Granite buying guide: from enquiry to container
What to fix before you ask for a quote, and which numbers decide the landed cost.
Industry info
How to choose, how to calculate a container, how to compare stone.
Why does container loading need an allowance, and how much?
Stone is heavy cargo, so a 20ft container usually hits the weight limit long before it runs out of space. Aiming at a theoretical square-metre figure puts you on the edge of overweight. The allowance is threefold, not one.
Crate or pallet — which arrives with less breakage?
A crate is not automatically better and a pallet is not automatically cheaper. Breakage depends on three things: how the slabs stand, how voids are filled, and how the load is secured. Packaging is only the carrier for those three.
How much does a square metre of granite weigh?
Weight is the most underestimated item in stone purchasing: it drives freight, drives container loading, and decides whether the floor slab can take it. The calculation is one multiplication — but thickness and units must be right.
How is mushroom stone made?
Mushroom stone is not carved, it is split. Understand that and you can see why its thickness tolerance is far wider than a polished slab, and where to look when inspecting it.
Why does a window sill need a drip groove?
A wall that goes dark and blistered six months after a sill is fitted is usually not a stone problem — water has tracked back from the underside of the slab into the wall. The drip groove exists to stop exactly that.
How do you calculate stair treads, and how much allowance?
Tread calculation is not an area calculation, it is how many steps come out of one block. Nine out of ten errors sit in two places: the riser-to-tread joint, and the shaped pieces at corners.
How to set kerbstone dimensions so you stop wasting material
The margin on kerbstones is decided in the cutting plan. On the same road, good dimensioning saves one to two tenths of the material; bad dimensioning means paying for the quarry and the saw blade.
25mm or 30mm granite for ventilated facade cladding?
This is not a decision the stone supplier can make for you, but he can tell you two things: how much weight and how much cost the two thicknesses differ by. The rest is the designer's calculation against wind load and the fixing system.
Why is the minimum order for stone 100 square metres?
The minimum order is not a rule of the trade, it is where fixed costs stop being spread too thin. Understanding what 100 square metres weighs, why small orders cost more and what to do below the threshold beats arguing the number down.
First granite import from China: how many stages are there?
From inquiry to collection the chain breaks into seven stages. You can push three of them; four you can only wait through. Knowing which three stops you mistaking waiting for progress.
The goods do not match the sample. What now?
Not matching means one of three things: outside the approved sample range, off-spec processing, or simply the wrong material. Each has a different remedy, and using the wrong one turns a solvable issue into a standoff.
You paid the deposit. How do you stop the goods being swapped or delayed?
Between the deposit and loading is the stretch where the buyer has least leverage. Four things make it controllable: a production schedule, progress photos, reserved-material confirmation, and an inspection milestone.
How do you place a repeat order without the colour drifting?
The usual problem with a repeat order is not price, it is colour. A new block batch means a new colour code. Samples, material reservation and a transition batch decide whether the second order matches the first.
Does stone come with a warranty?
Stone has no warranty in the consumer-electronics sense, but three kinds of liability must be written down: material defects, processing deviations, and problems that appear after installation. Written clearly it is protection; left vague it is just talk.
The slabs arrived cracked. Who pays?
Cracked can mean four different things: a production defect, poor packing, rough handling, or water damage at sea. Four different parties are liable. How you document on site decides who ends up paying.