Flamed Granite Price per Square Meter: Three Gates That Move the Number
Flamed granite price per square meter is not answered by the material. The same block costs the same either way, but the work is not the same: polished pays for the polishing pass, flamed pays for the burner and the three lines below it; adding the three to a polished figure is not a valid sum. The three are the order of sizing and flame, the thickness yield, and how much sealer an open face drinks.
What actually sets flamed granite price per square meter?
Not the slab. A block from the same quarry face carries the same material cost whether it leaves the yard polished or flamed. The work is not the same: the order of sizing and flaming, which decides how the four edges are handled; the thickness grade, which decides how many saleable square meters come out of a batch; and the open surface, which drinks more sealer and takes longer to brush. None of the three belongs to the stone, which is why they survive a change of colour or code. Adding the three to a polished figure is not a valid sum; to compare, ask for them as separate lines. The direction is yours to judge without guessing: against the same stone, the flamed panel drops one polishing pass and adds one burner pass plus these three lines; whether those three outweigh the polishing pass is the answer to whether this version costs more or less than polished — and that answer sits in the three lines your supplier writes, not in your hands. A quote with one figure per square meter folds all three into a number you cannot compare, and what you compare is two costing habits, not two stones.
Are the four edges shielded, and why does this line often vanish into the square-meter figure?
Order and shielding both come down to one point: whether the joint shows a burned edge or a fresh sawn one. Flame the slab then cut it, and the cut is raw saw face, lighter than the burned surface, the same fault as an unshielded edge. For colour to hold, run the whole piece through the burner: the fire catches the four edges, the corners round off, and the joint has to stay wide. For a crisp arris, mask the four edges and flame the face only, which adds masking and stripping. Write the cost in full: a shielded edge is still a saw face, still lighter than the burned surface, and can only be covered by a narrow, tightly laid joint, the same fault as flame-then-cut moved from the board edge to the joint mouth. On a mid-grey such as Sesame Grey G602 the shift stays contained; on light stone it is loud. Shielding is not better or worse, it is joint width against colour difference, and the line gets priced after you choose. Left off its own line, it hides inside a square-meter figure as work you cannot tell was done.
Is a thinner panel harder to flame, and why is 30 mm the standard grade?
It is. The burner sweeps the face fast, so the skin heats while the core stays cold, and the panel carries the resulting stress itself. The thinner the panel, the more readily an edge chips or a corner lifts, so a batch yields fewer good square meters, and the unit figure climbs on yield, not on material. 30 mm is our standard: at 2.7 t/m³ one square meter weighs 81 kg, weight and section stay in a stable band, and yield holds in volume. Thinner stock can be made, but the first thing to count is how much yield drops, not how much material is saved. One correction is worth making. Flaming works only the top few millimetres, so the nominal thickness does not change, and 30 mm is still quoted as 30 mm, but the layer burned away does leave the panel slightly thinner under a caliper. Flaming is not a way to buy less thickness.
Why does sealer run heavier on a flamed face, and how should it be quoted?
A flamed face is open and rough. A square meter of it exposes far more surface than a polished one, so it drinks more product, and brushing takes longer because the sealer has to be worked into the texture instead of pushed flat. Same two coats, more material and more labour, which is why sealing is a real cost line on flamed work rather than a giveaway. The wording that turns up on quote sheets, surface treatment included, merges flaming and sealing into one phrase and tells you nothing about either. Split it three ways: how many faces are sealed, face only, five, or six; what type, solvent or water-based; and when, at the plant or on site. For external paving, tree surrounds and step treads that get washed often, seal the face and the four sides. Water that enters from the edge is what lifts a surface in freeze-thaw climates.
Flame depth shifts between batches, so what settles acceptance?
A signed sample, not a photograph. Flame depth follows burner setting and pass speed, drifting a little within a batch and more between batches: a hotter pass reads paler and coarser, a cooler one greyer and tighter. A phone cannot referee that, because white balance turns pale grey into paler grey. Three moves. Pull a panel from the run, write the date, stone, size and number of passes on it, have both sides sign, and keep one each. Put in the contract that the signed sample governs and colour inside its range is accepted. On arrival, open three crates and compare in daylight beside the sample, not under warehouse sodium light. Keep the sample with the order file, because a repeat order judged against a fresh flame setting will drift again.
Which questions pin the three gates into the quotation?
Five, in this order: the first two on the edge, the third on yield, the fourth on sealer, the fifth on acceptance. Have the supplier fill the right-hand column, and do not let regular practice stand in for an answer. Our standard panel is 30 mm, minimum order 100 ㎡, regular stock ships in 5 days; sized and flamed work is scheduled separately, and the date comes off the production schedule, not off a verbal promise.
| What to ask | What it pries open | What it costs if you skip it |
|---|---|---|
| Is the flame before or after sizing? | Whether the edge is burned face or fresh saw | A pale line at every joint, curable only by replacing panels |
| Are the four edges shielded, and how? | Corner radius and the joint width you must design | Joint width misses the laying plan and closures cannot be cut |
| Which thickness is this price built on? | Whether the thickness grade holds yield | Thin-stock yield loss folded into your unit figure |
| How many faces sealed, with what, and when? | Whether sealing is its own line or hidden in surface treatment | Sealing moves to site, with labour and access billed separately |
| Will you hold a signed sample as the acceptance basis? | Whether colour has a testable criterion | Close to the sample is not a criterion you can enforce |