From the mine to the finished piece
Six steps, and at each one there is a place where a claim can quietly stop being true. This page says where.
At the mine
Blocks are bought at the quarry rather than from a trading desk, so the origin of a slab is a fact that can be stated instead of a promise that has to be hedged.
- Quarry and block recorded before cutting
- Grade agreed in writing against the photograph
- The same block family where the look must match
Cutting and calibrating
The block is gang-sawed and the back ground to a constant thickness. Thickness is settled at this step, and a face ground later cannot correct it.
- Slabs sawn to thickness
- Back calibrated to a constant
Batching
Slabs for one floor are set aside as one lot. A floor assembled from four purchases is a floor with four colours in it, and no amount of laying fixes that.
- One floor from one lot
- Photographs recorded against the batch
Finishing
Ground and polished to a stated level. The level is agreed before the work starts, because it cannot be raised afterwards without taking the floor down.
- Finish level agreed in writing
- Aggregate exposure held consistent
Cut to size
Templates, mitres and cut-outs. A piece that does not fit is made again rather than shipped and argued about on arrival.
- Cut to your templates
- A final piece check before packing
Packing and loading
Recorded against the batch, with the photographs that describe it, so a claim on arrival can be answered with the record rather than with an opinion.
- Batched packing
- Port chosen for your lane
What is in scope
The list below is generated from the product terms on this site, not written out by hand, so it cannot say five when there are six.
Material
40 product forms
6 form groups
Blocks through finished installation pieces
Forms
Tile in the standard and large formats, precast panel, cut-to-size pieces and fabricated tops. The form is chosen by the room and the substrate, not by what is in stock.
Finishes
Polished, honed, ground and brushed. The finish is a specification with a consequence, and the consequence is decided before the floor is laid.
What this page does not claim
No test results of our own, no lead time and no price. Each of those is absent because a number without a document behind it is the easiest thing in this trade to invent.
The forms, and what each is for
Forty product forms sit under one stone. They are not variants of each other; they are different products that happen to share an aggregate.
The next step is a specification, not a price
Send the room, the substrate and the finish. The process that can actually be used follows from those three.