I don't think I've posted since the purge a few months back. Here to answer any stone related questions. >Been working with stone for a few decades, running my own company for most of that time>My company mainly does repair work, but I have been a stone slab installer, fabricator etc. I also consult and do some layout/design work>Here to answer questions about stone selection, repair, applications, maintenance etc.>Happy to answer any questions for our budding entrepreneurs, contractors etc. regarding running a small business working with luxury products/clientele. I won't bump this thread, I'm terribly busy at work but will do my best to check in daily
Do you make jokes on the job about being or getting stoned?
how do i complement woodwork with this while it's relatively cheap in my country do you get slabs of these stones that you have to work with like tilework right
>>2887225I only know one or two stone jokes, I try not to take them for granite. >>2887226Not sure if I understand your question. Cheapest sources of stone for random projects are >old countertops being replaced, can find on your local marketplace >Fabricator scraps and cut offs from slabsYou won't find large or entire slabs for very cheap anywhere in my area. The tools are usually the biggest barrier though, as blades for cutting quartzite or granite are easily $100 each and don't last long. Diamond polishing discs are around $25 each and you need a sequence of 5-8 to go from dull to shiny, not including compounds for final polishing. If you are putting them under a floor polisher you'll need 4-6 of each as well.
>>2887246what do you even do with these huge cubes
>>2887247Those blocks are typically cut down to slabs in their origin country and then shipped as a complete cut block for sale as countertops or cut down as matching floor/wall slabs. Common granites are often cut to smaller blocks for exterior architectural applications of course
Where do you source the stuff from
>>2887256mines i imagine
>>2887246How flat are polished granite countertops, typically? They seem pretty flat, I was thinking about using one for a surface plate.I tried a sheet of glass once, however it was surprisingly wavy and bends easily.
>>2887273Not flat. Slabs are typically 3/4 inch. Im actually on a job dealing with your question exactly, see in the photo its zeroed at both ends but a 1-2mm hump in the center. So my grind/feather is huge to hide the grind depressions once it's polished.
>>2887256You'd need to be more specific. Lots of countries have entered the field in the last decade, specializing in different types of material.>pixelIn the middle of a countertop restoration I figured I'd bring you guys along for the ride. Here is an example etching
>picrelHere we ate after two or three grinds and levelling of the seams so it looks sharp. Polishing later.
>>2887286prettyyyyy
>>2887285Here the stains/erosion are removed, ground and back at Polish. These little areas are done with a hand machine where the rest of this 20 foot island is done with a large polisher.
>>2887157Hello StoneAnon, I have some questions I hope won't take up too much of your time. Thank you in advance. I have been a finish carpenter for 15 years, previously a framer, doing flooring installations, cabinets, molding/trim, etc. I know nothing about stones or countertops though. I just tore down my kitchen and rebuilt it back up, including plumbing, electrical, walls, flooring, etc. And just got my cabinets installed. I have been trying to decide on countertop. I've ruled out laminate, natural wood, and quartz/dekton. I want natural stone. How do I tell where a granite or quartzite comes from and how it has been fortified with resin and how durable it is? What are some important questions I should ask at the slab showcase warehouses and what do I need to ask my fabricator so I know that they know what they are doing, and I wouldn't appear as a bumbling idiot that knows nothing about natural stone countertops. This is for a very busy wet kitchen where both my mother and my wife will be cooking ans baking regularly in, and aren't exactly the neatest, most careful kitchen users. The kitchen cabinet setup is 12x12 against walls and 8' peninsula. Can you also tell me a bit about buildup underneath and the different material thicknesses and the loads they exert onto the cabinets?
>>2887303Anon you sound very informed, I look forward to giving you a proper reply once I'm at my desk. Literally on my job phoneposting>picrelJust finished up polishing this badboy, looking sharp. Between the red marks is where I dropped the slab 2mm, very little wobble because of how far I ground here >>2887283
Making one more post to show how aggressively it was ground, and maybe give an idea of what I do, since it's a very niche trade. >top was stained and scratched, preparing it for 3m wrap >grinding with water in a 10-15 million dollar finished home>get to work alone all day, literally noone here (blasting the doors)>400g, 800g and 1500g grinds with both a hand machine and countertop polisher >three passes of compound with less compound on each pass>tear down my tape/protection >now sealer and I have another counter tomorrow shouldn't take long (no grinding) >about $1800 before tax
>>2887326Thank you, I look forward to your reply and wealth of knowledge <3
Interesting thread, especially the polishing.
>>2887157I want to build a stone wall. Does it matter what kind of stone I make it out of?
>>2887303>short answerThe short answer, combining affordability and durability is going to be black granite. If you want something that looks more modern, you can get leathered antique brown granite (picrel). If price is no problem, honed or polished "taj mahal" natural quartzite is the king of durability. Avoid chinese black granite, the name changes all the time but its junk. Strong black granites are "nero saluto, star galaxy, ubatuba etc." >complicated answersI don't know where you live, what sort of market exists in your region or the quality of fabricators accessible to you, so you really have to do your own homework. >material familiesBased on your post, you are going to be limited to granite or quartzite families. Lighter granite tend to be porous, whereas quartzites of all colors tend to be very non porous. The issue I see often is mislabelling of slabs, ie, granites sold as quartzite or dolomitic marble being sold as quartzite (eg. superwhite) so suppliers can charge more. Lots of unhappy clients falling for this. I'll tell you how to test later. >resin impregnated slabsWhen you go hunting for a natural quartzite, it's going to be impossible to test for this. One sign I've noticed is dark blotches from suction cups, they tend to effect the resin and not come out. Other than that I've only see resin issues on lighter slabs, always from brazil (most quartzite is, so not really helpful info). To clarify, you DONT want resin in the slab. continued...
>>2887303Lets talk testing. Your fabricator is going to be useless, don't listen to them. The only people who know, and I mean KNOW stone are the cutters/fabricators working in the back, installers and restoration specialists. Fabricator owners are often more worried about moving inventory (eg. single slabs floating around) than giving you the best advice. So, testing is going to be three items, maybe you can get an offcut to bring home otherwise do this in the shop>1. PorosityTake a wet paper towel, can put it in a ziplock bag and bring it to the shop. Slap that onto the slab a few layers deep and let is sit on the face for 10-15 minutes. If you pull it off, dry the spot and its darkened, you have penetration. This isnt bad, stone is inherently porous, but some material is wildly porous and others bairly. Hard to describe how you'd gauge this beyond how quickly it dries up back to it's original color>2. Acid ReactivityCalcium/lime and other acid reactive minerals are found in marble, no sense testing this on marble/limestone. BUT a savvy or ignorant salesperson may try to sell you quartzite that is actually more akin to dolomitic stone, which is very dense/hard but has enough calcite (dolomite technically, magnesium calcite iirc) to react and erode when exposed. Do the above test with white vinegar instead of water, 5 minutes should be sufficient>3. HardnessHardness can be tested with a kit like in picrel. Mohs scale is as follows. Marble ~3-4, Granite ~6-7, Natural Quartzite ~7. You can also just take a chunk of glass and try to scratch it (mohs ~6.5) continued...
>>2887303>weight loadsI don't remember off the top of my head how to calculate weight, its not something I do anymore. Slabs are usually 3/4 inch. I never see any special reinforcement done to account for different types of stone unless you have overhangs or waterfalls. Quartzite and granite are heaviest. You will want to have your fabricator do the measuring/templating to make sure you dont mess up the sizing and overhangs. You will find your height with plywood on top of your cabinets, so if you do a large overhang/nosing on the slab to make it look thicker, you can just bump your plywood height up to account for that. Picrel is an example of a thicker mitred edge, it can look really meaty and nice. I do suggest you have a good chamfer on whatever edge you put, the sharper it is, the more prone to chipping it will be.
>>2887406>forgot picrelOne other suggestion. I know you said no to Dekton, but, I do think honed porcelain slabs are really durable. They wont stain, it takes a lot to chip them, but they are pretty affordable and can take a lot of abuse. Never polished- never, they will look bad sooner than later because of the glazing, but honed or textured dull finished are really nice. The achilles heel of porcelain is cracking, if you get a hairline crack it's basically over, youll never hide it and it will always be an eyesore at best, a place to slice your hand at worst. I hope I covered everything, but feel free to ask more
>>2887376>stone wall material selectionIn the short term (like 100 years) marble/limestone wont erode. Granite is going to last longest, your mortar will fail first. Honestly if I was building a wall I'd just pick the closest, cheapest available stone I like the look of. This isnt my area of expertise mind you, more of a mason thing.
How do you categorise the stones? As in what makes something a granite or other type?I got curious after seeing what I'd call something else you call black granite.
>>2887392>>2887400>>2887406>>2887408Thank you very much for the extremely thorough answers. I will have to take some time to digest this before my trip to the closest slab sellers nearby. I live in the pacific northwest if it makes any difference. I'm just trying to avoid shitty stones as much as possible, so likely will look for the suggested types you mentioned with high durability. Thanks again.
>>2887413Stone is typically categorized based on mineral composition and in some cases how it was formed or even how it looks. This isn't necessarily how a geologist would classify things, but as a stone contractor, below is the common nomenclature. >marble High concentration of calcite, but is igneous (meaning it melted and reformed)>limestone Also a high concentration of calcite, but is sedimentary (compacted, but not melted)>graniteHigh concentration of quartz and a bunch of other minerals like feldspar. Very speckled in it's appearance, always igneous>quartzite Also high concentration of quartz, but more of it and in larger quantities. Often veined in appearence/banding etc. Always igneousThen you have the rarer stuff like onyx, which is a calcite material, slate a non reactive shale, or semiprecious agate like stone- which can be all over the spectrum regarding their mineral composition and how it was formed.
>>2887419My pleasure, Im in the north east, no idea what is available to you. When it comes time to seal it, go solvent based, food safe, penetrating. Not water based. Lithofin PSI would be my recommendation for clear sealer, Ager tiger (tenex) would be my recommendation for a color enhancer (not always a good idea, but if you go dark honed granite would be great).
>>2887420>marble>igneousDo you not label rocks as metamorphic? Not sarcastic btw, genuinely interested in the differences between how it's at your work and im geology.
>>2887437Well people rarely talk about it, if they do they usually say something like "this one melted this one is just like looking at sand sitting on the ocean or something" I say igneous and have heard metamorphic. Literally nobody knows what they are talking about half the time, I can tell a lot about the material Im working with as soon as I start touching it/grinding it, if I have to polish it, then I can tell you everything.
>>2887440I guess that makes sense, you wouldn't need to know all the details to make stuff and sell it. Thanks for the answers!
>>2887249What's the most expensive job you have done?What's the most "ridiculous, overpriced luxury" thing you have done?For walls, are large solid pieces bad because they crack or just very expensive to install?
>>2887443Its really frustrating actually. I came up working alongside OG interior designers who started as architects. There are few around still but they all had a deep understanding of materials and the correct applications of them. Then suddenly everyone became a designer without the architectural backing and they dgaf about professional opinions. I can usually recommend a material that will be 90% of the aesthetic with orders of magnitude more strength, friendly with water, less prone to chipping etc. but they ignore it. Beyond this, the only real masters of stone are masons, slab installers and restorers. I was at a shop recently (the best shop in my region) firmly telling the owner its his duty to inform designers where certain material should not be used, and he argued basically saying they dont care and he doesnt care so too bad. And so I went on my way to a client who just got fucked over and has no idea their shower will rot in about 8 years due to water exposure (extremely soft limestone).
>>2887448>most expensive jobI'm actually in the final phase of it. ~$130 million dollar new cottage build for a pretty famous person. I do all their properties. Fairly opulent but he has excellent taste, picks all his own stone and loves stone (and us) so much he lets me and the slab guys live in his other cottage while we work there (nobody else gets this privilege). Its kind of fun to hang out with the boys talking shop in his 20 million dollar pad, we all bring food and cook/clean/shower in this place. I sleep in his theater room, very cozy. >most ridiculous overpriced luxury I have doneI mean, its all pretty ridiculous. When I first started I worked for an old mob boss, he met me and said "youre a young fucker, you look like Kramer, from the show, you know the show? fuck it, Im calling you Kramer" and so I spent a week in an old italian mob bosses house with his henchmen standing over me watching being called Kramer, I look nothing like Kramer. Why was I there you ask? He wanted the joints between the slabs of stone matched to the veins in the stone, we are talking 1-2mm gaps in a huge area and each one matched with grout, ink and epoxies. He paid me a lot. That's not even the most opulent though just ridiculous. Ive seen a lot, too many stories to share. The people with the fun stuff are always bikers, they are like little kids, statues of superheroes, airbrushed sports cars and stuff like that. >for wall are large solid pieces bad... The issue with large pieces is never the stone, rather, the wall behind the stone. You can use the best LFT cement in the world, but if your using lumber framing and it twists, the slab pushing up against the next one will separate the cement backing from the wood and you can lose the slab, cement and board all at once. Its terrifying. One job I get called in on a lot is to hide pins installers add to slabs over say 400lbs. They will drill into the face, sink a bolt into it with epoxy and call me in to hide it. Sucks.
This is a grand old time! What's your favourite stone to work with? Is it situation specific?
>>2887453Oh, yeah, by details I meant more about how rocks form rather than their properties. I can't believe someone would let someone choose limestone for a shower, it seems like such an obvious "don't".
>>2887157How does one start into the trade of slinging rocks? Aksin for my homeboy
>>2887640>not sure if actually asking about david and goliath or about the trade
>>2887661How do you wake up one day and decide to sell stones? It's cool, just seems like a huge logistical job. Getting stuff from other countries into people's homes in the states. I stress out about getting lumber from the yard to the house let alone coordinating massive slabs from place to place.
>>2887664I wish I could give you an adequate answer, Ive never purchased/sold slabs. It takes a lot of startup money and a lot of connections though. I know one guy who bought and stored slabs from an area they knew was going to stop mining, sold them years later for several times their original purchase cost. Like, $800/slab purchase to $15k/slab once the mountain was cleared out.
>>2887330>$1.8kI honestly figured you charged more, that's not a bad price for repairing what may be the only stone that person actually wants there. yes I know your jadite/bathroom repair story's more expensive, just figured it was massively more, like 25-30k+ more..
>>2887731>pricingIt would typically be more, but not by much. In this case, this is a long time client of mine who gives me a lot of work (they are a big builder). I tend to be fair with pricing, only slightly above my competition, can't gouge with a repeat client business model (I can also be a bad business man, which is okay too). Important to note I do zero marketing, no social media etc. Which saves a ton of money and time. I'm always booked 4-5 weeks ahead.So for this job... >7 hours labor>under $100 material cost>easy low stress job>about $200/hr clean income >~$150k annual income @ 4 days per week >premium pricingThere are a handful of clients who pay an excessive premium, around 2k per day, which means anal retentive cleanliness, plastic all over, zero dust, moving furniture, art etc. They have unrealistic expectations I have to meet, example, photograph cosmetics on counters, remove, replace identically including label orientations. >service calls I charge $500 for any chip repair or minor repair, usually 1-3 hours before I add to it. I'll book two usually sometimes three in a day.
>>2887467>but if your using lumber framing and it twists, the slab pushing up against the next one will separate the cement backing from the wood and you can lose the slab.I hadn't considered this, whats the best way to set up a solid wall for taking slabs? Its already an existing stick built bathroom but would be removing sheetrock and squaring up the walls anyway in preparation for foam backer board, for a steam shower.
>>2887763>framing>cross members between studs >cement board>schluter kerdi >Ultraflex LFT cement>grind the back of any slab that has mesh or glaze so you have direct stone to cement contact>Space is now permanently conditioned, no going below freezing anymore. Beyond this, clever layout design is important. It's hard to put on paper (tried to sketch this out for someone else recently). Essentially your slabs should always be laid out to not be floating without hitting the next slab perpendicular to it. So if you are looking into a shower, the main wall (biggest pieces) that is free standing should be put up first, with the two perpendicular walls now holding those slabs JUST in case. Your lightest slabs are the freestanding ones. Ceiling slab sits on 2 or ideally 3 slabs below. Of course this isnt always possible, so you can pin or bolt after a certain height, rarely does anyone do this (where I work at least).
>>2887467Thanks for the reply.>>2887771Are solid slab bathrooms just easier to clean? Other than looks is that the appeal? What's the thickness on those?I think you mentioned other contractors drilling holes to attach them to the backing wood / backing plate. How do you attach them without drilling?Other than cost and installation difficulty (i.e. let's focus on end use), what are the major downsides to people getting solid slabs over tile?How much is a 8x8 slab of whatever material that you consider good enough?This almost seems "easier" to install than tile if there wasn't the transportation / cracking issue.
>>2887925>solid slab bathrooms just easier to cleanHas more to do with the actual stone type and finish than the form it is cut and installed. Less grout is easier than more of course, and with slabs we do epoxy joints (not epoxy grout, actual polyester resin) which is very easy to maintain. >thickness3/4 inch usually>other than looks what is the appeal? Opulence. No other reason. There are massive downsides to any natural material where water is present, it can fall victim to moisture penetration, soap build up because you cant use acid based cleaners on marble/limestone, efflorescence and even total discoloration from iron and other deposits in the stone. Its an all around bad idea unless you like someone like me coming every 6 months. >how much for an 8x8 slab Nobody would install a slab at that size, we'd cut it in half. Either way I've seen slabs go from as cheap as $1000 to upwards of $30000 per slab. >solutionsPorcelain! I did a job recently (too bad I cant post it) but the porcelain slabs were 10.5' x 5.5' at 1/4 inch thickness. Much bigger than natural stone pieces for installation. Absolute nightmare to move around and install (wobby buggers), picrel is how we install them, but once down is pretty much impervious. Honed porcelain is 100% safe to all cleaning products minus the normal issues of cracking, polished porcelain CAN etch from acids, rare, but does happen. They also scratch from sand and grit so protecting them during install is very important. Otherwise once they are up its like a normal tiled shower but looks very close to natural stone, minimal jointing, and much much lighter weight. If I was going to redo my bathroom, which is currently travertine marble, I would use porcelain 100%. At least the lower half of the wall where I see 99% of permanent damage occur.
>>2887974> 10.5' x 5.5' at 1/4 inch thicknessThat’s ridiculous… You’d have to lay it on some kind of soft polymeric sand that slowly hardens into something pretty resilient over the course of an hour or two to prevent it from cracking.I’ve had 13” tiles cracking from a tiny bit of moisture getting under into the osb.
>>2887981Yeah they were extremely difficult to handle, they may have been 3/8 but either way very thin. When we carry them, four guys using picrel, if we walked out of step it would wobble and shatter into 8-15 sharp ass chunks. Any interior corner would also split the slab so we need to drill holes then cut to the holes. Overall massive pain in the ass to work with compared to slabs of natural stone. Pros and cons with everything. By chance the pics I've been posting this week are from that house, no cracks anywhere in the floor, looks really good. Entire home is steal beam construction with concrete floors.
>>2887974Cool, ty.>>2887982I wonder if you need to patent adding bars that basically form an X to those holders and the X are firm rods of something (no homo) that don't let the stone flex.So basically you clamp it, and then there is a rod from bottom left to top right clamp and bottom right to top left.
>>2887771Damn that looks good and I don't really like white/gold bathrooms. >cement boardIs this needed for structural reasons or just what you use? I planned to use the waterproof foam boards as my wallboard. Or maybe just mud float the walls because I've never done it before then apply liquid waterproofing. Mostly worried about steam being more aggressive than a typical shower and forcing its way into my studs etc. The Germans do 30 day flood tests, never work with New England attitudes. >t's hard to put on paper Perfectly clear. If your ceiling slab is only resting on top of one short and one adjacent long side, would you add anchors on the other free sides (which would be over glass walls)? Or just 1 near the free corner?Have you seen this test? https://youtu.be/CEtE0EuRS3c
How difficult it would be for a complete beginner to glue up a mitered corner cube from flat slabs like pic related? Whats the minimum machinery setup Id need?
The reason I have to pursue this cunted glue-up route is that it is impossible to find the specific material thick enough that would let me cut out the cube as a solid piece. (and I hate the layered look thus the mitered corners)Nobody imports stuff thicker than 30mm here.
>>2887157Holy fuck
>>2888615>why cement boardI wish I had a technical answer for you, I stopped installing as my main work many moons ago and I'm sure the tech has changed. I do know what I see on site and what my colleagues use. Foam board specifically I see used for guys who want to get their slope on floors without using traditional drypack, which is what we do, never see it used on walls for slabs at least. Cement board is something I trust. >test video Never seen it. I browsed through and do wonder if they allowed it to cure for 10-30 days before testing. The chemical change happening with water inside the cement does take a while. Beyond this, cements for use on porous material have to be pretty specific and mixed a little wetter than usual, as the material itself will draw moisture during curing. We go wet parge on the slab, wet parge on the wall then spot trowel with very large slabs using a slightly dryer mix. Clips too. >>2888740>how d
>>2888740>How difficult it would be for a complete beginner to glue up a mitered corner cube...Completely solo is going to be a considerable investment in tools, once you have them you can make many cubes but otherwise expect to spend upwards of $500-$1000 just to be able to do it.>cuttingYou'll need to cut the material to have mitred edges. Wet saw plus blade and precision will matter, this isnt a grinder thing, especially if you haven't done it before>Mixing your adhesive/epoxy Now you need to mix your resin, something like Chrome transparent polyester resin + pigments. >Putting it togetherWith a friend, probably, youll need to mix your epoxy and put it together piece by piece with a pretty short work window, about 2-4 minutes per mix. Obviously test your cure times to ratio of epoxy BEFORE starting. You can even use silicone and clamp it then put epoxy and cut the silicone or if you can clamp it together then pump the epoxy in to hold it then finish later it would increase your chances of success considerably>cleanup and sandingNow you have epoxy, a product often harder than the stone itself (much harder than the onyx you posted). Sanding it with a variable speed grinder or by hand is pretty dusty and labor intensive. You will need PPE to not breath straight epoxy dust in. I would suggest a painters tape then fiberglass tape just past your joints to reduce your chances of knicking the face of the stone. Use white tapes as pigmented tape will bleed into the epoxy when heated up during sanding, fiberglass tape will ruin the stone so you put painters tape THEN fiberglass on top. >smoothening and polishing edgesNow you need to sequence your mitres up to the right polish, so say you started at 60grit, youll be going 100, 200, 400, 600, 800 and maybe more. We dont usually compount mitres fortunately.
>>2888867I will most likely get the individual squares pre cut from the supplier or at least made into strips that I cut into squares myself.What would you say will be the hardest step to get right? The $1k in equipment sounds actually quite a bit lower than what I feared. Also you are right that if I get this to work, I wouldnt be just making one cube, but rather multiples, Im looking for them to be about 200mm X 200mm big and I might be able to get away with them missing one side so just 5 faces and hollow inside since the last face will always be sitting flat.I fear that cutting the mitres would be absolute bitch. How badly does stone chip out at such a sharp 45 degree angles? Is there something such as a table mounted router for stone? That would be perfect to just get a suitable bit and cut the profile in one go instead of having to do it with an angled wet saw.For the glue up I would most definitely come up with some kind of jig.The polishing also sounds very tedious, how much material do you usually need to remove to get a polished result with nice looking edges? Not sure what you mean by the tapes, wouldnt you need to sand and subsequently polish all of the faces one by one?
>>2888867On another note: how hard is it to actually import the stone? Because I feel like 200x200 mm is just about small enough where it could be made solid.Like how hard would it be to negotiate with them to have the cubes cut for you and ship by the pallet? (and what even is the cost on a deal like that?)
>>2888882>cut in a shop This would be the best case. Every material will cut differently, cost for cutting a natural quartzite will be considerably more than a limestone, marble or even onyx due to hardness. Its orders of magnitude difference- to the extent we often end up with rounded mitres because the blade will flex if pushed through too quickly.>rotorThere is a tool called a sector, but its for bullnosing not mitres>glue up jigAbsolutely would make this much easier, with no bottom you could literally just strap them to a plywood box cut to the right size then slide them off>Polishing sounds tediousEvery bit of epoxy you put will need to be removed. Your slabs should be the finish you want BEFORE assembly, its a lot easier to resuface it before cutting and assembly.>taping You would put the tape first, about 1mm from the edge of your seam. Masking tape first, then fiberglass, then apply the epoxy. While you do your initial sanding with your aggressive diamonds/paper you can safely cut up to the tape and even into it slightly without hitting the face. Once you are at a high grit, pull the tape, acetone the seam and finish with your high grit for shine, since it wont cut the face of the polished stone. >picrel I feel like doodling tonight, avoiding an oil painting Ive been working on :/ But should illustrate what I mean. Grinding takes a lot of finesse, literally music on get in your flow and move quick or the epoxy behaves strangely due to heat. Once you get it, you get it. Trained a lot of people on this and some just get it others take a long time, its a very fluid task.
>>2888889You have to go to a shop, see what you like and negotiate it. Cutting many pieces at once will be cheaper than one offs. You can even buy multiple similar materials (say all marble, using the same blade type) and they can cut it all on the table in one go. It wont be cheap. I have a colleague who tried to get into business doing something like this, cutting boards, soap dishes etc. and it never took off because China and India. To do really well would need something extra, some waterjet inlays or brass/metal inlays, backlighting then contact with designers who will sell it to ultra wealthy folk for exuberant prices.
>>2888900I didnt really answer your question though. Importing is damn expensive, like insane and in my area at least, quite a cartel. Even finding a material you like in one place and having the slab moved to your shop is going to be $400-500 just to move the slab around. Your best bet will be finding a shop with a huge supply of slabs on hand and then picking from their supply and forget about importing anything or moving it around. If you are thinking of starting a very big business then thats a different story, but imports are usually done by the container full, not by the slab (in my very limited experience)
>>2888899So you basically leave an intentional gap with the two stationary pieces of stone in place for the epoxy to fill in rather than pushing them together and squeezing the excess out? What brands would you recommend for color matched epoxy?>>2888901Yea I already talked to a big supplier locally. I sure aint gonna fuck around with full sized slabs if all I need is small squares.They can cut it for me for a reasonable price, since its similar to cutting windowsill, but it gets unproportionally more expensive if they do the mitre cuts on all 4 sides per square so I feel like I need a setup to do that myself.What is the optimal semi-diy approach to doing the mitres? Is it a wet saw, like a tile saw type of deal? Keep in mind Id be working with reasonably small pieces that can be handled easily (half the size of picrel, maybe even bit smaller).
>>2888903>squeeze vs gap You can squeeze them together, good epoxy mixed to the right ratio is very good at bonding to cut stone. Harder/denser material like quartzite, porcelain etc. I find a little room for more epoxy is better.>BrandGold brand (transparent) by Superior -or- Gran Quartz Chrome transparent (same product) are the best of the best, but hard to sand compared to say, TENEX. Is the best epoxy out there though. >pigmentsLiquid pigments for stone should be available from the same place you buy the epoxy. Youll need to mix your own and consider transparency not just color. Always test as epoxy yellows with curing. >CuttingYes straight cuts at the shop would be cheaper and then you can cut with a wet saw yourself at home. Blades are expensive and wet saw would need to be capable of 45 degree cuts of course. There are two types, one with a tray you push into the blade and one where you pull it. Either works as long as its a good saw and a good blade and its all clamped securely. But this begs the question, why not just buy tiles? Obviously if you want to follow vein patterning like in your original post then youll need to go slab, but otherwise tiles are cheaper and lighter, just an thought
>>2888912thanks for all the insights! guess my next step is finding a decent second hand saw.What kind of grinder/discs should I get for polishing the edges?
>>28889295 inch semi flexible, makita variable speed, carbide sandpaper @ 100-200-400-600-800. Hand pads are also handy for corners, much easier to control.
>>2888929By chance, some mitre cutting I had to do today. No final but should give you an idea of how the taping is done pre-epoxy application and then using it to sand it safely.
>>2889193neat! you said to use colorless tape so how come the green wasnt an issue here?also what kind of fiberglass tape is that? when I search for that all I get is the kind for drywall work
>>2889223The green tape is called G-tape, comes in white too. It's just hard to find so I figured I'd recommend whats more available/what I'm sure you can obtain wherever you are. Picrel is another example I dug up. A little rough but leathered. No final again but thats the sequence.
>>2889258oh sweet! that sequence really shows whats going on quite nicely. how many steps after that still follow?
On real estate/etc. tv shows we always hear about muh italian marble this, muh Italian marble that; I've heard a long ago that it's some sort of a "well known secret" in the industry that plenty of said "Italian" marble is actually portuguese.Marble is a quite abundant and traditionally common construction material, here (picrel, Estremoz); e.g.: my previous home (from the fifties), had a (double) sink/countertop carved out of a single piece of (pink/salmon) marble; same for the (all-around) masonry cabinetry countertops (white, though).And I know for a fact that marble is exported in blocks, then "rebranded" for re-export (same happens with olive oil, btw...).But have you ever heard of this, and how common is/was this (regardless of actual/pretense origin), if at all?Btw, Ançã (lime)stone is from just a few km from where I live.
