MATERIALS AND EFFECTS: NATURAL STONE GAME OF STONES


Robert Merry, Director of the Stone Consultants, discusses the fight for market share between engineered and natural stone surfaces and outlines the main differences to help you make an educated decision when it comes to specifying for your own project.


There is a debate raging in the stone industry. With the increase of market share by manmade materials, in areas traditionally occupied by natural stone, the choice for the consumer has increased. But not always in the full knowledge of what the choices contain and how they perform. What are the true ecological credentials of either and should we be using them at all?


The main battlefield is kitchen work surfaces. Traditionally made from natural granite or slate, manmade quartz has taken a large chunk of the market.


“Ultimately, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.


Perhaps, like imitations before, natural stone will shrug off the competition in time.”


In recent years, designers have specified marble or limestone for high-end luxury apartment worktops. These look beautiful but are calcium carbonate-based and will permanently mark from any acid found in food stuffs – such as citrus fruit, wine and most household cleaners. Granite is more durable and a better choice.


Is the natural stone industry just bleating about a successful rival when they have long neglected to promote natural stone in any meaningful way themselves?


And if quartz is the all singing, all dancing alternative to natural stone, why does it have to assume the names of natural stone, claim it is a version of stone and try to look like stone?


Quartz is a manmade product; not to be confused with quartzite, which is a natural quarried stone. Quartz is a composite made from hard, inorganic granulates (90%), bound together with a binder resin, (8 to 9%), and then coloured with pigments (1 to 2%) which are then heated, calibrated and polished.


The finished product tends to come in singular colours, some with sparkles. It is hard, non-porous, easy to clean, heat resistant (though there are warnings about placing hot pans directly on the surface as they may crack the material


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or leave burn marks), stain resistant and very hygienic. It is also claimed by the manufacturers to be chip resistant. The market is becoming saturated and there is a healthy market for rejected material without the manufacturer’s mark printed on the back, appearing as a cheap alternative to branded quartz.


There is a product on the market called “sintered stone”, which uses only natural products and therefore claims better ecological credentials. But it is still not natural stone.


Granite is an igneous rock, formed at high temperatures in the earth’s crust, made up of varying quantities of feldspar, quartz, mica and amphibole. You must be sure of what you are buying. Geologically speaking there are only a few true granites on the market. The name is applied to a variety of igneous rock, similar in structure, but not all performing to the same standard.


Granite is hard, slightly porous, can be highly polished, is heat resistant, probably needs sealing and cleaning annually and often has small, natural pits in the face. Colours can be uniform pinks and creams – salt and pepper or wild and unique.


What can you do with all those old worksurfaces once you decide to replace them in 10 or 20 years’ time? Will an indestructible pile of inorganic resin bonded material pile-up somewhere, like the fridge mountains of earlier this century? What is contained in the resin that binds the quartz together?


Granite can be crushed and eventually returned to the earth. It does contain radon gases, but in such minute quantities as to be far below the European Safety Standards.


More questions than answers? Ultimately, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps, like imitations before, natural stone will shrug off the competition in time. After all, granite was formed some 4000 million years ago and will probably be around for a few more years. Will its rivals?


www.stoneconsultants.co.uk www.tomorrowstileandstone.co.uk What’s your


choice? Robert Merry is a Director of the Stone Consultants. A member of the Stone federation of Great Britain, Chartered Institute of Building and the British Standards Institute. The Stone Consultants offer specialist advice and guidance on all aspects of using stone, both natural and “unnatural”, as well as expert witness services


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