Granite wall coping price per meter: convert the section into square metres first
A granite wall coping price per meter follows the section, not the granite. A 300 mm wide coping takes only 0.3 m² of 30 mm slab per meter, so the meter rate is converted area × your square-metre price, plus machining per meter and the corner share. Here are the four steps, the joint deduction and a seven-line enquiry list, with the prices left for you to fill in.
What exactly is a meter of granite wall coping priced on?
Start with the formula: price per meter = square metres of 30 mm slab it consumes × your quoted price per square metre + machining per meter + the corner share. A 300 mm wide coping takes only 0.3 m² of stone per meter, not 1 m², so you cannot multiply the wall length by a single number. "Coping costs more per meter than per square metre" does not mean "the machining is expensive": look at the converted area first, then at the machining. The granite does not enter the conversion factor at all; Maple Red G562 (G4562) changes the square-metre price you insert, not the 0.3. When two suppliers quote the same rate, ask for width × thickness and cut length first, then whether that square-metre rate includes machining. Corners are amortised per piece, see section three.
How is that meter split into stone cost and machining cost?
Four steps. ① Converted area per meter: width (m) × 1 m. At 300 mm it is 0.3 m²; at 200 mm it is 0.2 m². Only width counts here, and this is the step buyers skip. ② Stone cost = 0.3 m² × the square-metre rate you were quoted. ③ Machining per meter: cutting both ends, top-face finish, chamfer on the exposed arris, drip groove in the underside. Pin down whether each is charged per meter or per piece. ④ Corner share = corner pieces ÷ wall length, giving pieces per meter; one piece = that piece's converted area × the square-metre rate + that piece's machining. Weight also turns a tonne rate into a meter rate: 0.3 × 0.03 × 1 = 0.009 m³, × 2.7 t/m³ = 24.3 kg per meter, or 0.0243 t. If a tonne rate is all you hold, 0.0243 t/m × that rate gives the stone cost per meter (24.3 kg ÷ 1000). A 300 × 60 section consumes the same 0.3 m², but it sits outside the 30 mm stock thickness and has to be cut from thicker block, so the 30 mm slab rate cannot simply be multiplied: ask the factory for a thick-stock rate, or convert 48.6 kg per meter at the tonne rate — at the same width, 60 mm is exactly twice the weight of 30 mm. We run 30 mm slab, minimum order 100 m²; under 100 m² an order can be combined with others of the same finish in one production run, and it ships 5 days after the cut list is scheduled.
Why are corner pieces costed separately, and how much per meter?
Because a corner is a piece, not a length. An internal or external corner joins two runs of the section, usually as an L, cut from a blank with two legs, so it uses more stone than a straight length of the same width; it is quoted per piece, not per meter. Amortise with one division: pieces ÷ wall length. Example: a 36 m wall with 4 external and 2 internal corners is 6 pieces; 6 ÷ 36 = 0.167, about one every 6 m. What that piece costs comes back to steps ② and ③: its converted area × the square-metre rate, plus its own corner cutting and top-face work. Put the count and the share into the enquiry, or the meter rate you get back quietly excludes corners. Short walls with many corners carry the highest share, so the count has to be explicit.
Are the top-face finish and the drip groove charged by the meter or by the piece?
Two buckets. By the meter: flamed or sawn top face, chamfer on the exposed arris, drip groove in the underside, because the tool travels the length and the charge follows it. By the piece: the same operations on a corner, which is handled as one unit. The groove makes water break at the edge instead of tracking back under the underside; the detail has its own article. Write the top finish, the chamfer and the groove as three lines. Bundled into "machining included", they cannot be compared. This is the part you can settle with a sample in hand, so fix it before arguing price.
How should the cut length be set so no stone is wasted?
Work back from the clear wall run: divide the clear length, deduct the joints, then recheck the piece count and the total. Example: an 8.4 m run with 3 mm joints. 8.4 ÷ 1.2 gives 7 pieces, but 7 pieces have 6 joints between them, 18 mm in total. Deduct those 18 mm from the run first: (8.4 − 0.018) ÷ 7 ≈ 1.197 m, so cut at 1197 mm; 7 pieces plus 6 joints come to 8.397 m. At 600 mm the same way: 14 pieces have 13 joints, 39 mm, and (8.4 − 0.039) ÷ 14 ≈ 0.597 m. All three numbers have to agree before you order. The waste lands at the ends, not on the face, so the cut length follows the wall.
What has to be in the enquiry to get a meter rate worth comparing?
Seven lines: 1) section as width × thickness, written 300 × 30, not "standard"; 2) clear wall runs and cut length, with the joint width; 3) how many external and internal corners; 4) top-face finish, sawn, flamed or honed; 5) overhang, how far the coping projects past the wall face; 6) fixing, bedded or mechanically fixed; 7) your square-metre rate, plus whether machining is per meter or per piece and includes the drip groove. With all seven, two suppliers finally price the same meter. Anything promised verbally only counts once it is written down.