed square foot built during implementation.

Edges and cutouts on the quote. Edge profiles and counted cutouts priced as options, built during implementation.

Services as line items. Templating, fabrication, install and tear out sold alongside the material through Uncap Portal.

Remnants as stock. Each offcut recorded with size, material and photo, and sold once, configured during implementation.

ERP sync. Pricing, inventory, customers and orders kept current between Shopify and the ERP, through an owned Uncap Connect app embedded in Shopify, or a managed iPaaS integration.

The line between product and build, in writing. Account pricing, approval routing, validity windows, one-click order conversion and services alongside products ship in Uncap Quotes and Uncap Portal. Slab records, hold rules, piece fit, cutout pricing and remnant intake are built during implementation from your data. You see which is which in the scope.

Built on the records your yard already keeps. You already tag slabs, log remnants and keep a price level sheet. The build reads those records rather than a second copy.

Credentials you can check. Uncap is a Shopify Platinum Partner, on Shopify since 2013, with 380+ unified storefronts launched on Shopify.

Scoped before it is built. The Uncap Blueprint is a fixed-price, four-week plan: solution architecture, data taxonomy, an ERP integration audit, UX and flow prototyping, total cost of ownership, a risk register and a fixed-cost implementation estimate, credited 1:1 toward implementation. For a fabricator, that architecture work can cover slab and remnant records, hold rules, price levels and the ERP connection. You walk with everything you need to brief any agency or your in-house team.

This page sits under building materials ecommerce, which covers selling by the square and linear foot, the waste factor, job quotes and lead time from the ERP. This page goes one level down, into the slab and the hold. Both sit within building and construction. If you distribute stone slabs to fabricators rather than selling finished tops, see tile and stone: the same numbered slabs and expiring holds, sold to the fabricator rather than by it. If your dealers buy cabinets and tops together, see cabinetry and millwork. For the move from phone and fax orders to a storefront, see the field notes on building materials ecommerce from offline to online. For the ERP side, see the Sage 300 integration, the Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations integration, or the full list of ERP integrations.

Bring two documents. The first is your current hold list, with the date each slab went on hold and whether it is in your rack or still at your supplier's yard. The second is your price level sheet with edge and cutout charges. Together they show how much stock waits on a signature and how your price is built.

Book a strategy session with Uncap, or start with a Blueprint if what you need first is the slab records, hold rules and pricing logic written down and costed.