Understanding Natural Stone
Natural stone is a beautiful and timeless material, but it comes with unique characteristics that should be understood before making a selection. This guide outlines important details about natural stone variation, care, cleaning, and installation expectations to help ensure long-term satisfaction with your purchase.
Stone Selection
Natural stone is a unique and timeless material with qualities that distinguish it from man-made alternatives. As a product of nature, it is characterized by inherent variations in texture, color, veining, density, size, and pattern, which contribute to its beauty and individuality. These natural differences should be celebrated rather than considered flaws.
The process of sourcing natural stone products involves quarrying mountains into blocks, cutting the blocks into slabs, then fabricating the stone into it’s final form. The look throughout each region, mountain, and block can vary drastically. “Uniformity of material,” when applied to natural stone, is a term of relative value that needs to be understood when making a selection.
To ensure consistency and avoid issues with matching later, it is recommended to purchase adequate quantities of stone at the start of a project. Consult with your installer to determine the appropriate overage needed for your job.
Showroom samples and installation images shown are to give you an overall idea of the variation in veining and/or color. The actual stone delivered may differ from the sample or picture(s) shown. Due to changes in lighting, a product may appear different in pictures than it does in real life. Computer monitors sometimes interpret colors differently.
Prior to installation, we recommend creating a dry layout to ensure overall satisfaction.
Same stone- different lots (nero marquina)
Cleaning Guidance
To ensure your natural stone products will provide you with a lifetime of beauty and utility, proper sealing and maintenance is crucial. Natural stone products are porous by nature and require special maintenance.
Natural stone must be sealed prior to grouting. Louisville Tile recommends Fila’s MP-90 sealer. Natural stone tile and floors should be cleaned with neutral cleaners specifically designed for stone. For daily maintenance, Louisville Tile recommends Fila’s CleanAll. This pH neutral cleaner will not affect existing sealers or other types of coatings.
Stone cleaners should never contain acid of bleach. Acids, even a light solution of vinegar and water, will etch the surface in addition to breaking down your sealer’s effectiveness. A solution of pH neutral cleaner used per manufacturer’s instructions should be applied to the stone surface with a sponge or spray bottle. Allow solution to sit per manufacturer recommended specified amount of time to ensure penetration of the stone. Agitate with a sponge or soft bristle brush. Remove dirty solution with clean sponge and buff dry. Some texture stones may require a different cleaning method or additional procedures not specified here. For additional details on care, refer to The Natural Stone Insitude.
Terms of Sale
Returns: Special order, close out, cut sheet goods, mixed shades and installation products or any material in non-resaleable packaging are non-returnable.
Please not that it is the responsibility of the customer and/or their installer to figure and provide quantities of tile/material needed. Louisville Tile Distributors is in no way liable or responsible for any overages or shortages of material. Please note that sizes provided are nominal unless otherwise noted.
To align expectations and to ensure satifcation, signed approval is required to confirm that you have reviewed images or received samples of the stone lot you are purchasing.
