Slippery Rock Gazette

Joel Davis

Photos by Joel Davis, 

Larry Hood & Stone Creek

Above: Laura da Ponte in the Stone Creek Surfaces showroom. Stone Creek keeps over 100 slabs on site for customers to browse color and stone choice, including exotics like Honey Onyx.

Above: Trenton Hayes sets measuring points for a two-level marble vanity using a Proliner Digital Templating system.

Above: This Colonial Gold kitchen was part of a large scale renovation for a retreat in the mountains of East Tennessee. (Installation Photo used by permission Stone Creek)

Above: “As with this Minsk Green island, one of the keys to our success is the amount of time we spend with our customers on finding what they like. We searched high and low until we found what this customer wanted,” says Stone Creek owner Laura da Ponte. (Installation Photo used by permission Stone Creek)

Above: Cherokee Country Club Bar, Knoxville, TN. Stone Creek Surfaces’ new GMM CNC made this large, curved Costa Esmeralda bar much easier to fabricate. Stone Creek offers many different colors of marble and granite, and six brnds of quartz material.  (Installation Photo used by permission Stone Creek)

Above: This 3cm Ogee edge Honey Onyx vanity is just one of many exotic stone jobs Stone Creek has completed this year. The demand for quartzite and white marbles continues to increase among their upper-tier market customer. With such expensive material, it’s doubly important to take the most accurate layout measurements possible. (Installation Photo used by permission Stone Creek)

Above: A few of Stone Creek’s crew. Front, from left: Laura da Ponte, Sandra Townes, Audrey Anderson. Back, from left: Trenton Hayes,  Ashley Tillery, Shane Rose. (Photo by Joel Davis)

Above: Delicatus White Island and Ceramic Tile – Stone Creek says its customers continue to gravitate towards painted cabinets and lighter granites and marbles with simple ceramic tiles, as seen in this light-filled, newly constructed home in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Installation Photo used by permission Stone Creek)

Above: This kitchen is in a Frank Lloyd Wright house design where the customer used Juparana Tier along with other varieties of natural stone to update the entire house. (Installation Photo used by permission Stone Creek)

Using the right tool pays off. Digital templating has reduced costs for Louisville, Tennessee-based Stone Creek Surfaces. Templating now takes about 90% less time for them than making the old Luan-style templates.

The company specializes in stone countertops. It describes itself as having one of East Tennessee’s widest array of countertop materials available, with 100 colors on site.

Stone Creek Surfaces recently bought a GMM Brio saw for its shop. Its installers now use a Proliner for digital templating. The switch proved far easier than owner Laura da Ponte expected. “I was concerned about the transition to digital because of the learning curve, but it has been incredibly easy.”

Going digital has drastically cut templating time. It’s about nine times faster than by hand. Trenton Hayes, lead installer for Stone Creek Surfaces, is a convert. “Whenever I would go into a house before, I would do a Luan (plywood) template,” he said. “You take the strips and lay them out and take a hot glue gun and glue them all together. Whenever I would go into a big house, doing several rooms, it would probably take me three hours to set it all up. With a digital templater, I can do it in 20 minutes.”

Stone Creek Surface’s experienced installers have taken well to digital templating. “Our employees know how to do it the hard way, so they made it look effortless,” da Ponte said. “We still have a lot to learn to take advantage of all the features and it’s a big challenge to find the time to change, but I wish I had done it much sooner. We have seen efficiency gains and are eager to automate the rest of the shop as soon as possible.”

The use of the Proliner also increased accuracy. Installers don’t have to transcribe measurements for fabricators. “We now have the ability to email the template from the job site to the shop,” she said. “There is less opportunity to make errors.” 

Putting digital templating into action has been educational. The benefits are obvious, according to da Ponte. “It’s the kind of thing we should have done a long time ago. You think, ‘Why didn’t I do that?’”

The GMM Brio saw and the Proliner were serious purchases, not a trivial step to take. However, da Ponte has her eye on the ultimate return. “For us, it was a big investment, but it is the front end of turning the shop digital,” she said. “It was important to do it.”

Over the years, Stone Creek Surfaces has transitioned to a higher-end market. 

“Now we have done a complete 180-degree turn and try to bring in more unique stone,” da Ponte said. “We get material from across the country and make trips a few times a year to make sure we are getting a unique stone selection. We try to make it different from what people normally see.”

Stone Creek Surfaces carries many different colors of both granite and marble. They also offer six brands of quartz. There are over 100 slabs on-site for customers to choose from. The company has access to thousands more. The company installs about 40 to 45 countertops each month.

The company has a small showroom attached to its shop in Louisville. The facility is about 9,000 square feet. “We also added tile about three years ago and one-stop-shopping has been a huge success,” da Ponte said. “There is nothing easier than walking out the door with your tile in hand, to see it with your slab.”

da Ponte has experience running huge manufacturing operations. She majored in Industrial Engineering at the University of Tennessee. Her first job out of college was with Shaw Industries, which according to the 2013 Berkshire Hathaway report is the largest broadloom carpet manufacturer in the world. Her career began as an Associate Industrial Engineer responsible for project proposals and plant efficiency. 

She worked her way up through a variety of positions over the next 13 years. Finally, she became Director of Sample Manufacturing for the company. As such, she was responsible for 850 hourly employees, 40 salaried, and a $100 million dollar operation. 

This background laid the foundation for da Ponte’s success. She oversaw scheduling, distribution, and manufacturing at the plant. “It had all the components of what I would be doing here. I did costing. I did budgeting. I did project proposals. I started as an engineer and worked my way up through the management ranks. I did a little touch of everything related to running a company. That background helped me tremendously coming into this.”

Running a much leaner company has been educational. “My tenure at Shaw had prepared me with a great background in running an operation, but doing it on my own was tough,” da Ponte said. “There was no IT or Human Resource Department to help if I didn’t know how to do things and that was very trying in the first few years.”

The operation has benefited from excellent hiring choices. “I got really lucky with a few great hires,” she said. “Our general manager, our lead installer and our shop foreman have been with me from the beginning. We also have a creative sales staff and several stone artisans who love a challenge. We currently have 14 employees.”

It is those employees who make Stone Creek Surfaces successful. “It sounds cliché, but two big keys to our success is we try to treat people the way we want to be treated, and we have great employees,” da Ponte said.

Customers need to feel comfortable when investing in stone.

“Granite is an emotional purchase, not just because of the cost, but it is a big part of the décor of your home,” she said. “People want to trust that we are honest and will take care of them. They also don’t want to feel like a number. We enjoy getting to know our customers and most of our work comes from referrals.”

This trust translates into customers willing to invest more. They know they will get a better product. “I attribute that to the time we take with our customers and our on-site selection,” da Ponte said. “We get so many compliments on our unique selection. Our marble and quartzite business has really increased. Customers are tired of seeing the same commodity products everywhere and welcome unique choices.”

Success also comes from good partnerships. Stone Creek Surfaces tries to choose exceptional vendors, da Ponte said. “It has to be a win/win and your vendors can make our break it for you. We try to treat them the same way we do our customers and do business with the ones that we trust and help us achieve our goals.”

Stone Creek Surfaces is a Braxton-Bragg customer. It buys a variety of shop supplies on a regular basis. 

Shane Rose, general manager for Stone Creek Surfaces, values the company’s relationship with Braxton-Bragg. He singled out salesman Lee Woodson. “He gives incredible customer service. Anything I need, he acts like I’m his only customer. He works with me on the price. If he doesn’t have something, he gives me a good alternative. If something is not in stock, he’ll send me something to get me by.”

“It’s a luxury having them local,” da Ponte added.

Da Ponte founded Stone Creek Surfaces about 12 years ago, after she to moved back to East Tennessee to be near family. She also wanted to start her own business. “My brother had a cabinet and solid surface countertop business and I worked with him for a year or two. We kept having customers come in for granite, so I branched out on my own and started Stone Creek Surfaces in 2003. We leased space in his building for a short period and then moved to our current location in 2005.”

Stone Creek Surfaces has seen its share of struggles since then. The economic downturn of 2007 transformed the company. It is all the better for it, though. “We cut in half,” da Ponte said. “We had two installation crews at the time. We cut everywhere. Honestly, looking back on it, it was kind of a necessary haircut, because we learned to do just as much with less.”

For more information on Stone Creek Surfaces, visit their website www.stonecreeksurfaces.com .