 |
Properties of natural stone surfaces:
Stone is a natural solid formation of minerals. Many thousands of of stone varieties have been quarried throughout human history. Most of the natural stone quarried today comes from the United States, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Mexico, China, Taiwan, India, Greece, Brazil, France, and Canada.
Quarried stone and marble were formed from the same liquid and gas minerals that formed the earth hundreds of millions of years ago. Back then the Earth was still a massive body of superheated gas and liquid minerals that cooled for millions of years and slowly condensed to a solid core. Through pressure, the Earth's crust began to form and heavy minerals were forced down to the core of the Earth where they were trapped. As the crust got thicker, it squeezed around the inner core which created intense pressure and heat from within the Earth. Crystals and other solid forms began to grow from the mineral vapors that were being released. As the Earth's crust began to expand and erode, heat and pressure pushed the solid minerals up to the Earth's surface which formed colossal rock beds. It took up to one-hundred million years to form some of these beds. Many of the beds are now used as quarries where the stone is mined.
It is imperative to know the exact type of stone that is to be maintained. Stone is a natural material and can react to certain cleaning chemicals and procedures. Most stone is also naturally alkali as are dirt and soil. Stone and dirt are attracted to each other which often makes cleaning very difficult. This makes the proper selection of cleaning procedures and chemicals for stone very complex. For this reason it is important to choose an experienced expert to maintain your precious stone surfaces.
The information on this page is a summary of an article on Natural-Stone.com