Marble or Granite : What to choose?

Marble or Granite for some it's a difficult choice. But Marble and Granite do have some specific applications. Although both Marble and Granite are natural stone materials, they're things you should know before you go out and spend your money.

Reasons to choose between Marble and Granite:

1. Design: No doubt that when we look exclusively at design, maybe we have better options using marble, as the colours available are much more fascinating and easier to find in the market. The majority of the granites available have grain like texture, which may not work with modern design as well as marble.
   
2. Application: Marble is a more delicate stone than granite and requires more care and maintenance. Floor application should be correctly evaluated, avoid dark marble in traffic areas. Interior wall cladding marble works very well. Avoid kitchen use, due to it's delicate surface it may stain, scratch and damage very easily.
   

When and Why Marble?

Well marble is a natural stone, a metamorphic rock made up of recrystallized carbonate minerals, being these calcite or dolomite, which are the most common. When you think about buying a marble you should figure out what type you plan to buy.

Tips on how to decide which one to buy:

• Physical characteristics: normally marble has a hardness that varies from 3 to 4 on a Mohs scale. You have limestone type marble which is more delicate than others, so take a chance to see all the options you may have in the colour range you desire.

• Water absorption: In general marble is very water absorbent, although it may vary, due to the type of marble involved;

• Dark colour marble for flooring is not a solution, a scratch normally means a white thin mark caused by friction with a harder surface (and harder than marble we have sand, gravel, glass, etc.etc.). So a scratch on light marble will be less noticeable than on a dark one.
• Check the maintenance requirements on the specific marble you choose, make sure you can manage the situation in your day to day routine.
• One good thing about marble compared to granite, it's easy to repolish, so if one day you consider that your stone floor is looking very bad and dirty, you can repolish it. You'll be surprised how wonderful it'll look after, it'll feel like the day you first installed it.
• Chemical reaction to acid, marble due to it's chemical composition reacts with acid, so you'll have to be very careful with spills, and detergents you use.
  

When and Why Granite?

The word granite derives from the Latin language and means grain, in fact it's a grain texture stone. So granite is a intrusive, felsic, igneous rock, composed mainly of quartz, feldspar and micas.In general these are very resistant stones

Tips on how to decide which one to buy:

• Design: the colour variations are not as favorable as marble, but the dark colours do have an advantage, the pure black colour in granite is spectacular;
• You can use it anywhere, no limitation, it does scratch and wear, but it has a good resistance to normal factors
• Although it might not seem, but some granites are very water absorbent, so check the technical information before you buy regarding the specific one you choose;
• Difficult to do surface repairs, although technology in this area is moving quite fast it is still very difficult to repair surface damage on granite;
• Ideal for kitchen use, very stain, chemical and heat resistant

For more information on stone, you can check out my blog it has some additional information.