In 1996, the dimensional stone industry looked pretty good with more than $500 million in imports, but it might’ve been hard to get anyone to wager that, nine years later, that figure would double. Anything beyond that would be a sucker bet.

Sure, it’s easy to quote a job. Just take a quick look at what someone wants, guess how much stone it needs, figure how many workers you’ll pay for so many hours, scratch something out on the back of whatever’s handy, and you’ll ….