M Teixeira Soapstone

Easy, pleasant experience. I needed a small piece for a kitchenette countertop in an older house so I wanted the look to «flow». Francesco patiently helped me pick out a suitable remnant and had it fabricated perfectly. Happy that this company took my small job as seriously as the larger, more lucrative jobs I know they get. Thank you! Now when I get to my kitchen, I won’t hesitate to come back!

The project was a redo of a 30 year old kitchen. We have a Mexican Saltillo tile floor that everyone loves and we wanted to keep. But how to choose a stone counter top that matched the country kitchen feel of the floor. We looked at lots of slabs, some spectacular marble and granite, but they seemed too hard and/​or fancy for our application.
Then we discovered soapstone. This traditional kitchen stone works beautifully with our design. It has a soft, tactile feel and muted color that we loved. That discovery led us to M. Teixeira Soapstone, not far from where I work at the base of Potrero Hill. Kyrstal King, who runs the office made us welcome, showed us some sample counters in the showroom and explained how they work. M Teixeira has about four tiers of service; you can buy pre-​cut pieces to install yourself, or complete slabs that they’ll cut to your specification. Ms. King gave us six sample pieces of the different types of stone in stock. We took these home and played with them for a couple of weeks and decided on the Santa Rita Venatta from Brazil. M. Teixeira also provides a full installation service and that was what we decided to do.
The manager, Francesco plotted out the counter top pieces, sink cutout and back splash and gave us an estimate. Not cheap, but very much in line with the research we had done. When all our new IKEA cabinets where in place and level, Francesco came out to our house in Brisbane and carefully made an exact template for the job. From that point, it was about 2 weeks before they where ready to install. I discovered a problem with my cabinets soon after and had to ask Francesco to add an inch to the template. No problem, he said. On the day of the install, his three guys arrived with a heavily loaded truck. They were courteous, efficient and happy in their work. We could not have been more pleased with their work. Many thanks to Krystal and Francesco and our install guys. We are so happy with the job you did for us!

Thank you, Ms. Krystal King and Mr. Francesco: I LOVE the Anastacia soapstone countertop and backsplash! This is EXACTLY the way I dreamt in my dream making my dream come to fruition!
I don’t care how much I spent getting my dream kitchen, just as long as it was EXACTLY how I saw my vision in my dream; due to installing the soapstone in my kitchen, my home’s equitable value has increased drastically: Reiterating, every dollar I spent paying for the Anastacia soapstone was immediately seen by the drastic value increase my home is worth!
Whoa!!! I had NO IDEA \ ‘*. *’ /​how much my home is worth now since installing the Anastacia soapstone countertops and backsplash=$$$$$!! The moral of the story. .. Never, ever, ever cut corners remodeling your kitchen~remodel your kitchen to high standards; surely, you’ll reap the rewards via your home’s high equitable value!

Custom sink built to my specifications with hand selected soap stone slab.
Front office very patient and competent in stone selection and design assistance.
Shop executed design perfectly, on schedule, in high quality.
I am discriminating customer for which this business delivered high level product and satisfaction. Should I need soap stone anything I am coming here, no doubt about it.

I did a kitchen remodel on my home in The Richmond five years ago and installed soapstone countertops. I was provided with great service and the installation went smoothly. I’d give them 5 stars but they were expensive to install, other than that, excellent.

Good: great stone. They installed a week early and the quality of both the demolition and installation was great. The owner or manager Phillip was very nice.
Bad: showed up over an hour late for both demolition and then installation. For demolition, the worker got frustrated when I paid him by check because he couldn’t write me a receipt for cash. Our quote also included installation with no caveats, but then they said we had to build a support for the sink ourselves. So we asked for dimensions, and then when they came to install, it turns out they gave us the wrong dimensions, but the guy doing the installation fixed it. When they were done, they have us a bill that was $ 19 over the quote. We called their receptionist Krystal and she said yeah, she had made a typo on the quote and we actually had to pay more. We didn’t argue.
Overall, I would use them again. If you can afford it, it might be best to have your contractor deal with them directly to avoid surprises.

Originally we were looking at soapstone in Santa Rosa where we lived, but decided to check out M. Teixeira and so glad we did! We found an incredible assortment of soapstone and went there with one in mind. But what we did find was another slab called Belvedere which was on sale and purchased that instead of the one we thought of looking at. Philip, Krystal and the installers were all very professional and answered many questions we had. I am very pleased to recommend them highly for your soapstone need and definitely worth the time and distance to make the trek to San Francisco if you live in Sonoma County as there is not much selection of soapstone in our area.

No one at store on a Saturday. Was at store for about 10 minutes. Saw a bunch of stones but no souls. Could tell two people hiding in the office chatting. I left.

Finally! The soapstone kitchen counters are in!
About 18 months ago we thought we were ready to renovate the kitchen. So, we went to M Teixeira Soapstone, as we were considering what material to use for the counters. I won’t deal with the benefits of soapstone here. There is a fuller discussion on
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We fell in love with the look of soapstone. M Teixeira had many slabs. They carried 9 varieties. Our choice was ‘Julia’ from Brazil which is very dark black-​gray with a few green swirls that remind me of the a little milky-​way. They also carry Anastcia which has large white veins, Rainforest Green which has veins and swirls on a dark green stone, and several others, all with unique characteristics. y advice to anyone buying soapstone is to go and pick out the exact stone you want, since each, even within the same type, can show considerable variety.
We took our time looking at all the slabs and Andre was very patient. He shared his considerable knowledge of soapstone and was never pushy. We selected one that just had that magical attraction for us. It was set aside for us, ready for the day that we provided the dimensions. And lucky us! The sale they offered was for free cutting of the stone.
Well, anyone who has gone through extensive renovations knows that every project takes at least twice as long. That’s what happened to us. Every few months we’d get back to Crystal in the office and say, «We’re not quite ready yet. Is it OK to leave our slab there for a little while longer?» And each time, Crystal would laugh and say, «Don’t worry! This happens all the time. You’re not even close to having your stone here the longest.» This went on for almost two years! And Crystal was patient and kind each time.
We finally got all the preliminary work done on the house and we were finally ready for the counters. We picked up the inexpensive foam slats with which we would template the counters so that the cuts would be exact. Phillip gave us very good instructions and my husband did a great job measuring each counter space down to the 1/​16″. We returned the templates and within a week, the slab was cut and delivered,.
Andre and another strong gentleman delivered the slabs exactly on time and gave us great advice how to sand the edges, attach the pieces at the seams, and maintain our counters. Like Phillip, they were detailed and specific. They also brought the excess pieces. These will make a nice outside bench.
We installed the pieces yesterday and OMG! It looks fantastic! It is perfect in our very modern kitchen. I know they will last a lifetime adn give us pleasure every time we look at them,. And they feel so smooth.
From start to finish, M Texeira was fabulous to work with. And because we installed the soapstone ourselves, the total cost was about 25% of what granite would have run. They have sales on different varieties each month and they have some pre-​cut soapstone, so soapstone may be more affordable than you might think.

We replaced our 1980s Corian countertops with soapstone from Teixeira. Our experience with the office staff, salesman and installers was a complete pleasure. We submitted our order in early December, 2010, then flew to Mexico for a week while they fabricated. Our order consisted of an L shaped counter with double undermount sink and holes for 3 fixtures. The undermount sink is one of the modern stainless models with sharp 90 degree angles, which is a challenge to cut. Their fabrication was perfect. Installation required some leveling of the cabinet tops and a little shimming. We were impressed with the meticulous leveling work prior to installation. The installers were professional, friendly and unhurried. They allotted the proper amount of time for the job. My contractors were impressed and happy to be on schedule.
For those who are considering soapstone, it is a unique counter material unlike any other. It has a dark matte finish, with natural veining. Soapstone is not hard, like granite, so the edges will nick around the sink as you hit the edges with heavy pots and pans. We oil the surface monthly with natural mineral oil to give it a uniform, dark color. We like the soft natural look and feel of this stone, but it does require more care than polished granite.

I got my soapstone counter tops from M. Teixiera Soapstone in San Francisco. I live in San Jose and went up to their warehouse one Saturday to look at their stone. I was very impressed with the variety of slabs and with the beautiful examples of soapstone sinks, counter tops and tiles that they had in their show room.
The women at the front office were very helpful and were easily able to figure out what size slab I needed with my kitchen plans.
The installers made two trips down to my house — once to measure my counters after the cabinets were installed, and the second time was to install the counters. They were very professional and did a beautiful job of installation. There is a joining seam right at the middle of my sink but you would never notice it unless it was pointed out to you. They also drilled holes for my soap dispenser, my faucet, my air switch, and my filtered water spout.
My slab is a Santa Rita stone from Brazil and in its natural color it is pale grey with many little dark spots and some large white veins. The background color darkens when oiled to match the dark spots and the dark spots take on a very pleasing crystalline appearance. It wasn’t the most expensive slab in their showroom but I am very pleased with my choice. All told, with installation, my counter tops cost about $ 3212.00 and that was for two small 10″ slabs on either side of my stove and a 34″ slab on top of a cabinet and a long 11 foot slab on my sink counter. The depth on all the slabs were 25.5″. After choosing my slab, I gave them a deposit of 50% down and they stored the slab at the warehouse until my contractor contacted them for installation
I love, love, love, my soapstone counter tops — they are really easy to care for. Don’t believe anyone who says they stain — real soapstone cannot stain — it’s impossible — the stone is so dense and inert that it just doesn’t react to household chemicals including wine, food colorings, vinegar, lemon juice.
You can choose to oil the surface or not — it doesn’t matter. I oil my counter tops about once /​month because I love the serene dark color that it makes and I love how the white veins in the stone stand out in contrast. I also find that oiling around the faucet and soap dispenser prevents hard water build up on the counter and faucet.
I had twin under counter sinks installed and if I could do any thing differently it would be to install a much larger, farmhouse style sink to accommodate oversized heavy objects such as my stove griddle and large cast iron skillets when they need scrubbing. Because I have to prop these oversized objects half in and half out of my small sinks, I am finding that the soapstone edges on my sinks are developing little dings. I know that I could easily sand them out and they certainly don’t look all that bad but now I take care to protect the edges with a folded dish towel before I put those large objects in the sinks to be cleaned. That is the only thing I have to do to «baby» my counter tops. I have already made one large scratch in the surface of the counter which was made when I slid a wooden chopping board across the counter. It was caused by a broken off knife tip embedded in the chopping board. My heart sank when it happened, but when I oiled the scratch, it disappeared. I don’t think I would have been so calm if it had happened with a polished granite countertop.
So for those of you who are thinking of soapstone — go for it — it has an ageless simple look that in my opinion is matchless in its beauty — and the people at Teixeira Soapstone are very easy to work with.

We finally visited the showroom in SF. Nice soapstones and the lady who helped us answered all of our questions. Overall, great experience in the showroom. But we can’t afford the one we really want though. Oh well! But we’re glad we checked it out.