Stone Chatter is a podcast covering every side of the stone fabrication industry. For too long, the stone industry has operated in silos. Wholesale talking to wholesale, fabricators staying in their own circles, installers isolated in the field. Stone Chatter brings everyone to the same table.
Built for fabricators, installers, shop owners, wholesalers, and everyone connected to the stone world, it creates space for transparent conversations about fabrication realities, safety, business pressures, leadership, and what needs to change.
Hear from new guests every month, from fabricators, shop owners, distributors, sales leaders, safety specialists, manufacturers. We don't avoid opposing opinions, we invite them. This is where learning happens.
Because transparency drives growth, shared knowledge strengthens the industry, and everyone deserves a voice.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY! NEW EPISODES EVERY MONTH!
Fabricator Spotlight: 6 Nominees, One Tough Choice
In this special episode of Stone Chatter, co-hosts Rich, Jessica McNaughton, and Erik ”The Pebble” sit down with the six nominees for Stone World’s prestigious Fabricator of the Year award. Instead of standard corporate questionnaire answers, the hosts run each nominee through candid conversations exploring shop culture, operational bottlenecks, non-negotiable standards, major hurdles overcome in the past year, and what local competitors would begrudgingly admit sets them apart.
Throughout the episode, several prevailing themes dominate the discussions:
Culture & Employee Retention: From lean skeleton crews to multi-facility operations, nominees emphasize giving employees a voice, cross-training, and stepping out onto the shop floor.
Non-Negotiable Safety Standards: Amid industry-wide concerns regarding crystalline silica exposure, OSHA/Cal/OSHA standards, and heavy material handling, every fabricator highlights safe shop practices (wet processing, dust collection, vacuum lifting equipment) as an uncompromising baseline.
Overcoming High-Stakes Hurdles: Guests share real-world problem-solving stories—from rebuilding software workflows and fabricating intricate 30-foot fireplaces to emergency interstate slab retrievals for broken Cristallo quartzite.
Giving Back to the Trade: Nominees actively lead educational groups, organize workshops, mentor through Women in Stone, and guide organizations like the Stone Fabricators Alliance (SFA) and All Slab Fabbers (ASF).
30 Oct 2026
Industry Update - Fabricators are Printing, Lawyers are Minting, Insurers are Sprinting
**Episode Title:** Stone Update Acquisition, The ”Section 25” Insurance Nightmare & In-Shop Slab Sublimation
Massive media acquisitions, brutal legal wake-up calls, and game-changing shop technology are colliding across the stone fabrication industry. Rich, Jessica McNaughton (President of CaraGreen), and Erik ”The Pebble” dive into Stone Media Network’s acquisition of Emerson Schwarzkopf’s *Stone Update*, bringing essential industry journalism, newsletters, and the *Hard Surface Report* under one roof.
The conversation shifts into high gear as the team examines how a lack of baseline employee health screenings left a shop owner exposed to multi-million-dollar silicosis liabilities when workers’ compensation invoked Section 25. They unpack Caesarstone’s recent Form 6-K disclosure revealing a $46.5 million verdict that establishes a dangerous ”defective product” legal precedent, explore an innovative $900,000 dye-sublimation system pushing material yields to 95%, and review pressing Cal/OSHA comment deadlines.
**In this episode, you’ll hear:**
* **Stone Media Network Expands:** How the acquisition of *Stone Update* preserves Emerson Schwarzkopf’s trade reporting while infusing fresh editorial energy.
* **The Section 25 Worker’s Comp Trap:** Why insurers can deny coverage over respiratory claims and why pre-hire baseline medical testing is non-negotiable.
* **Caesarstone’s $65M Verdict:** Breaking down the 69.1% liability ruling and what ”defective material” precedents mean for quartz manufacturers and fabricators.
* **Low-Silica Market Hurdles:** Evaluating amorphous silica lines like Icon and Eklos against raw-material cost premiums and fabrication realities.
* **Dye Sublimation in the Shop:** How high-temperature transfer printing onto cut-to-size mineral blanks eliminates edge-matching headaches and cuts scrap waste.
* **Cal/OSHA Updates & Ban Odds:** Looming feedback deadlines on revised silica standards and whether national countertop licensing will outpace federal bans.
Follow *Stone Chatter* on Apple Podcasts, leave a rating and review, and share this episode with fellow shop owners and fabricators staying ahead of industry shifts.
25 Oct 2026
Is Your Marketing Ready for 2027?
In this episode of Stone Chatter, hosts Rich, Erik Rapp, and Jessica McNaughton sit down with Anthony Milia, founder of Milia Marketing, to examine how stone fabrication shops should strategically allocate their marketing dollars for the upcoming year. While countertop fabricators have historically invested just 1% to 2% of revenue into marketing compared to the 7% to 8% benchmarks seen across broader home improvement and B2B sectors, rising competition and retail demand are forcing shops to rethink traditional referral-only models. Anthony details why annual marketing plans routinely collapse by spring—pointing to a lack of individual revenue ownership, isolated planning between sales and marketing, and failing to hold weekly accountability reviews. He emphasizes the power of ”speed to lead,” revealing that responding to prospects within five minutes makes a shop 10x to 12x more likely to win the job, while 52% of customers hire whichever business replies first. The discussion also covers why establishing foundational infrastructure like CRMs (HubSpot and Pipedrive) and attribution tracking (CallRail) must come before scaling ad campaigns, how consumer search behavior is shifting from traditional SEO to AI platforms like ChatGPT and Claude, and how to audit your pipeline by secret-shopping your own shop and reallocating spend away from untracked channels.
The views expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect Stone Chatter. Content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical, or safety advice. Always consult qualified professionals and follow official regulations.
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
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