Granite Sample Request Before Order: Five Lines That Make a Sample Worth Comparing
A granite sample request before order works only if five items are in the email: stone code, finish, thickness, application, and address with piece count. At 30mm, 300×300 weighs about 7.3kg and 600×600 about 29kg; only the larger shows how a finished slab looks.
What should the sample request email spell out before you order?
Five items, and the sample becomes usable for comparison: stone code, finish, thickness, application, and ship-to address with piece count. Put the code at G563 (G4563) level, because "red granite" alone can land you a different material. Name the finish, polished or flamed, since the same stone in two finishes reads as two products. Write 30mm, not "standard thickness". State the application, paving, cladding or worktop, as that decides whether the factory cuts a slab sample or a small block. Give receiver name, street, city, postcode and phone, and write the number of pieces as a number, usually 2. Copy these lines: Stone: Sanbao Red G563 (G4563), flamed, 30mm. Use: exterior paving. Sample: 300×300mm, 2 pieces, different blocks. Ship to: name, address, phone. Please confirm sample charge and freight. Keep price out of this email; a price question pulls the thread somewhere else.
How big does a sample have to be to judge the stone?
A 100×100 block shows base colour and grain size, and nothing about which way the veins run. To judge how a slab looks laid on a wall or a floor, go to 600×600. The smaller the piece, the more you are looking at one stone rather than a surface. Thickness has to match the order: an 18mm sample is 40% lighter than 30mm, and both the weight in your hand and the visual thickness after laying differ, so approving 30mm goods against an 18mm sample means you have not seen them. The weights in the table follow 2.7 t/m³ and you can check them yourself: length × width × thickness in metres × 2.7 gives tonnes; multiply by 1000 for the kilograms in the table. The 600×600 piece is 29kg, liftable by one person but with both hands, because a chipped corner takes away the corner you wanted to read.
| Sample size | Weight per piece at 30mm | What it lets you judge |
|---|---|---|
| 100×100mm | 0.8 kg | Base colour and grain size; no read on vein direction |
| 300×300mm | 7.3 kg | Vein direction, spread of colour patches, how a run of tiles looks |
| 600×600mm | 29 kg | A finished slab as it will look; large enough, but a sealed sample must be retaken from the order batch |
Why two samples of the same granite instead of one?
One sample speaks only for the block it came from. Blocks from the same quarry differ in depth of colour, and a single block differs from skin to core; that is normal stone, not a defect. Two pieces from different batches, side by side, show how wide the variation runs and whether you can live with it. Our works runs 20 large saws at once, so slabs finished on the same day can come from different blocks, which is one more reason two pieces beat one. Keep two sample types apart as well: the colour chip is a small square the salesperson uses to show shade, while a slab sample is cut from a real slab and shows the direction of the pattern. Before you order, you want the second kind. Do not pick the two best-looking pieces to send; pieces taken at random sit closer to what the bulk will look like.
How do you ask about sample charges and courier costs without it getting awkward?
Three questions, asked plainly: can the sample charge be credited against the order; who pays the courier and can you be given a collect account; and how is anything above the agreed number of pieces counted. Ask all three up front because stone travels by weight, so the size and number of pieces set the freight. Settling that before dispatch is easier than arguing over an invoice afterwards. If the only reply is "samples are free", freight is still unanswered, so get the collect account into the email. Fix the count too: write two if you want two, not "a few", or five arrive and freight is charged on five.
The sample has arrived. What three checks come before you decide?
Three checks, in two sittings. First, soaking, and it takes a night: note the dry colour, leave the piece in water overnight, then take it out and wipe off the surface water; the stone is saturated by then, and that tone is what it looks like after rain with the surface just dry, which for exterior paving is the surface you are buying. Second the scratch, third the weighing, both on the spot in about ten minutes. Draw a key or steel nail across the back and wipe it. Steel sits at about 5–5.5 on the Mohs scale; quartz is 7 and feldspar 6, so steel does not cut granite. What shows is a grey smear that rubs off with a thumb, not damage to the stone. A groove that will not rub away means the piece is softer than granite, marble or limestone territory, and not the variety you asked for. This check only rules out soft material; it cannot prove the stone is genuine. A dry weighing is a rough screen only: a 300×300×30mm piece near 7.3kg says the size and thickness have not been trimmed, and says nothing more. Fixing the variety still comes down to grain size and how the colour patches sit; the scratch only rules out soft stone. Colour comparison has its own conditions, light source, wet or dry, distance and arrangement, set out in our guide to colour difference and sealed samples.
Can the piece the salesperson sent you serve as the sealed reference sample?
No, and size is not the problem. The piece in your hand usually comes off a sample cabinet and may be from earlier batches, cut from a block other than the one being produced. Use it as your acceptance basis and one objection ends it: "that is not your batch". It then speaks for no shipment, yours included. The sealed sample has to be taken again from the block that will actually be sawn, and the batch number goes into the purchase order and onto the packing list, so the two match. Confirmation does not need paper flying back and forth: photograph the piece with a rule alongside and a batch label in frame, and have both sides reply with a date; email holds up as a record. Three changes void a sealed sample and force a re-seal: a new batch, a new finish, a new thickness. The posted sample is for looking, the sealed sample is for agreeing, and between them lies a batch of stone.