Earlier this month, Olympia’s Premier Stone and Quartz relocated to 772 Sussex Ave. E. in Tenino in the pursuit of obtaining more space to accommodate its growth.
Premier Stone and Quartz is a custom countertop business that specializes in stone countertops for residential customers, dealing in mediums such as granite, quartz and quartzite.
Recently, there was a fire at the business’s original location, which destroyed a few hand tools and some other minor equipment, but one of the owners, Tyler Tollefson, was able to put most of the fire out before the fire department arrived.
Tollefson has owned the business with longtime friend Jeremy Zimmerman for six years, and the two of them have been in the industry for the better part of 22 years, said office manager Nicole Frost.
“They’ve been friends since middle school, and have been basically best friends since (then),” Frost said. “They basically got in the trade together and just kind of went from there.”
Customers are often referred to the business by contractors from all over Lewis, Thurston and Grays Harbor counties.
“The customer will come in, and they’ll look at our samples,” Frost said. “They order what they want, or they pick from our remnant pieces. Our remnant pieces are leftovers from out of the slabs of jobs that get done.”
The remnant pieces are the most cost-effective option for consumers, running customers about $50 a square foot, while the most expensive options offered include unique slabs of granite or quartzite.
The range of prices varies from brand to brand, Frost said.
“I always tell people it's like cars,” she said. “There’s different brands and, just like with cars, there’s different brand upgrades.”
The most popular option offered by far is white countertops with gray veining, she said.
The business does the entire process, from taking down the template of a customer’s countertop to cutting the slabs in reference to the template, before being fabricated and ultimately installed.
To that end, Premier Stone and Quartz is currently looking for local, experienced countertop fabricators and installers.
For Frost, the best part of the job is working with her customers.
“I like the transformations. You get to see people picking out stuff and working with customers and seeing the different pieces they like,” she said. “You hear about their life stories. You get the whole picture.”
And Tenino is a great place to help said customers, Frost said.
“We like it because it’s a small community,” she said. “It’s easy access for the customers to see us. We really just like the small community. I think that just because we are a small business, being part of a small community kind of goes hand-in-hand.”
She said they’ve had a lot of people stop by and say they’re happy that a new business was coming to town and filling the void left when the diesel repair shop closed down.
And despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the business has remained largely busy and active.
“We’ve always been busy, but we’re still staying busy. During COVID, it slowed down a little bit, like everybody else did, but not drastically,” Frost said. “It was still hard on us, like everybody else, with regulations. We didn’t shut down because we are considered construction, so if somebody already had their kitchen ripped out, that's essential. They have to have their kitchen done so that they can cook food.”
Premier Stone and Quartz can be contacted at 360-359-6328 or through the website premierstoneandquartz.com.
The business is open Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on weekends by appointment only.
“Our purpose is to enhance people’s lives by giving them a better kitchen or vanity or helping them flip a house. We help them achieve their vision of whatever they want,” Frost said.
