Your molds are the most important tools in your cultured marble factory.  Buy molds that you know gives you the best opportunity to make you money; Sinks, Bathtubs, Shower Pans, Wall Panels, and accessories.  All the molds can be used to produce marble, onyx, granite and the other formulas seen in the "Photos" page.

When setting up a new cultured marble factory, it is crucial that you start with a large enough package of molds to produce a sufficient quantity of marble per month to pay your overhead and realize a profit at the end of the month. Basically, the more molds you have the more ‘pounds-per-day’ you will be able to produce so it’s important not to invest in a few overpriced molds but instead buy a larger quantity of industry standard molds from someone you trust will supply you with the best in the industry. Most in this industry gauges their production by how many pounds per day of marble they produce. If you want more info on this, give me a call.

You’ll want to manufacture the obvious things like bathtubs, sinks, showers and walls but don't overlook the small decorative 'necessities' such as columns, corner shower seats, exotic trims, and other accessories that give you a high return.  Not only do these products have a huge markup, they make an installation look much more elegant. Even though you may not sell every customer a marble column, having something unique and elegant like this in your showroom, on your website or in a brochure may be what entices a new prospective client visit you.  You will find that "if you show it, you will sell it". When starting out, stick to the building material type of products which won’t require any additional marketing beyond your local contractors and building supply companies. Contractors don’t buy planters and picture frames so concentrate on what contractors are interested.

In today’s age of mass production nobody has been able to produce a quality mold by any other means than ‘by hand’ and nobody in this industry makes a mold with some space-aged kind of composites or uses graphite or honeycomb or anything else that will make a mold last some ridiculous period of time as you may have heard touted. These type of products would only make a mold lighter in weight but would  have absolutely no practical purpose for marble molds and only serve as a sales gimmick. But, what is available are molds that are meticulously manufactured, step by step, under the strictest quality standards and using Made in U.S.A. raw materials supplied by the top manufacturers in the world.  You can expect to turn most of your molds 5,000 times and even more on open faced molds.

In regards to performance; the bathtub mold will get the most abuse due to it generating the most heat. A factory can expect to produce up to 4,000 bathtubs on a tub mold over the course of its lifetime but let’s say you only pour it 2,500 times, and lets say you only pour it one time per day.  At that rate, that mold will last you 500 weeks, or 9 years! Let’s also say that you only net $150.00 on each bathtub. (This is very conservative in most markets) Okay, let me grab my calculator. I take 2,500 bathtubs X $150.00 (net) = $375,000.00 over the lifetime of the mold, or (÷ 9 years) I net $41,666 average per year for that one bathtub mold investment. You can do the calculation if you pour that bathtub mold twice a day.

You will be able to turn your other molds more times than you can turn your bathtub mold so that is why I wanted to use the bathtub as an example. For example, it’s not unheard of to produce 5,000 shower pans from a shower pan mold and a shower pan can easily be turned twice a day. So, as you can see, you will recoup your mold investment in a short period of time and if you take care of them, they will last you many years and produce thousands of products. If you allow your factory to use the molds as a workbench, (Don’t laugh.... I’ve seen this happen) then obviously you’re not going to get the maximum use out of your molds. A little discipline in your factory goes a long way.

You can even calculate your mold cost for each piece of marble you produce on it.  Let’s keep it simple and say a mold cost you $5,000 and you poured that mold  5,000 times.  Each product you poured only had $1.00 of mold expense in it.  In training, you’ll learn how to save several times that amount in material cost alone, without figuring saved labor costs with the equipment we’ll discuss in more detail on the Equipment page.

The glossy finish on the molds is a gel coat that is produced by one of the most recognized gel coat manufacturers in the world. Under the gel coat are several layers of reinforced fiber compounds that are backed up or supported by wood and/or metal. Since marble weighs eight pounds per square foot at .75 inches thick, a strong base is critical. The wood that is used is “Medium Density Fiberboard”, or MDF. This is not a cheap ‘particle board’ kind of material that is used for crating. MDF is very strong, maintains a uniform density, is machinable, and will accept a wide range of sealers, primers, and coatings such as the polyester resins used to make the molds. The density is about 40 pounds per cubic feet and this is why you find MDF to be quite heavy. The moisture content is between 5-8%, so with such a low moisture content, it is very rigid and will not warp under heavy weight like natural wood and honey comb often does and is much stronger than natural wood of the same thickness. Medium Density Fiberboard is a cultured and improved wood much like cultured marble is an improvement over natural marble.

Vanity Top Molds: We will show you how to make your initial mold package as versatile as possible.  If you know you will be selling standard size modular bathroom vanity tops, fine, buy modular molds.  If you want to produce custom, larger, or multiple bowl counter tops, using a 12 foot vanity top mold and divider bars would better suit your purpose.

Floating Bowls: There are over 50 different styles of floating bowl molds available and when you include drop in bowls, undermount bowls,  bar sinks, and kitchen sinks molds, there are well over a 100.  There are oval, square, rectangle, octagonal, shell shaped, scallop and other designs and obviously you’re not going to start with all of them but it’s a good idea to offer your customers some choices.  It’s recommended to buy your floating bowls in pairs because you will need to have two bowls of the same style to make a double bowl vanity top.

Drop In Bowls: These can be a big seller where your customer has already chosen an alternative (tile, laminate, natural marble) to your cultured product for their countertop.  That is fine.  You’re not going to sell ‘everybody’ your one-piece, seamless  vanity top but if you have a couple of unique drop-in bowl styles, you can sell them the sink.  Unlike the all-one-piece vanity top where you need two of the same floating bowls to make a double bowl counter top, you can make a double bowl drop-in sink installation using one drop-in sink mold because you can pour it, let it cure, pop it off and pour the second one.

Undermount: Many people prefer an ‘under mount’ sink because you don’t have an unsightly silicone line around the bowl like you do with a drop-in.  An Undermount sink is installed from the underside so it does not meet the counter top on the top side.  An undermount sink makes a nice clean appearance on the surface of the counter top and is easier and faster to clean as you can simply wipe the counter top off into the sink.  This is one of the reasons you see under mount bowls in many hotels.  If a hotel saves one minute cleaning the bathroom in every room, X a 200 room hotel X 365 days a year, that’s a lot of labor cost savings.

Kitchen Sinks: There is huge potential in manufacturing solid surface kitchen sinks and there are many styles to choose from.  There are single bowl, double bowl and triple bowl molds.  Go to a kitchen / bath shop and see some of the designs they offer and the prices they are asking.  You’ll want to compete, so you’ll also want to offer some choices.

Bar Sinks: You are in the business to make money so don’t overlook areas around a home or commercial business for areas to sell your product.  Many homes will have a small bar or single bowl kitchen sink elsewhere in the home.  It may be a bar in the family room, a sink a mud room inside the back door or in the laundry room.  If you’re doing a take-off from a set of floor plans, look for areas like this as they may also require a sizeable counter top to go with that small sink.  These molds come in a variety of sizes and are drop-in and/or floating bowl molds.

Wall Paneling: Your wall panel molds will truly be the work-horse in your factory as they are what will produce all of  your flat pieces, whether it be wall paneling, shower surrounds, table tops, bathtub decks, steps, desk tops, large “L” shaped counter tops etc.  Anything flat will be made on the wall panel mold.  They are available in a variety of sizes but it’s best to start with the largest because you can always use divider bars to make smaller pieces on a large mold but you can’t make a piece of marble any larger than the molds is.  If you have an installation larger than the mold, it will have to be made in two pieces and then you’ll have a seam.  “Seamless” is going to be one of your big selling points so eliminate a seam wherever you can.  Shower surrounds should be a big part of your business and are an easy sell.  You can offer your customer a grout-free marble shower surround that can be installed in a single day and has no grout lines where mold and mildew accumulate.  

Flooring: Some of your customers may want flooring to match the other products they are purchasing from you for in their bathroom and if so, always make it with a textured finish and again, try to make it seamless.  Keep in mind that natural marble and granite have a harder surface and will withstand heavier traffic but your product will be suitable for bathrooms.

Bathtubs and Shower Pans: Bathtubs and shower pans are great money makers!  Do a market survey in your area and compare local prices to what it will cost you to produce them.  If you weren’t considering making ‘tubs and pans’, you should be because they are very easy to produce and you can be very competitive in this market.  (Ask for the Material Cost Calculator).  Also, compare quality.  I have seen markets sell cheap quality imported bathtubs for 6 to 10 times my material costs so you can certainly be competitive in such markets.

I’ve touched on the major money making molds but don’t overlook the little molds that are necessary to finish the job and accessory items that people just simply want to have.  Some of these include the soap dishes, trims molding, window sills, shower seats, bathroom shelves, etc.  These small items require a small amount of material and often no more than some left over material.  Some of these items can give you a higher per-pound/per-kg  return than some of the larger products you’ll manufacture.  

Don’t be overly concerned about building your mold package now because we’ll spend a great deal of time (and maybe some evenings) talking about molds during your training class.  You’ll always be able to make final changes to your mold selection after you’ve attended training.