Stone Processing

Stone is a tactile and versatile material and it is an exciting experience to watch finished stone emerge in multiferous forms from a piece of rock. The processing of natural stone starts at the quarry where a section of solid rock is found and blocks are separated from it with as little damage to the stone as possible.

Heavy equipments are used to transport the blocks of stone from the quarry to the processing yard where they are sawed into tiles, slabs. Secondary sawing reduces the slabs into dimensional masonry. More intricate work can be carried out on profiling saws and planing and polishing machines and of course by hand. Hand working of stone, however, retains an essential place in the last stages of processing, when highly skilled masons work the more detailed stones to their finished form.

Sophisticated methods bring better results than brute force and modern technology can be applied. The aim of using latest technology programs is to make the sector more internationally oriented and to solve the problems of quarrying and processing so that the material which is of high quality and needs little care could be more widely used in buildings and other construction works. The natural surfaced blocks are cut into pieces of varying thickness and sizes, as required. The surface is then given the required textures with different finishes.

Honed or polished surfaces are achieved by grinding the cut face with successively finer grades of abrasives. Sandstone and limestone are often available in honed finish. Marble and other harder limestones can be polished. To achieve the true color and pattern of natural stone, polished surface is the most popular among different types of stone surfaces as it does not change the nature of the stone.