Natural stone production
Natural stone sales
Our previous posts often looked at which natural stone is most popular and best suits your home. We have also written about types of stone and their properties. This time we look at how the natural stone that graces, or will soon grace, your home is quarried and produced.
Natural stone production is a craft in its own right that requires knowledge and experience from many fields. It combines trade, technology, inspiration and industry. The term “natural stone” refers to products extracted from the earth and used for thousands of years as building and decorative materials, such as granite, marble, travertine, limestone, quartzite, rustic stone and many more.
Natural stone is far more than an ordinary stone. It is carefully selected, has an exceptionally long service life and is practically indestructible. It is a unique material in many colours and textures. Finding two completely identical pieces is almost impossible, because it formed in nature through many processes and under many influences. Natural stone brings warmth, colour and cosiness, which is exactly why it is so popular in living spaces.
Production
Natural stone is part of human culture, as people have used it as a natural material since the very beginning. Natural stone is extracted in quarries, of which there are three types:
– Open-pit quarrying on a slope (open quarry in an embankment)
– Open-pit quarrying in depth (open quarry, extraction downwards)
– Underground quarrying (underground galleries)
In the past, natural stone was quarried by hand using traditional methods: breaking by hand, drilling, blasting and fire. Today the stone blocks are cut with steel wire saws.
This is easier and faster, and the cut surface is level and clean and therefore better suited to further processing. The blocks obtained in this way can vary greatly in size and weight, up to several thousand kilograms. They are then cut to specific dimensions, into smaller and thinner pieces ready for transport and sale.
Finishing
Stonemasonry is mainly about working and cutting solid blocks into smaller workpieces and then into finished products. The blocks are cut into workpieces or slabs. Standard thicknesses are 2, 3 and 4 cm (normal slabs) and 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 15 cm (solid slabs). Cutting is usually done with gang saws, and more recently also with diamond wire saws. Modern technology, which builds on old methods, has above all greatly increased cutting speed. Solid blocks are further shaped, profiled and surface-finished.
Modern technology makes machine processing of stone possible. Bridge saws cut straight lines, while CNC machines handle more demanding curves. Edges are ground and polished on edge-polishing machines, with a series of synthetic grinding stones of different grits on a conveyor belt. Edges can be straight, classic bevelled, round or half-round. Line technology has also changed surface finishing. Granite slabs can be polished, honed, flamed, brushed or sandblasted.
Transport and sale of natural stone
Once the natural stone blocks have been properly shaped, they are transported to the next plant or shop. Strict quality standards apply on the international market. The natural stone must be flawless, so it must have no cracks that could widen during processing. For the trade, the blocks must be uniform, the same in colour and structure, with no discoloured areas.
Natural stone, however, usually has cracks and flaws of all kinds. That is why only a small part of the quarried stone meets market standards. In general only 5 to 20% goes on sale, although in some parts of Europe the proportion is much higher. It is precisely because of these high standards that natural stone, even after thousands of years, is one of the most popular building materials for houses and homes.
After all these steps, the natural stone is ready for sale, and it can be used in many ways.
Visit our showroom. There you can see all the types of natural stone in person and convince yourself of their advantages.