Granite vs Marbles

Marbles once dominated the market in the construction industry during the early 70's throughout the late 90's here in the Philippines. But they are now being slowly forgotten. Local marbles have few variety of choices such as the Beige (Bulacan Marbles), Tiger Alagaw and Romblon Marbles. Today, these stones are being used for walls and siding decorations.

Advantages of Granites

• Shininess - the level of shininess is way far compared to the local marbles especially dark color granites.

• Toughness - installers need to be careful when installing marbles because these stones are very fragile. One mistake and you could waste a marble. Granite are as tough as a real rock. It can withstand the impact even if it falls to the ground only when it is standing vertically. It can also withstand the different climate changes. Granites are usually installed in the outer walls of building yet it remain very shiny in a long period of time.

• Size availability - Granite has lots of available sizes starting with 60cm x 400cm up to 2m x 4 meters.

• Maintenance free - Unlike local marbles, granites shiness does'nt fade. Many people uses neutral color wax just to keep the beauty of their marbles. Granites shiness lasts for a very long time.

• Value - if your house have a kitchen and flooring made up of granite, your house surely has a bigger value.
  

• Easy to install - compared to local marbles, granites are much easier to install because they are being made not in your homes but in the workshop. By the time installers deliver them, they'll just install them without the uncomfortable experience of buffing it inside your homes.
  

How to identify if your Granite is made from Italy or China?

There are mainly two country who manufacture Granite Stones and these stones are also being categorized by their country of origin. One of them is Italy and the other one is China. How would you know if your granites are made from Italy? Usually, you can't distinguish the difference between these two if you are not particular with Granites. Since the technology to manufacture these stones also came from Italy, most of the designs are the same. Even the names of the stones do not differ. This is sometimes being used as a deceiving tactics for contractors. When buyer's ask for Italy granites to be installed to their kitchens, contractors give them quotations using the price of Granite Italy but they will later on cheat on their customers by installing China granites.

How to Distinguish Italy from China made Granites?

• Thickness - You will see that Italy made granites have a consistent thickness of not less than 2 centimeters while the china made ones is thinner to up to 1.5 centimeter.
  

• Width - 60 centimeters are the usual size of China made granites while the Italy ranges up to 2 meters in width and 4 meters in length. If you've seen granites as tall as you, its most probably an Italy made granite. I don't know why China does'nt imitate large size granites.
  
• Quality - Italy granites are very shiny especially dark color granite stones. If your compare the shininess of China made from Italy made, you will see the big difference in quality.

• Toughness - Italy made granites are very hard to break. I remember one of my engineers have a bad temper. when he lost his temper one time, he throw a piece of 5x5 timber to one our Italy made granites. When we checked it, its as if nothing has happened. Even the engineer was amazed when he realized what he's done.

• Price - There is a big difference in price between the these two granites. China made granites is almost 5 times cheaper compared to Italy Granites. So you should be careful in choosing your stone of choice because you might be fooled by some contractors. Be sure to pick the right stone that is fit for the price that you have agreed upon.

Be sure to consider these things before you buy Granite stones or even before you make a deal with granite contractor.

Status Symbol

In many rich countries such as the US and the Europe, granite maybe one of the commonly used construction materials for Kitchen tops, tables, siding and even flooring. But in some developing countries in Asia such as Vietman, China, Thailand and even in the Philippines, granite marbles are considered to be precious stones. Only in the upper class families are able to buy these kind of stones. We can say that only around 8% of the houses in the Philippines are able to afford to have these stones in their kitchens. To tell you the truth, we've been in this industry for around 3 decades but there are very few people who are able to afford to have these stones in their Floorings. So if one is able to have these stones in their kitchen and even in their floorings, you can definitely say "that person is rich!"

Greetings!

Making granite is the kind of Job which requires greats skills. In order to see the true beauty of these stones, you must be sure to hire highly skilled workers who are experienced in handling these kinds of work. Not to mention the high cost that is waiting for you if you want to have these in your home. So if you want to hire the best granite workers in town, learn to know what are the ideals and qualities of the workers that you must hire. Im hoping that this site will help you obtain that goal. In addition, we may be of some assitance to those who are interested to learn how to be a professional granite installer as I am when was first introduced by these magnificent stones.