White Glove Service

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White Glove Service – What is it?

White glove service is a term used to describe traditional delivery where personnel wear white gloves, usually for installing fine furniture. Think of a high quality grand piano being installed in a private residence.

At HDG Building Materials we think of white glove service as exceeding customer expectations.

From Concept to Completion

Our white glove service philosophy transcends everything we do at HDG Building Materials from from initial concept to final installation at the job site.

Who We Work With

We work with the professional design and building community including:

  • Architects & Specifiers
  • Landscape Architects
  • Builders & Developers
  • Construction Professionals
  • Installers & Contractors
  • Stonemasons
  • Interior Designers
  • Luxury Homeowners

Your Extended Team

No matter your expertise or project experience level know that HDG Building Materials is there to answer your questions and ask some, too. We like to understand what your trying to accomplish so that we can best assist you in selecting materials, finishes, and navigate lead times, sourcing, and other logistics. We are your extended team.

Natural Stone Leads the Way

No product offers more flexibility or beauty than natural stone. It’s hard to beat the beauty and grandeur of a project completed with natural stone. But, along with flexibility comes complexity. Myriad questions arise such as: What type of stone? What sizes are available? What types of finishes? Can we color match? What assurance do we have that the pieces arrived will actually fit as designed?

Unlimited Possibilities and Details

When we work with designers, owners, and installers, we think about all of the opportunities to make a client’s project a stunning success. We are also mindful about the things that could go wrong. We mind those details so you don’t have to.

image of Residence with Natural Stone Throughout Structure and Landscape - HDG Building Materials
Erik Nelson of HDG Building Materials on China Stone Quarry Trip

In our Element

We love natural stone. Our resident stone expert, Erik Nelson, lived and worked in China for three years and speaks Chinese. HDG Building Materials maintains close working relationship with our partner factories.

With Possibilities Come Additional Questions

HDG Building Materials helps clients navigate the possibilities as well as the questions that accompany them.

Do you offer reclaimed stone?

Yes, we can source reclaimed and eco-friendly stone. See related blog post, Reclaimed Stone Gives Projects New Life.

Is the stone hand or machine finished?

Short answer, both. Longer answer – our partner factories apply any hand or machine finish appropriate to the selected stone variety and finish. For example, sawn finish is usually applied by machine to give precise control whereas pineapple or lychee are hand applied finishes by highly skilled people. Visit a specific stone product line to see finishes suitable for each stone type.

Which types of stone should I consider?

Not all stone is suitable for all projects. For some projects, certain stone reigns supreme. Visit a specific stone product line to see common applications for that stone type.

What type of stone do your source?

Natural stone varieties we source include Basalt, Granite, Marble, Limestone, Sandstone, Slate, and Travertine.

What about color?

Within each stone product line there is variation in color and veining that can be further accentuated with applied hand and machine finishes.

HDG Building Materials Services Included

In addition to helping clients navigate questions at the concept stage, HDG provides support throughout the entire project life cycle:

  • HDG Shop drawings, approved by you and used for fabrication and QC in the factory
  • Submittal samples & mockups
  • Job fabrication and quality control
  • Course of fabrication photo reports
  • Detailed packing list
  • Packing and crating
  • Logistics and delivery to job site

We work with your design drawings. In this modern age we can marry computers and CAD/CAM models with natural stone creations that arrive at the job site ready to be uncrated, assembled and installed.

We manage the details from initial quarry selection to job site delivery and every detail in-between.

image of Belle Fiore Winery Stone-Stairs-Approach - HDG Building Materials

Our China Factory Partner
Relationships Are Key

We choose the right stone quarry partner for the client’s desired variety of stone and color. Our factory partners maintain a team of skilled stone craftspeople who are able to apply any desired finishes. Of course they also extricate blocks from the quarry, transport these big stone blocks to the factory, further cut to size, and shape the stone before applying finishes.

Tiger Yellow Granite Quarry - HDG Partner

Large Stone Project Up Close

In the Horton Civic Plaza project in San Diego, CA, the client chose Tiger Yellow Granite with a Round Score finish. This large scale project involved many containers of stone delivered to the job site in San Diego after quarrying and factory finishing in HDG Building Material’s partner factory in China.

We worked with HDG Building Materials on one of the most complicated jobs we’ve done in our 40-year history. For the Horton Plaza Improvement project in San Diego we used a variety of shapes and sizes of dimensional stone in various finishes, vertical and horizontal installation methods, and including stairs on a radius. From initially receiving stone samples to visiting a quarry on-site in China, HDG provided great service and inspired confidence.

Kent Klaser
Klaser Tile Co., Inc.
Tiger Yellow Granite - Round Scored Finish - Natural Stone from HDG Building Materials

Put Our Experience and Relationships to Work For You

HDG owners have been working in international and domestic logistics for 28 years. We handle material shipments between the US and other countries — mainly Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Canada, China, and Thailand.

Photo reports of stone projects throughout fabrication - Xiamen in China

HDG Minimizes Your Risk

Full-scale mockups are produced prior to shipment. At this stage of a project we coordinate with our Factory Partners to provide course of fabrication photos. This full-scale layout in the factory is an important Quality Control check prior to packing, crating, and shipment. We minimize transit time and risks from China –  having our own QC inspectors checking fabrication, crating, HDG Marks and overseeing stuffing of the containers. We keep you informed at every stage with photos and reports.

Packing and crating of granite delivered to your jobsite

Readying Stone For Shipment

By this stage of a natural stone project the client and other stakeholders have confidence that the stone about to be shipped is job site ready and will fit the design as conceived. A complete packing list is included. All crates have HDG MARKS that correspond with packing lists for easy identification on site. Stone is labeled, protectively wrapped, packed, and crated for shipment. For large or complicated orders — multiple deliveries may occur. HDG Building Materials has supported 50+ container job orders.

Viscont White Granite Slab From HDG Factory Manufacturer Xiamen in China

Logistics and Delivery to Job Site

Some of HDG’s client architects and landscape architects have a long geographic reach — with projects located in remote locations —- from Juneau, Alaska, Honolulu, Hawaii and Nova Scotia, to Costa Rica and the Carribean Islands. Even Sri Lanka and Dubai. Projects and deliveries occur wherever the client wants them. HDG is prepared to help arrange deliveries to the job-site or to a local warehouse or yard, or make the materials available at the port or cargo terminal at origin or destination. If special trucks (flatbeds, hot-shots) or equipment (lift-gates or boom-trucks) are required, we can and will arrange.

HDG White Glove Service – Beyond Natural Stone

As HDG Building Materials evolved from a supplier of natural stone to carry other premium building materials, we naturally extended our white glove service philosophy to all product lines. Pedestal systems are the next most complex product we help clients navigate.

Pedestal Systems

We often field questions related to substrate design, slope, appropriate decking materials, loading, wind-lift, cad drawings, etc. We work with schematics at the design development stage at the architects office all the way through delivery with the contractor and installers. We want you to be comfortable with what you are getting. Some projects might take 2 years from concept to completion. We are there as your expert dealer, at every stage of your project.

Learn more about pedestals systems

Buzon Pedestals
Stone Tile on Buzon Pedestal - HDG Building Materials

Details Matter

Details matter to our customers so we go the extra mile. From selecting decking materials to providing availability for standard in-stock product versus lead-time for custom sizes. We perform project take-offs to ensure the right pedestal options are selected for your product as well as to determine the amount of pedestal product required to complete the job. Want freight for each material detailed on the quote? No problem. Need detailed project pricing to make informed project scope and budget tradeoffs? Sure, it’s all part of our White Glove Service. It’s a service standard that started with our complex stone projects and now it pervades everything we do.

Angie, thank you. You guys are awesome. Dealing with jobs like this one and the Banks Rowhomes with breaking everything out we really appreciate it. And more importantly the customer really appreciates it. It sets us apart from all the others that just give generic quotes.

Matthew Adams
KELLER & ASSOCIATES

Ready to Serve

Whether your project requires the complexity and flexibility of natural stone and pedestal systems or you have more modest requirements, know that HDG Building Materials stands ready to assist you and hopefully exceed your expectations. If we don’t, please let us know.

Lead times for HDG supplied products:

  • Custom cut and finished architectural stone (cladding, coping, caps, pavers, stairs) – typically 8-10 weeks to US West Coast, additional 2 weeks to East Coast
  • Buzon Pedestals – 2 days to have orders on the road; 1-5 days transit time domestically
  • Other product lines – in stock: 2 days to have orders on the road; 1-5 days transit time domestically

Ask for a Sample

Samples are available for most of the products HDG Building Materials supplies. For stone, select colors and finishes are in stock and available for sampling. We can also order custom-cut any finished samples of any of our stone, produce them, and send photos at no charge. Also, physical samples can be produced and delivered (air freight fees may apply).

Stone Cube with Various Finishes Applied

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