Meghan: When most people think of marble, they think of your average white marble but really, marble comes in many different colors so you have lots of options when choosing marble for your home. Another misconception is that marbles are a lot like granite, it is not. They are two completely different stones. So as you could see, there is a lot you need to know about marble before putting it in your home which is why I am here today at the Vermont Marble Museum to talk with Robert Pye about all of the considerations you have to make before choosing a piece of marble.
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What is the difference between marble and granite?
Robert: Good question. A very simple description of granite is an igneous formation stone, it is actually magma that did not erupt as in lava flowing out, it is magma that stayed under the ground and cooled very, very, very slowly, tens of thousands of years actually to go from molten to solid state. So one of the reasons why it is so hard is because it cools so slowly. So that is granite.
Well marble and if we can generalize, we just stick with calcium carbonate, limestone based white marbles that strictly see life, lived and died, formed thick beds, compressed and heated from the interior of the earth and then eventually metamorphosed from just the shells into a limestone. And then that limestone in turn was moved around with plate tectonics’ folded, crushed, fractured, allowed water intrude adding color to it and then add again more heat and more pressure, metamorphosed into marble.
Meghan: Visually, how can you tell the difference between marble and granite?
Robert: Almost all granites are very salt and pepper or regularly modeled appearance.
Meghan: Many flex.
Robert: Correct. Very many flecks and very obvious when you get the light reflect things off of them, you see all of those flecks. Whereas marbles are very distinct with patterns of veining that runs through them and a lot smaller crystalline structure and if you view the crystalline structure, you will notice it is very tiny compared to the granite.
Meghan: There is a large assortment of marbles that is in there. It is not just your white marble or your dark marble. There are multiple colors and different veining, what do you need to know when you select them?
Robert: Well one very important thing to know, most people’s basis for choosing any form of decorating in your home is a color scheme and so basically you need to know initially what it is you want to work with. But even when you do that and you need to be working directly with your fabricator and your installer to make sure you get the range you are intended to have.
In other words, let us say you are looking for a green scale. You will notice these two adjacent panels are the same stone quarried from the same quarry, possibly at a different time but there is some distinct differences in the color. As you can see, this one has lighter greens and this has the deeper range and a lot more applied intrusion. So it is important to be aware of that because a sole difference in color like that could be very important to a homeowner.
Meghan: Could be a big difference.
Robert: Indeed.
Meghan: And you have to basically go out and look at this slab before you purchase it?
Robert: I always advice people to the very slab they are going to purchase. When you are working with granites that is true as well. Now certain granites, the blacks particularly are very—they are very consistent so you can count on absolute black being the same from one slab to the next but in the marbles that is not true at all. You really have to select. You can even see within this set of panels, these are all very close to the same but there are subtle differences so I would certainly advice anyone to actually pick the very slabs that will go into the fabrication.
Meghan: Are all marbles the same?
Robert: No. As far as their ability to withstand wear and tear, they are very different as fa
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