Pratica di Shadowing: Natural Stone 101: Everything You Need to Know About Designing with the Oldest Building Material - Impara a parlare inglese con i video

Hey, welcome today.

Thanks for coming out to our class, Natural Stone 101.

I'm Rob Bacon.

We're presenting this class in conjunction with the MIA, the Marlott Institute of America.

And everything you need to know about designing with the oldest building material is what we're going to talk about today.

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Alright, so the course here, description of this course here.

Basically what we want to go through today is as an industry design professional, how do we go about,

you know, selecting the proper materials.

And what's important in that is we've got to go back to how is this stuff formed.

So we're going to get into that.

How is this stuff formed, what type of formations, and what does

that mean for us at the end of the day when we try to use it in a particular application.

We'll talk about common coring techniques, fabrication methods, finishing methods, and hopefully by the end of this you'll have some confidence

in your ability to at least begin selecting product for your project.

Our learning objectives here today, we want to first get an understanding about the composition,

mineral composition of stone, how it affects its use.

Secondly, the science of each species of stone and how it's commonly quarried, fabricated, and finished.

And then we'll get into understanding the resources that are available for us in designing with natural stone.

We've set this course up in a series of modules, and so be paying attention here because at the end of each module we're going to have a little quiz.

And so whether or not you've paid attention

and can answer those questions for us is going to determine whether you pass the class.

So, That's how we've broken it up here.

So let me ask first of all, how many of you are working with natural stone on a regular basis?

How many are designing with stone?

Okay, what sort of projects are you working with?

And it can be, you know, paving, what have you.

Awesome.

So you're not completely foreign.

It's not a foreign concept of stone.

Very good.

Give me a definition of natural stone.

Who knows without cheating, without looking.

It is natural, right?

It's natural.

So when we're talking about natural stone, it is coming out of the earth

and we're not manipulating it in any way physically other than to say

that we're cutting it into the shape that we want to cut it into.

Unlike engineered products, engineered stone, quartz aglomites, etc., which do contain some natural materials,

but it's a man-made, it's constituted by man, And so in that sense, we do not classify those building materials as natural stone.

So we won't be discussing those today.

We'll be talking specifically about natural stone.

One of my favorite slides.

Here we have the quarry in New Mexico, a travertine quarry.

I'll usually ask here, has anybody been to a quarry?

What was your experience there?

This is a pretty typical quarry get different varieties, we'll get into that a little bit later as far as the different types of quarries.

But basically as we look at a quarry and we go to figure out what kind of stone it is, we have to understand it's basically made up in two different ways.

Any stone can be classified as either calcareous or silicious.

And if it's calcareous, it's made up of calcium carbonate, which is similar to what you're going to get in marine animal shells, egg shells, things like that,

or siliceous stones which are made up of silica or silicates which is effectively sand or quartz.

So this is a very important distinction to understand right at the outset.

Once we go from there we talk about the formation of stones.

So we've got basically three types of formations, sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous.

So calcareous, siliceous, and they're going to be formed in one of these three ways.

We'll talk about sedimentary first.

So as the name would imply,

sedimentary stones are formed through the processes of erosion, denudation, air, wind, what have you,

glaciers that are taking minerals and they're moving them and depositing them typically in a waterbed, a lake, a large sea,

something along those lines and over millions

and millions of years the pressure bonds these different layers together

and so what you end up with after those millions of years is a stone and it's

bonded in these layers

and one thing that's very indicative of a sedimentary stone is as these layers indicate you've got different strata layering

that you can see very clearly as each layer builds upon the other and it bonds to each one.

So that's sedimentary.

This is a travertine deposit in Turkey, a classic example of formation.

You can even see the strata layering forming there at the edge of the quarry.

Next we have metamorphic formation, which is essentially, this occurs within the earth and it's heat and pressure over time.

And as the name implies, that material that's subjected to that heat and pressure metamorphosizes.

And we can come out with a different type of material than what it started as.

So that could be a marble, it could have started as a limestone, it could have started as any sort of stone, but with that application of heat and pressure it changes or metamorphosizes.

And then the last formation, igneous, and this is effectively igneous, fire, so think of cooling magma, cooling lava.

And we have intrusive, which would be it's cooled internally within the earth, or extrusive or volcanic, which it's left the core of the earth

and it has cooled extrusionally or outside of the surface of the earth.

Now, just quickly, of those, about 95 percent of the earth, the stone we work with out of the earth is igneous.

Most of it is igneous.

We get a smaller percentage on the earth's crust of the limestone and the marbles, but most of it is igneous.

Okay, So we take this information, we put it on a little matrix here to help us see it a little better.

We have the calcareous and we have the siliceous types or makeups.

And then from left to right, sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous.

So we start to classify our materials here.

So calcareous sedimentary, we've got our limestones, our travertines, and our onyxes, which as you probably have seen,

that sedimentary laying is very visible in most of those materials.

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Calcareous metamorphic is our marble.

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There is not a calcareous igneous stone.

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And then moving down, siliceous sedimentary would be our sandstones.

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Siliceous metamorphic is our slates, quartzites, serpentines, and our soapstones.

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And finally, siliceous igneous, granites, and basalts.

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Generally speaking, as we move from left to right, top to bottom across this chart, these materials tend to get harder and denser as a general rule.

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One thing we're going to talk about today is these general rules are great, but they are general.

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So within each material classification, we've got different considerations.

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We have to look at each material individually and assess it so that we can truly understand if it's the right application.

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Just because it's a granite, it may not be the right application.

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Just because it's a marble, it may not be the right application.

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Doesn't mean all marbles fall in that, but that particular marble may not be appropriate.

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So as we're thinking about the stones we want to use, there's a number of defining characteristics that we need to consider.

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Some of these qualities include absorption.

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How much water is this going to absorb and how is that going to affect my design?

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If I'm in a cool, cold climate, I don't want a material with a high absorption rate on the outside of the building

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because I'm looking at freeze-thaw cycles affecting the performance.

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The density.

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Is it going to be strong enough and dense enough to hold up?

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And that ties into the absorption as well.

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Compressive strength, if I'm going to use this as a stacked stone, or if I'm going to put it down as a paver and I'm going to have fire trucks running over it,

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I better understand what that compressive strength is so that I know it's going to hold up.

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Abrasion resistance, airport, mall, if I'm going to put a whole bunch of limestone down or marble on that floor,

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we need to understand that its abrasion resistance is adequate, it's going to hold up over time.

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Flexural strength, this is really going to tie more into cladding.

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You know, If I'm going to run up the side of a building, I've got to make sure I understand that it's got the bending strength that it's going to hold up.

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It's not something that the wind or even seismic activity are going to have a major impact on.

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And then finally, modulus of rupture, which ties into flexural.

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It's a little different.

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But these are all the things we need to consider as we go about choosing material. Is it working?

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Have we run the litmus test with these particular items to make sure that we understand it?

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Most of these are, we will get into this in another class, but most of these you can get the information through the ASTM testing.

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So there's a test that will allow us to get results for each one of these on any given material, and that's the crucial information that we need to make a final determination.

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Anybody heard of the Mohs scale of hardness?

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So this is a, it's an interesting visual.

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If we look at it across the board, one is a talc, ten is a diamond.

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So to put it in perspective, basically a knife blade is going to hit at 5.5.

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So to give you some perspective as far as the hardness.

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One thing that's really important to remember with the Mohs scale is that it is a test on a specific mineral.

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And so while we might classify onyx, marble, or limestone as a three,

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where calcite normally falls, or we might put granite at a six or seven where feldsbar and quartz test out,

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it's very important to remember that I can't then say that a limestone is indeed a three,

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or a granite is in fact a seven.

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This is where the ASTM 241, the testing of the abrasion really comes into play, because This is neat, it's good to know,

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but stone is comprised of a number of these things.

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And so that test, the abrasion resistant test, gets us the average across the face of a material.

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So at one point I'm hitting quartz.

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Another point I might be hitting some rust iron oxide that isn't going to test out nearly as strong.

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So Mohs is great, but it's not something we don't need to say, make sure your granite tests at a Mohs of seven.

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It doesn't really work that way.

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It's the C241 one.

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So just a distinction I always like to make with that particular slide.

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And I've seen it that way.

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I've seen it specified.

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It's got to hit a mose at seven.

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Well, how do I test that?

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There really isn't a way to do that.

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But still, it's kind of neat.

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You can do a little test too with your knife blade.

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If you wanted to see, well, do I think it's granite?

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Maybe.

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If you run your knife blade and it doesn't really scratch, it does give you some idea

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that you are working on the granite side of things rather than like the limestone where it's going to.

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We mentioned absorption and that has, that's affected directly by the stone's porosity.

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So one thing that's important to remember is all stone is porous.

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Now some stones are more porous than others, but all stones, and this is looking at the surface or the section of a stone, all stones have pores.

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And, but it's important to keep it, it's relative.

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Granite is porous, but the pores are small, they're tight, and so it doesn't mean that it's not good for that particular use.

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But if I'm looking at a lime limestone, say a French limestone, which I refer to as French bread,

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that stuff is quite porous and so I'm not going to use it on the ground outside.

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I just, the pores are too big and there's too many of them.

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And again, porosity is something we can measure with an ASTM test,

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C97, that allows us to understand how much it's absorbing and what does that mean for us down the road. So, recap.

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Test number one.

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Are quartz surfacing materials considered natural stones?

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No. Very good.

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Nice.

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Okay, what are the two types of mineral composition?

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Very nice.

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Salacious and calcareous.

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And then we've got three types of formations.

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Give me three formations and an example of each.

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Yes.

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That's one of them, absolutely.

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What's another example of a formation?

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Yeah.

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That's right.

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Exactly.

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Very good.

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And finally, give me a third one.

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Igneous.

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Granite.

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Granite.

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Very nice.

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We can move on now.

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Nice work, everybody.

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Okay.

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Well, now that we've gone through Module 1, we've talked about the basic formation and the basic types of stones.

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Let's get into some more specifics about each one of those specific types.

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Let's Let's start first with calcareous sedimentary limestone.

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Okay, limestone is a sedimentary rock consisting chiefly of the mineral calcite with or without magnesium carbonate.

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If we add the magnesium carbonate in there, we get into an adolimitic limestone.

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So we've got an oolitic, which is like an Indiana limestone.

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Adolimitic, as I said, has the calcium or the magnesium carbonate.

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And you can really tell the difference if you were to knock on

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a dolomitic limestone that's going to get that higher pitched ping, whereas the other limestones, the more classics, are going to be a little deader.

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So limestone, it's a fantastic product.

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I really, I personally really like working with limestone.

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Here's an example of a Molianos limestone quarry in Portugal.

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So it's really kind of a traditional deep pit quarry here.

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And the thing about limestone is it contains a lot of fossils, shell formations.

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That's one way to really tell that it is truly a limestone.

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It's got a lot of moving activity with it and that's one thing that's neat about limestone is that it does, it looks like stone.

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And I've had some really good success using limestone on all sorts of different applications.

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soft enough that you can carve it so you get more classic type architecture as you see here with these columns.

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And you can get it, you know, if it's vertical, we can use a variety of them.

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One thing that's important to understand with it though, an example I like to use is, I did a project once that was using French limestone,

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which as we talked about the density earlier on with the, that we can determine from ASTM testing.

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Concrete's about 150 pounds a cubic foot, which is about a medium density limestone.

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Well the French stuff is about 125, so you can almost cut it with a, just a regular skill saw, don't need a diamond blade.

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So what does that mean?

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That means if I'm going to use it on a wall, I have to make sure I've done my engineering, and so what we had to do was go to a two inch thick module with continuous anchors on this cladding job.

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So just important that we understand that

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that limestone does sort of run the gamut on its density and that affects how we're going to use it.

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But all in all, good product.

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One thing we should note right now with calcareous stones, because they are made up of calcium carbonate,

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the calcium carbonate is susceptible to etching when it's exposed to acids.

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So citrus fruits, wines, vinegars, those sort of things.

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So we're showing a countertop here.

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Not necessarily, it's a function of the end user's expectations,

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but if we want long-term appearance to look as though it just got installed,

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we need to really consider that in food prep areas, limestone may not be what the client's wanting.

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If, as in like like it's in Europe where they really don't mind the patina that comes from that, from the exposure to food prep and staining and what have you, then it's okay.

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But by and large in the U.S we kind of like things to be just so, especially on big commercial work.

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So just important to set the expectation early on with our customers.

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This is an example of a limestone cladding project in Long Island, New York.

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So again, very versatile.

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We're able to use limestone in a lot of different ways.

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It's just important that we understand which limestone it is and

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that we've done our due diligence in determining that it is appropriate.

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All right, in the same family as limestone is travertine.

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Again, calcareous sedimentary.

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Very, very similar.

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It's effectively a limestone, the difference being where it formed.

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So it formed by chemical precipitation from solution in surface and groundwaters near the mouths of springs and caves, things like that.

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So you start to see in travertine the bug holes, as I call them, the little holes where all that water has percolated through them through the years,

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the centuries, and that gives it its appearance.

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That's what makes travertine travertine.

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But again, it's something we need to be careful of in terms of how we're going to use it, doing our homework.

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Desert Gold Quarry in Belen, New Mexico.

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one thing that we need to be very clear on with travertine is it has pronounced anisotropic properties.

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Effectively, anisotropic means it's going to be much weaker in one orientation than in the other.

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So if I use the analogy of a deck of cards, a deck of cards, you stack them vertically.

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That's sort of like as we take a block of travertine or any sedimentary stone out of the ground.

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If we slice it like a deck of cards that way, that's called a cross cut and it's going to look more cloudy and it's a little stronger than that orientation.

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But if I cut vertically through that deck of cards, I'm now cutting it in a vein cut orientation where I'm going to see all that sedimentary layering.

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It's beautiful, but it's weaker along that axis.

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So it's just important to understand that.

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Not something that's insurmountable.

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When I was in Portland, we did a 15,000 square foot travertine job, large panels, 3 foot, 5 foot,

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3CM, tested it out, the flexing,

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the ASTM C880 flexural testing all gave us the green light to go ahead and use it outside with a vein cut.

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So it's just important to know that it's going to be weaker in

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that orientation than it would be in a cross cut.

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So that is what anisotropic means.

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As I mentioned, it's going to include holes, and that means what do I need to take into consideration in my application.

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Is it going on the floor?

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Well, that's fine.

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We're probably going to fill those, and often the fill is used with, is a grout, cementitious grout, or an epoxy.

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One thing to note with that, epoxies are a little more expensive, and it's limited generally to certain countries.

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Not all countries that produce travertine have the ability to do epoxy fill.

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So Turkey, for example, it's going to be cementitious.

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Mexico is going to be a cementitious fill.

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Italy, on the other hand, they're going to be able to do or apply an epoxy based.

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So important to note.

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One other thing with travertine that's important to note is if I'm going to use it on a floor,

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it is a higher maintenance stone than most other stones because of these holes.

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And what we have here is, as we cut that, we can see certain holes, but we don't know how many holes are existing below that.

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And so if we get a high heel, we get a point load on that floor, there are places where you're going to see some failure.

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The nice thing is it's very easy to fix.

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It's not the end of the world, but it is something to make your end user aware of that it is something to be ready to address.

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Getty Museum, lots of travertine so it's great.

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You can use it outside if you've got the right product.

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Walnut travertine on a fireplace.

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Another great example here of a commercial lobby application in noce travertine.

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And that is travertine.

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Okay, calcareous sedimentary onyx.

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All right, this is a compact, cryptocrystalline, generally translucent variety of calcite.

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It's usually deposited in cold water solutions.

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These are stalactites, stalagmites.

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These are formed in caves.

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And it's really a, in my mind, it's more of an aesthetic material than anything else.

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Here's an onyx quarry in Turkey.

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Got to be careful with onyx because it is exceptionally vulnerable to chemical and mechanical attack.

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So I'm going to be very careful while I use it.

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On top of that, it's fairly expensive so we got to be, you know, we're going to be careful where we use it.

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Often we see it in backlit environments.

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It might be the back wall of a nice lobby.

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It can be the clock tower behind the clock.

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So there's some neat ways to use it.

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Just have to be very careful because it is a little more susceptible to those attacks.

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A great example of onyx.

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Here's vein cut.

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You can see it's backlit.

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So it's got a lot of aesthetic value.

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Another example here of a white onyx.

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Okay.

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Calcareous metamorphic.

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Talking about marble now.

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So a metamorphic rock consisting of fine to coarse-grained recrystallized calcite and or dolomite.

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So the neat thing with marble is because it is metamorphic, because it had all that heat and pressure applied to it causing the changes, you get a lot of beauty out of it.

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You get a lot of movement, you get a lot of veining.

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And here's a great example of a marble here.

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One thing I should note is you're presenting these classes, and I failed to do this before, it bring a lot of samples.

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The designers, architects really like seeing a variety of samples.

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And I would also be sure you let them know what it is.

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What is it?

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Where does it come from?

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Because it's interesting to them as well.

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So anyway, marble sample, pass that around for everybody to look at.

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One important thing to note about marble is that the Marble Institute of America has a process where they classify the marbles.

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And they classify those, it's a classification of the marble soundness.

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And it's an A, a B, a C, or a D.

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And it's not intended to be a measurement of the stone's quality, of its market value, or anything else.

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It's strictly intended to give you an indication of the workability of the material.

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An A, such as a Carrera White, a Vermont Danby, some of those, they're very clean.

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There's not a lot of different minerals in it.

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There's not a lot of heavy veining in it.

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That's an indication of its soundness.

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It's an A.

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You cut this, I as a fabricator can predict

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that I'm not going to have to do a lot of work to clean up that edge.

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I know I'm going to cut it and it's going to be, by and large, it's going to hold itself together.

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Same thing as an installer.

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I know while I have to be careful with any stone that I'm installing,

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with a marble, it's not as delicate as say a class C or a class D like a dark imperador.

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Now the dark imperador is a great example of a D

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which is a really beautiful material if you're familiar with it I would here have a sample of it.

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All sorts of different inclusions and color variations and veining

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and that's what makes it a D because as I go to cut that it's going to fall apart.

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Now the nice thing with the soundness is the MIE does allow for repair of those materials so

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doesn't mean we can't use them, it just means that we need to know how to work with them.

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Cremon Marble is another great example.

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Very, very strong, very dense.

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It's on par with most granites in terms of its compressive strength.

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However, getting it from the quarry, the blocks, to the slab, cut the size in the crates to the job,

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there's a lot of room for air in there for it to break because it's got a lot of veining.

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But once it's down, fantastic.

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So you'll see a lot of times those marbles have a resident mesh backing on them, and they're there because the fabricators need it,

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the factory needs that on there to get it from point A to point B in the factory, and then it's good for us in the shipping as well and the handling to get it installed.

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So, some other variables we need to think about when we have that marble, that mesh on the back of it,

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the epoxy grouts, the different systems we have to think about to make sure that bond's in a warrantable system, but that's another class.

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So here's a white Carrera quarry in Carrera, Italy.

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Nice classic deep pit quarry.

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mentioned the aesthetic values, it's beautiful stuff, and you just get a whole variety of different things.

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So this is a piece of Carrera Joy, it looks to me on this slide, and pretty consistent stuff, and then you can go run the gamut on it.

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Again, with use as a countertop, we're seeing that as a more and more desired material,

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and again, it's fine if we set the proper expectation for the end user.

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So it might be easier to sell a homeowner on the use of marble

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because they absolutely love it and they understand that, well it's got a calcium carbonate makeup and if I spill wine on it, it's going to etch it.

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So as long as they understand that, the end user knows what to expect, then there should be no issue.

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But it's good stuff.

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We often recommend that you hone it

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if you're going to use it in a countertop because effectively etching it with a lemon or wine or something, you're effectively honing the surface.

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So if you put a honed finish on it initially rather than polished, you are helping to offset that appearance.

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And you won't see it straight on, you're going to see it in reflection if you're standing off to the side.

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Nice Calcutta marble application in a bathroom.

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So again, think about your finish.

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Hone floor, people walking out of the shower.

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I don't know if I want polished or in the shower, I may want to put hone for sure so I'm cognizant of that slip resistance or resistance to slipping.

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Okay, Module 2 recap.

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Calcareous stones.

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Can you name a calcareous stone within each of the following formation categories.

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A sedimentary.

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Travertine.

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Very nice.

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Metamorphic.

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Marble.

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Awesome.

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Igneous.

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No. That's awesome.

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And some common applications for the following types of calcareous stones.

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Limestone.

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Yeah, we sort of said, we said yeah, it's based on the material and the application, right?

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So that's the neat thing about limestone.

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Travertine, it's in the same boat.

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Onyx.

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Clock tower.

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There you go, clock tower.

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Got to be careful of that. And marble.

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Kitchen.

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There we go.

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And I didn't note this on the marble.

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I usually go into this on the marble where outside is,

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I just don't really go there using marble in an exterior application.

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We've We've got issues with the phenomenon called hysteresis where a lot of the whites

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and the greens if they get exposed to the elements they tend to warp.

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They actually change their physical composition and we've seen that fail where the bond is lost and that's a problem.

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So marble, I would never use it outside as a paver.

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There are some varieties you can get away with using on vertical work but by and large keep it inside.

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With limestone as well, there's very few that I would use outside in the paver.

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Very, very few.

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Vertical is a different orientation.

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There's module two.

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All right, moving from calcareous onto our silicious stones.

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We'll start with silicious sedimentary sandstone, which is a clastic sedimentary rock composed of grains of sand size of a 16th millimeter to 2 millimeters,

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set in a matrix of silt or clay, and united by a cementing material, commonly silica, iron oxide, or calcium carbonate.

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The sand particles are commonly quartz.

408

The sandstone is, it's a pretty, it's a nice material.

409

It's good in a lot of different applications.

410

Here's a quarry in Colorado, the red sandstones.

411

One thing to be cognizant of sandstone is it is a little more porous than other materials, we've got to be careful where we're using it.

412

It is good for an abrasive surface, for non-slip, particularly in a natural cleft finish.

413

So with sandstone, as we quarry that, this is a little different than say,

414

quarrying limestone or marble, as we're pulling these blocks of sandstone out,

415

they tend to want to separate along their cleavage plane or along those sedimentary layers we discussed, and you get a neat natural clefted finish.

416

It's called a cleft where that is separated.

417

And that adds a, just by nature, gives you a nice non-slip system.

418

Some are a little more aggressive than others in terms of, you've got to be careful of trip hazard, but it is a naturally a nice non-slip surface.

419

Can be honed.

420

And one thing I'm always careful to note with sandstones, if I want to go vertical with it, if I'm going to hang it in a cladding system,

421

I might want to consider dowels instead of kerfs, because it tends to, the kerfs tend to sort of work against its weaknesses.

422

So again, that's an engineer, that's your system that you're designing.

423

And most of the sandstones are resistant to chemical and salt deterioration, so it's by and large a pretty nice product to use outside.

424

A couple of examples here where it's in a stacked stone, oak wood sandstone, then in a flagstone application.

425

Here again, this is a veneer system and again on the paving.

426

So the right sandstone is really a good product.

427

All right, so this is metamorphic.

428

Serpentine.

429

This basically it's comprised principally of the mineral serpentine.

430

They got a greasy or silky luster, kind of a light soapy feeling to it.

431

We haven't seen a lot of use of it lately.

432

There was much more use of it, I'd say, you know, 15, 20 years ago, but still it's a very nice material.

433

Here's the serpentine quarry in Vermont.

434

You can see it's an extremely deep pit quarry.

435

So here's another example where I'm going to do my homework as this is the right product, not only from its performance, but, you know, maybe from a cost perspective.

436

down out of the blocks out of

437

that hole is a whole lot different than maybe getting out of more of an open quarry.

438

So just something to consider not only just how is it performed, but how are we getting it, you know, out of the mountain or out of the quarry.

439

Here's an example of a photo of it.

440

It does have a wide range in quality and performance due to its diverse mineral content.

441

And then we talked about the Mohs earlier, the Mohs scale, two and a half to five depending on that, that's kind of that average.

442

So here we see it in an exterior application for some cladding, the Verdi Antique Serpentine out of Vermont.

443

Again here's some architectural trim on this exterior building here.

444

Soap stone.

445

It's a metamorphic stone, a rock composed of one or more minerals including talc, magnesium, dolemite, mica's, and chlorite.

446

The texture can be massive to fibrous or flaky, and the best commercial grades are highly compacted and are low in absorption.

447

So often you will see this used in laboratory applications because it is very resistant to the chemical attack.

448

It's great for kitchens.

449

Here's the Albemarle Quarry in Virginia.

450

And it is soft.

451

That's one thing to keep in mind, but the thing about it being soft is it's easy to repair.

452

So if you do get scratches on it, it's easy to repair.

453

So often you'll see it in a counter type application where they've treated it with mineral oil, which the lower portion of this photo shows that where as quarried

454

or as finished at the quarry and then below with the mineral oil application really brings out the rich tones.

455

Green iron soapstone here, soapstone veneer, own veneers, so it's got some variety of uses.

456

Here's a nice kitchen.

457

And again, I said sometimes you'll see this in a laboratory setting.

458

Okay, slate, compact microcrystalline metamorphic rock usually formed from shale deposits.

459

Slate's an interesting material and this photo is very indicative

460

and very illustrative in terms of how do we go about choosing the right material.

461

As you see from this photo of the quarry, it doesn't look anything like the travertine quarry or the Carrera quarry.

462

This stuff comes out in sheets.

463

So we know that it's metamorphic, but it acts very much like a sedimentary in that it's got these cleavage planes, and those will delaminate one from the other.

464

So it's important that we understand that in terms of how we're going to use it.

465

If I'm going to go on a wall with it outside, it may, the quarry might tell you don't do it because those planes can delaminate.

466

Cladding, that's tough to, you know, you run a kerf along that plane, you've just now, you're really weakening the stone.

467

So we have to really do our homework there.

468

And some slates are going to be better than others.

469

Some I would never use outside.

470

Some of the multi-colors, you can see the clefting, the cleavage planting on it flakes off very easily.

471

Some others, some of the Brazilians, for example, are a little denser and you don't have as much concern with that.

472

But one thing to note here is you see these come out in these little sheets.

473

I ran into a project once where we wanted

474

to use slate and we wanted to use a quarry

475

that was within 500 miles of the project so we could take advantage of some of the lead material resources credits available.

476

However, the pattern that the architect chose required four foot by four foot pieces

477

and if you look at

478

that relative to the men standing there you can probably see there aren't very many pieces

479

that are going to be that large.

480

And that's precisely what this quarry said to us, and it would have taken them a couple years to get the quantity needed to finish the project, and nobody has that kind of time.

481

So, had to modify the design a little bit, but again, early on, understand, is it appropriate, how is it quarried, and will that allow me to do what I want to do with it?

482

Or do I need to, I say, I like the material enough, or there's another goal, such as the lead goal that I'm trying to achieve on the project,

483

I'm willing to compromise the design or the pattern to make that work.

484

We talked about anisotropic properties with travertine.

485

Slate is exceptionally anisotropic as I just suggested.

486

It does have a slaty cleavage quality that allows it to be split into thin sheets.

487

And again, exterior freeze thaw is not kind to some of these materials, so we have to make sure we're very careful.

488

Here's some more slate applied, black slate, slate, prairie slate, and some dolomitic limestone here.

489

And this is a nice slate floor.

490

This is kind of the multi-color shangly slate.

491

It's fantastic for this application inside.

492

Again, may not be the right thing outside.

493

Okay.

494

So let's just metamorphic.

495

Quartzite.

496

It's a metamorphic rock consisting mainly of quartz formed by recrystallization of sandstone by regional or thermal metamorphism.

497

Quartzite's really a neat product.

498

Here's an example.

499

The Meta Quartzite Quarry in Nevada, this stuff is really nice.

500

It's really, really dense material which allows it to be utilized in a lot of different ways.

501

So countertops, quartzite is fantastic because you can get a lot of these neat looks.

502

With that metamorphosis, do get those neat, the color variation.

503

And what that allows for though is sort of a marble look in a kitchen countertop that is resistant to staining.

504

It's also resistant to weathering.

505

So all in all, good stuff, dents, and there's a lot of uses for it.

506

Cost is something to consider and availability, you know, depending on what we're trying to do with it.

507

If I'm trying to do a lot of cut to size stuff with it and I'm using a Brazilian quartzite, I've got to be careful.

508

That may not be conducive to what those factories are focused on over there, whereas if it's something out of China,

509

they're much more in tune with doing more of a custom cut to size work.

510

Same thing with a Vegas Rock, for example.

511

They're very good at being able to do just about any application.

512

A couple more examples, a nice floor.

513

There's Zulmacauba on the countertop there.

514

And here's the Medi-Quartz site from Las Vegas on these bar tops here.

515

If you ever gone to Las Vegas and you go to the Aria Hotel, they've got all over the exterior cladding.

516

Alright, into igneous, siliceous igneous.

517

We have got our basalt.

518

So basalt, dark colored fine-grained igneous rock composed of plagioclase and pyroxene minerals.

519

Basalts can range from gray to black in color.

520

These are often, the Northwest, Pacific Northwest is a great place where there's a lot of basalt.

521

We get some out of China, there's some great stuff out of Italy.

522

This is basically lava as it's cooled.

523

One thing to be conscientious of with basalts, here's a quarry in China, you can see that they're a hexagonal shape.

524

They're only so big.

525

So basalt's another example of, we got to make sure we know what we're trying to do with it with it, we're not exceeding the physical properties of that material.

526

So if I want to do a large format paver that's 72 inches long and 48 wide, I can't get 48 inches out of that or if I can maybe,

527

if I can it's going to be very limited.

528

So knowing what we're dealing with.

529

Some are good for wet environment applications.

530

It's highly abrasion resistant compared to marbles and limestones so it's really, it's a nice, good, solid material.

531

I've used it indoor, outdoor, and it holds up very well.

532

Great example here is treads.

533

We've got some veneer, even some interior applications on the floor and on the walls.

534

Silicious igneous, pyrannite, another example here of a Dakota mahogany.

535

There's a geologic definition that is a plutonic rock in

536

which quartz makes up 10 to 50 percent the felsa components

537

and the alkali felsbar to total felsbar ratio is between 65 and 95%.

538

Commercially that means any holocrystalline quartz bearing plutonic rock.

539

So the great thing with granite is it is really,

540

really the most usable and the most flexible product out there for application.

541

Dakota Mahogany Granite in South Dakota, classic granite quarry.

542

blocks come out, stick them on the saw and create slabs

543

and we can do what we want with them at that point.

544

It does have a high abrasion resistance, so by and large, using it in a commercial flooring application for example, I'm not going to have too many concerns.

545

I can always verify that with the ASTM testing, but it's dense, strong stuff, so I can feel very confident in it.

546

It does have great chemical and weathering resistance.

547

And as we talked about anisotropic properties in slate and travertine, granite would be the opposite in that it is nearly isotropic.

548

So I can take that block out of the mountain

549

and I can turn it in any orientation I want to cut it

550

and it's going to have the same basic characteristics regardless of which way I slice that deck of cards.

551

So if I'm doing exterior pavers, I can sleep well using granite.

552

Wall cladding, same thing.

553

There's just a lot of uses we can do with it and know that it's going to perform well.

554

As a countertop material we all know there's, I mean, there's more granites to choose from than we could count.

555

So, this commercially it's fantastic as well.

556

This is a Rydian, Rockville White and Superior Granite at the Ralph L.

557

Carr, Colorado Judicial System.

558

Pinnacle Award winner in 2013.

559

So, That is module three.

560

Do a quick recap for module three, see how we're doing.

561

Can you name a siliceous stone within each of the following formation categories?

562

Sedimentary.

563

Very nice.

564

Metamorphic.

565

Yep, slate and quartzite as well.

566

Anigneous.

567

Very good.

568

Common applications for the following types of siliceous stones.

569

Soapstone.

570

Chemistry lab.

571

That's one of them, yep.

572

Countertop is predominantly the use there.

573

Slate.

574

Flooring.

575

Flooring.

576

Material.

577

Yep, ideally.

578

Quartzite.

579

Countertop.

580

Yep.

581

Flooring.

582

Yep, exactly.

583

Great countertop material and granite.

584

Pretty much anything.

585

Yeah, you name Absolutely.

586

Very good.

587

You've passed module three.

588

All right.

589

Moving from our module three, and we'll talk about knowing your stone.

590

It's important, as we've gone through all the characteristics of the different types of materials, the limestones, travertines, marbles, granite,

591

and so on, it's important to know that within each of those classifications, all stones are unique.

592

So I might have, you know, to go to mahogany one day

593

and then six months later I may have some different properties from

594

that same material coming out of the quarry at that particular time.

595

So it's important to understand that even within one type of stone we can have some unique properties.

596

Which again makes it critical that we're identifying a specific material to ensure that it is appropriate for the use.

597

Reiterating again that how do we understand that?

598

We use our ASTM testing data to understand that we're using it in an appropriate way.

599

Okay?

600

Also perception of color will vary depending on the orientation, lighting of surrounding materials.

601

So it's important as we are sampling for example, we want to make sure we're looking at these samples in the same sort of light

602

and the same orientation as much as possible as it will be installed in ultimately.

603

So if I know I'm putting in a lobby and I'm going to have some afternoon sun casting in through the windows, you know, let's try to look at it in all those different situations

604

so that we understand that we've done our homework and we're not surprised by anything.

605

All right, some stones are categorized commercially under a different definition than what it might be called by the quarry, or scientifically, rather.

606

Photo on the bottom left here.

607

Is that a marble or a quartzite?

608

And there is some argument.

609

Some call that a marble and some call it a quartzite.

610

We call it a quartzite.

611

Granite or gabbro?

612

Technically, absolute black, it's technically a gabbro.

613

Commercially, we call it a granite.

614

And on the far right there, is that granite or nice?

615

Technically, it's nice.

616

Commercially, we call it granite.

617

So it's just important.

618

It's not necessarily important from an executive level.

619

It is important though as we go through and get technical information on it.

620

Okay.

621

We'll get into fabrication and finishes here.

622

There's some neat things we we can do with our finishes, this is an example of marble using a book matched orientation.

623

So two slabs in the block adjacent, we open them up like a book and we finish those opposing faces and we get a really nice aesthetic look here.

624

So you've probably seen some neat examples of that out in the world.

625

We've got the ability to diamond match as well.

626

So we're taking now four slabs and we're creating a nice feature or a series of features within a space.

627

Slip match, we're going to take that veining

628

and we're going to orient the panel so that we get a nice linear look in whichever way we orient that.

629

And we talked, we hit on this a little bit earlier, but here's a nice illustration of that deck of cards that we talked about cut versus flurry cut.

630

So as we use the deck of cards analogy, if I'm going to cut against those cards, I'm going to get that vein look.

631

And we, just to reiterate, that does affect the properties, the strength of the material and how we're going to use it.

632

So just making sure that if we go to test our materials, that we're testing it in the proper orientation.

633

A travertine used as cladding, if I'm going to go vein cut, I better make sure my testing ASTM C880 and my compressive strength, all those things are being tested in the proper orientation.

634

And then there's the aesthetics of it as well.

635

So a number of different finishes that are available, okay.

636

We have our smooth finishes which are effectively our polished and our honed finishes.

637

These are achieved based on the grit of the polishing heads that they use at the factory.

638

So the higher the grit we're going to get a polished finish we use a lower grit, we get into more of a honed finish.

639

And there's the advantages, we've talked a little bit about them.

640

There's an advantage to using honed in certain applications.

641

If I'm going on the floor, honed is going to be ideal in terms of helping us to limit our slip potential.

642

We want to maximize our slip resistance.

643

So polished, typically, is going to be slippery.

644

Just depends on the material though, so it's important that we've tested that out.

645

We get some light textures, so sandblasted, acid washed, these might be great for an exterior paving application,

646

where I know I have to have some definite slippers that's honed isn't going to work for me.

647

The nice thing too with texture is we can create some interesting, we can even go vertical with this stuff and just create a nice, some nice features using different finishes.

648

Brushed, tumbled, one thing with brushed we just got to be careful.

649

We're basically going back over this after we've sandblasted

650

or maybe we've flamed it or something and then we're going to go hit it with a brush.

651

It can cause it to be slippery again so just again doing our homework on that.

652

Great example of brushed and chiseled, sandblasted and brushed.

653

Gives us that the unique or the antique or the leather finishes we're hearing more and more about.

654

We want more heavy texture.

655

We know we don't want any slip issues so

656

if I'm using stair treads in a granite I'm going put a flame finish on it.

657

I know I'm not going to have any problems here.

658

Again, outside pavers, flame is going to give us the best we can hope for.

659

Flamed interior may not be the best choice on the ground, okay?

660

We've opened up some of the pores, we've created some depth and some layering, some texture.

661

That's a pocket for dirt to collect, so if I'm using a light coat material and I flame it and I want to use it inside,

662

I may have potential maintenance concern.

663

It looks dirty, it's not, but I can't help the dirt from collecting in those pores and ridges.

664

We get into some more heavy textures, deep line cleft, there's split faced,

665

bush hammered, all things we can utilize to whether it's aesthetic or performance enhancements.

666

Okay.

667

Just to go over some of the resources that are available to you as you go through and specify materials.

668

There's, we've talked about the ASTM testing, there's ANSI testing, CEN, ICC, all these are available for us.

669

The standards are there to help us know that we're making the right choices, that we're on the right path.

670

Within the industry we've got the Marble Institute, Natural Stone Council, BSI, National Granite,

671

NTCAT, TCNA, all these are set up here with standards and guidelines to help all of us through the process, whether we're the specifier, the supplier,

672

the quarry, the fabricator, the installer, it's all there for us to give us the tools we need to make sure we're using the proper material, applying them in the proper way,

673

using the appropriate setting methods and so on.

674

So these resources are available.

675

To additional resources from the MIA specifically, we've got the Dimensional Stone Design Manual, which if you don't have,

676

let's make sure, get you one because they're fantastic.

677

I reference them regularly.

678

We have iPad apps, MIA technical bulletins

679

that come out on a somewhat regular basis

680

if there's something that's changed from the DSDM

681

or a particular topic at hand that will come out that adds a little more light to the issue.

682

And then you've got the MIA membership directory including accredited fabricators and contractors.

683

So MIA is here as a resource and has made these tools available to help you in this process.

684

So thank you for coming today.

685

Make sure you signed in.

686

Make sure you give me that evaluation form.

687

And please reach out to us if you have any other questions.

688

Thank you.

689

Thank you.

Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?

Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.

Pratica di Shadowing: Natural Stone 101: Everything You Need to Know About Designing with the Oldest Building Material - Impara a parlare inglese con i video

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