How a Marble Slab Reaches Your Home

Numerous elements must come together with the work of skilled tradespeople to get a beautiful slab of natural stone from its original form to your home.

Firstly, marble must be formed. Natural marble is created in a metamorphic process, where limestone is transformed into marble as whirling designs are created and the original limestone heats to a certain temperature. As this happens, a new type of rock is shaped by the Earths pressure.

Once marble has been formed, thick pieces of the stone are extracted from quarries all over the world. Once a suitable site has been located, the pieces are slowly separated from the main wall using a range of machinery and tools, such as synthetic diamond wire and diamond-tipped drills, and chainsaw-like machines.

The marble will then be cut into blocks, sometimes weighing more than 7000kg each, and transported to milling facilities where the large pieces will be sawed into slabs. One of the last stages of the pre-shipment process is covering the slabs in resin to fill any holes and doing a final polish. This resin and polish will typically only affect 1% of the surface of the slab to ensure the natural beauty of the piece is maintained.

When a client selects their marble slab for their new build or renovation project, their stonemason will start by laying a template against the piece to choose the area of the stone that can be used for the project, based on the size required and the part of the slab that best showcases the beauty of the stone. It can then be shaped and cut to size.

As marble is a porous and soft stone it takes professionals to carry out the installation of the slabs. With great care and expertise, the pieces are adhered to the joinery with a silicone adhesive.