Lead Stone Finisher - Min. 5 Years Experience Required

Job description:

Are you a skilled stone fabricator who takes pride in what leaves your hands?

Are you the person other people call when a sink needs to be cleaned up, a CNC edge needs to be matched by hand, a miter needs to look right, or a difficult piece needs to be saved?

If you have the skills but are tired of working in shops where every day feels disorganized, priorities constantly change, information is missing, and nobody seems to know what is supposed to happen next, Stokes Granite & Stone may be a better fit for you.

We are looking for an experienced Lead Finisher / Hand Fabricator who can take stone after CNC machining and bring it to final production quality.

This is not an entry-level fabrication position.

We are looking for a professional with at least 5 years of stone fabrication experience who already knows how to use their hands, tools, judgment, and experience to produce quality work.

WHAT MAKES OUR SHOP DIFFERENT?

Our philosophy is:

Do Better and More Before We Do New

We are constantly looking for ways to improve the shop we already have.

That means improving our:

Processes

Procedures
Tooling
Equipment
Organization
Production flow
Communication
Training
Quality standards
We do not believe, "That's just how we've always done it," is a good enough reason to keep doing something.

Good ideas are welcome here.

But there is an important difference:

We want people who are willing to help implement improvements—not just point out problems.

We operate using principles from the Theory of Constraints and schedule production using a level-loaded production system.

Our jobs, priorities, and daily production requirements are visible.

Job information is centralized.

Production is tracked.

Expectations are communicated.

There is a plan.

And when the plan needs to change, we communicate why.

We are not perfect, and some days in stone fabrication are hard. Machines break. Material creates problems. Customers make changes. Schedules become challenging.

We aren't looking for someone who expects every day to be easy.

We're looking for someone who gets better when the day gets difficult.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Your primary responsibility is simple:

Complete the required finish work for the stone pieces scheduled for production that day—on time and to Stokes Granite & Stone quality standards.

You will work primarily on countertops after CNC machining and perform the hand fabrication necessary to prepare those pieces for installation.

You must be able to work independently without constant supervision.

You should already know how to:

Use an air-powered polisher proficiently

Use an air-powered grinder/cutter proficiently
Shape hand-worked stone to accurately match CNC-machined profiles
Polish undermount sink openings
Polish mitered top eases
Surface polish stone back to a factory-quality finish
Fabricate and polish square sinks
Cut and finish full-height backsplash notches
Complete plug cutouts
Drill/core holes
Grind excess glue and rods from the backs of decks
Bottom-laminate polish natural stone when required
Back bevel and flat polish where required
Polish backsplash pieces
Trim and shape farm-sink notches
Grind and shape areas that cannot be completed by the CNC
Fill fissures and voids before final polishing
Trim and shape stone to accurately match templates
Verify finished countertops against corresponding templates
Recognize different stone materials and understand how they behave during fabrication
Edge fabrication experience should include profiles such as:

Double Ease

Bevel
Baldwin
Ogee
Full Bullnose
Demi Bullnose
Waterfall
And other common custom profiles
You must also be capable of performing unconventional fabrication work according to the specific instructions provided by our template department or production leadership.

LAMINATION EXPERIENCE

Experience with both standard lamination and mitered lamination is a strong plus.

Skills may include:

Standard laminated edges

Mitered edges
Mitered seams
Mitered laminations
Glue color matching
Final shaping and polishing of laminated work
REPAIR & RESTORATION EXPERIENCE

A strong candidate will also have experience repairing stone, including:

Filling voids

Repairing cracks and fissures
Repairing broken pieces
Surface polishing
Restoring material to a factory-like shine
Matching adhesive/glue colors
BRIDGE SAW EXPERIENCE IS A PLUS

Additional experience with a manual bridge saw is valuable, including the ability to:

Perform simple slab layouts

Cut basic kitchen countertops and