The Merry Month : The naming of stone
Robert Merry, is an independent stone consultant and project manager who ran his own company for 17 years. He also acts as an expert witness. Here he presents his view of the stone industry this month.
One son is building me a desk top computer. One son is building a bike – which I might be allowed to ride – part funded by me. I admire their abilities. In the front room on a Sunday evening there is an industrious calm.
The bike has a German built frame, Italian wheels, French tyre tape and Polish tyres. I’m not sure if any parts are English, which is odd, as up until recently we were the world indoor track champions in nearly every conceivable event. “We ride ‘um, we don’t make ‘um”. In fact we do make ‘um bikes. But specialist rather than on an industrial scale.
It seems to be the same in the interior stone industry in the UK. We can put it together from foreign components but we don’t quarry much of the raw material ourselves. We have two marble quarries in the UK. I’m not sure either of them produce anything we can sell. There are 14 granite quarries. DeLank from Cornwall is the only one I recognise.
It’s true we have plenty of limestones (104 are listed in BSEN 12440) and sandstone (140) and a good number of slates (27), but not a lot of stone is available for internal use compared with mainland Europe. Most British stones are only used in buildings in the vicinity of the quarry.
Controlling the vast quantity of imported stone – just under £400million annually, according to last month’s report in this publication – is a challenge. Unlike the bike parts, it doesn’t come with the producer’s name and origin moulded or printed on to the product.
BSEN 12440:2008 Natural Stone Denomination Criteria goes some way to addressing this problem.
For those of you still unfamiliar with this European Standard I will explain.
The History: market forces encouraged stone sellers to disguise the true name of their offerings, hoping to have their company and their ‘exclusive’ stone specified in tender documents. Once the stone was specified every other tenderer had to ask them for prices. They also asked for a picture of the stone or a sample, which the seller refused to send on the basis that anyone who works in their part of the industry would recognise the material and might be able to offer a better price from their own supplier.
But they did send prices. Often inflated so other bidders for the work looked less competitive.
We’ve all been there. It never ceases to amaze me that designers and architects seemed to buy into this subterfuge. Still.
Ultimately the ‘ring fencing’ causes confusion among other professionals – contractors, architects, designers and other stone companies – giving the impression we’re not really to be trusted. A bit Trotter-like. Loveable, but ultimately likely to sell their old Granny for a contract specification of a stone that no-one knows the name of, for which the sample offered and accepted is slightly larger than a postage stamp. Read BSEN 12058, 12057 and 1469 if you want a very simple and effective description of how to select stone. Watch out for the man with the X-ray eyes – usually on page 11.
BSEN 12440, first published in 2001 and updated in 2008, lists quarried stones throughout Europe with their correct name, brief description of their visual appearance, geological type and address of the quarry. If the European stone in the contract is named correctly and referenced to 12440 then everyone should be pricing for the same stone. A level playing field. No subterfuge. No mystery. No old Granny.
Try and guess which of these names is the correct one for a Portuguese limestone, blueish in colour with lots of fossils? Blue Molianos, Atlantic Blue Limestone, Azul Molianos or Vidraco De Ataija Azul.
I’m working on a contract where the specification does not mention BSEN 12440. It’s a huge interior contract with acres of stone. Most of the stone specified is spelt incorrectly and some names have clearly been supplied by the Trotter brigade.
It’s been a nightmare identifying some of the stone and only when the CE marking documentation arrives has the correct name emerged.
If only we could indelibly mark the stone with its name, origin and type, like the bike parts. Maybe we have to be a bit more honest if we want to be seen as professional among professionals.
The correct name for the Blue limestone from Portugal? Don’t ask me. Fancy buying my old Granny?