Owner David Palmer may have started with mud baths in his backyard at the age of 7, but now that address is home to a world wide stone and tile business, famous among Florida's most elite residents. Since the company's founding in 1984, 24 years ago, Palmer Marble & Tile of West Palm Beach, Fla., has worked on projects in Japan, Canada, the Caribbean and Saudi Arabia.

Palmer Marble & Tile completes its high-end residential and commercial work in Florida's most prestigious locations and at any given time, might be working on three to five mansions for customers that include movie stars, music celebrities, sports heroes and Wall Street moguls. Most recently, it completed a two-year $2.8 million custom stone contract for upscale architect/interior designer Susan Robinson in Sailfish Point. The 11,000-sq.-ft. residential project included bathrooms, walls and staircases, plus a pool and pool deck.

David PalmerLike many successful fabrication businesses, PMT started in a small backyard shop with only three employees and, 23 years later, grew to 46 craftsmen — six in the shop and 40 in the field. It specializes in all types of fabrication and installation of glass tiles, mosaics, granite, marble and limestone, and is well known for its enticing glass-tiled pools, performing all of their own installations and restorations.

All Palmer Marble & Tile kitchens are customized for the consumer and usually take four to five slabs. Recently, however, Palmer's kitchen jobs are fairly large and have used nine to 12 slabs of granite on a project. These kitchens are all full backsplashes, noted Palmer, with full islands. All tops are L tops and there are no mitered corners or pieces with most tops measuring 110 to 120 in. by 63 in. Palmer's most popular surface is granite because of the sizability advantages it reportedly has over engineered stone. Granite, because it's a natural stone, can be quarried in larger pieces than the standard sizes of its man-made counterpart.