Granite, Marble or Limestone?
Natural stone is one of the most pleasing and practical materials available. Granite, Marble, Limestone and Slate all have their own individual strengths and style, and all come with nature's own reassurance of enduring quality.
GRANITE
A very hard stone formed by nature over hundreds of millions of years from the Earth's molten core. It comes in a staggering range of colours, many with an attractive movement and some with almost holographic sparkle and intensity of colour. Granite can be supplied in different finishes - high polish, matt or textured, depending on the application. Its hard-wearing properties make it ideal for kitchen worktops, bathrooms, and flooring.
MARBLE
Undeniably one of nature's most beautiful stones, marble is a form of limestone that is capable of being polished. It comes in a variety of colours - often pastel shades with a greater intensity of veining. Marble is very suitable for bathrooms, fireplaces, flooring and wall cladding. Being more porous than granite, if you are planning to use marble in your kitchen, you will need to take greater care.
LIMESTONE
A sedimentary rock composed mainly of Calcium Carbonate. Limestone generally doesn't take a polish. Limestone is widely used in bathrooms and for flooring and often comes with fossils embedded in it.
Three Finish Types Granite can come in 3 different finishes: Polished, Honed and Antiqued.
Polished
Polished is the most widely used and is the most resilient to stains.
Honed / Matt
Honed gives the stone a matt finish, and black honed surfaces are often used instead of slate - granite being much more hardwearing. The honing process does make the stone more porous and it is therefore slightly more susceptible to staining than a polished finish.
Antiqued
Antiquing the stone involves flame texturing the surface and bush hammering it to produce a textured finish. This is a very tactile material and is suitable for use in kitchens, bathrooms and hearths. We currently only have this available in South African Black which produces a fabulous dark grey finish.
Edge Profiles for your Marble or Granite Countertops
Before you choose your edge, choose the thickness of your tops.
The general rule of thumb is to use 30mm thick worktops in kitchens and 20mm in bathrooms. Upstands and splashbacks are usually made from 20mm thick material. It is possible to go for a 20+20mm edge, thereby giving the impression of 40mm thick stone (a narrow piece of 20mm is glued on to the underside of the 20mm slab along the edge). This tends to be more expensive than 30mm due to the work involved. It is also recommended that if you are having 20+20, an MDF sub-base is put in to give extra support to the 20mm slab.
The rule of thumb for upstands and splashbacks is that they only need a Flat Polish along the top.
Care of your Granite
You have chosen a material that was formed approximately 350 million years ago when molten magma from the centre of the earth erupted and gradually cooled under pressure producing this beautiful and unique stone. It is composed of numerous minerals, including quartz and felspars, and it is the size and distribution of these that give granite its distinctive colour and character. The following hints are designed to provide you with all that you need to know to ensure you derive the maximum pleasure and satisfaction from your worktops. We hope you find them helpful.
Granites differ in their texture but they all have similar properties such as their resistance to the invasive action of most substances found in the house. Unlike marble and other limestone granite is the least affected by acids or alcohol. It shouldn’t be damaged from standing hot utensils on it or by sharp knives (having said that, the new fusion edge knives claim to be able to cut anything – you have been warned!)
All stones, due to their granular construction, are porous to a greater or lesser extent and most granites fall into the latter category. To reduce the slight ability of granite to absorb liquids we treat the surface with a proprietary sealer that penetrates the surface and fills the microscopic voids between the crystals. This process is first done in the factory at the completion of manufacture and again when installed. However, you should be aware that with the lighter coloured granites you may experience slight darkening of the stone in areas where water has been allowed to stand, but this should fade away as it dries out. Beetroot, wine and cooking oil, particularly when hot may cause a stain and you should always clean this up immediately with kitchen roll.
To take care of your granite we suggest that you wash it with a mild detergent solution, such as you may have used for washing up, and then dry with a soft cloth or kitchen roll. Depending on the hardness of your water supply you may experience a gradual build up of lime scale deposit in the area surrounding the sink. This may appear as a loss of the polish of the granite but can easily be removed with a fine wire wool. From time to time you can enhance the surface by polishing with a soft wax polish and we can supply a proprietary wax for this purpose. In the case of dark granites, particularly black, this should be followed with buffing with a dry soft cloth if you want to remove the waxy smearing that is disclosed on the darker colours.
Where does the stone for my Granite or Marble worktops come from?
Landford Stone supply granites and marbles from all over the world. Much of stone comes from South America, Africa, India and Scandinavia where it is cut out of the mountains in huge blocks weighing up to 20 tonnes.
These blocks are transported to Italy, which is where most of the worlds supply of granite and marble is processed. In processing plants around the Verona region, the blocks are first sliced up into slabs (a process which can take up to six days).
They are then polished on one face by passing them through a series of abrasive polishing machines, each one using finer and finer grits until an almost mirror like surface is achieved.
Landford Stone import the polished slabs direct from Italy to their factory on the Hampshire/ Wiltshire border where using traditional methods in conjunction with state-of-the-art machinery, they cut, shape and polish the edges and all your specified details to create your unique granite or marble worktops.
For other frequently asked questions please go to our site FAQ page