Four steps, in the order they have to happen
Four steps, in the order they have to happen. The first is knowing what the stone is, the second is seeing it against a room, the third is finding out whether it is in stock, and the fourth is holding it. Each step carries a tool, because a guide that only describes the process is a brochure.
- 01
Know the stone
Where it comes from, what it is made of, what the published figures say, and where the colour is going to surprise you. A yellow marble is not one yellow, and the difference between two blocks of the same material is larger than the difference between two suppliers.
The stone itself - 02
See it in a room
A slab on a white background tells you the colour. It does not tell you what the colour does under a warm light, next to oak, or on a wall that faces a window. Look at it against a room before you commit to it.
Put it in a room - 03
Check what there is
The quantity held is a surface measure, and the thickness and the finish are the three we hold. Find the batch that matches your thickness and finish, and check the size band against your cut list before you ask for a price.
What is in stock - 04
Hold the material
A sample is cut from the stock that would be supplied, so what arrives is the material rather than a photograph of it. Where you cannot be on site, ask for the sample and hold it against the drawings before anything is ordered.
Request a sample
The four ways this goes wrong
- Ordering on the colour of a screen — A photograph of a polished slab under studio light is not the colour of the same stone in a north-facing room. This is the single most common reason a marble order is disappointed, and it is why the sample is cut from the stock rather than sent from a swatch book.
- Ignoring the fault lines — The structure is brecciated: there are white calcite fault lines running through it, and there are naturally formed cracks in the block. They are part of the material and not a defect, but they decide where a piece can be cut and where it cannot.
- Asking for a finish this stone does not take — Flame finishing is a granite process. A flamed marble is a different material wearing the name of this one. The finish dictionary says which of the twenty we work to are standard here and which depend on the block.
- Not checking the size band against the cut list — A slab is a band in two directions, not a size. A cut list that assumes a fixed slab size will be checked against the physical stock, and anything that does not fit will be made up from another block - which changes the figure at the joint.
What we need from you
Five things, and a quotation comes back against them.