Slabs, panels, floors, tops, steps and the rest.
23 answers are written under this subject. 23 answered so far.
When the drawing is known. Cut-to-size panels are for walls, tops, steps and furniture where the dimensions are fixed and the figure has to be matched across the pieces. Slabs are for floors, for stock, and for anything whose dimensions are not settled.
Mainly on walls and floors in hospitality and retail: hotel lobbies, reception backdrops, lift lobbies, corridors, and the retail and boutique interiors that want a wood look. It is also cut for column cladding, counters, steps and furniture tops.
On one slab, book-matched, and lit from the side rather than from the front. A straight figure washed from above or from a concealed slot shows the depth of the stone; a feature wall lit flat shows the joints.
On full-thickness treads with a nosing that is cut as one piece, not applied. A stair is the hardest-wearing horizontal surface in a building and the part that is most often cut from a thin piece with a nosing added to it.
In one piece where the counter allows it, with the joints mitred so the figure carries across the front and returns on the ends, and the whole thing on a cabinet rather than on legs. A counter is the most touched stone in a hotel and it is worth specifying properly.
In full-height panels with the joints stacked vertically and the figure running with the corridor. That is what makes the room read as one surface, and it is what the hotel corridor in this site's case photographs shows.
It is being used, and the photographs on this site are of a hotel that has it on the walls and the columns of the public rooms. A hotel is where the wood-grain figure earns its place, because a large wall is what the figure is for.
Yes, as a surround, and it is one of the places the figure does the most work. What it cannot be is the hearth surface, because marble at Mohs 3 is not a surface to stand a fire on or to knock ash off.
As cut-to-size panels and as a bonded panel, yes. The bonded panel is a thin stone face on a backing, and it is what a lightweight wall or a ceiling wants. What it is not is a substitute for a solid slab at the same price.
Yes, and it is one of the better uses for it, because a column is a narrow vertical surface with the figure running its full height and nothing else competing with it. The hotel case on this site shows exactly that.
Yes, and it is the case this stone is normally specified for. A lobby is a large floor with a controlled cleaning regime and no water on it, which is the condition this stone likes best: a big surface, a strong figure, and a finish that can be maintained rather than watched.
Full-height panels, mechanically anchored, with the joints stacked vertically and a light line washing the head of the wall. The lift surround is the one surface where the figure should be quiet and the material should be tough.
Yes, and it is one of the best uses for it: a surround is cut from one slab, book-matched, and it is the largest single piece of the stone a client will ever see. What it must not be is the hearth surface.
Yes, and for a wall, a top or a stair that is the right way to buy it. The panels are cut to a drawing you approve, and the sequence is chosen from the photographs of the slab before the saw.
The walls, the splashback, the floor and the island sides. The worktop is a different question, and the honest answer is that it works only where the client accepts a marble that etches. Most kitchens use this stone on everything except the worktop.
One slab, book-matched, with the mirror centred behind the desk, and a concealed light line washing down the face of the stone. The slab is chosen for that wall and the panels are cut for it before anything else in the room is ordered.
A panel if the wall has a drawing, because the figure has to be matched and the joints numbered. A slab if the wall is simple and the substrate is good, because a slab can be cut on site and a panel cannot be re-cut once it is numbered.
Because the wall decides. A slab is cut on site and can be adjusted to whatever the wall turns out to be; a panel is cut against a drawing and cannot. A simple wall takes a slab and a wall with a matched figure takes a panel.
No. The hearth is a hot surface that gets knocked with firewood and swept with the brush, and marble at Mohs 3 is not a material for that. Use it for the surround and use something else for the hearth.
Yes, and it is one of the harder jobs for this stone, because the panels are cut to a radius and the figure has to stay straight while the face curves away from it. It is done from one block and cut in sequence.
Yes, and it is one of the stronger arguments for this stone: the headboard wall is the one surface in a bedroom that a client looks at every day and that timber cannot legally be, and the figure across it reads at bed width rather than at door width.
Because the wall is a large flat surface and a clad panel carries the figure across it, whereas tile repeats a board every 300 or 600 millimetres. The cladding is what lets the stone read as a single material rather than as a grid.
Yes, and the front of a reception desk is a large flat vertical surface with the figure at full height, which is the best condition this stone is ever in. It is normally clad rather than built up as a solid counter for that reason.
Ordered by how many questions each one holds.