The Merry Month : Quiet streets
Robert Merry, an independent Stone Consultant and Project Manager who ran his own company for 17 years and now also runs training courses on project management, gives his personal slant on the stone industry.
I’m not on holiday and the streets in this part of London are deserted… well sort of. Maybe those not on holiday are keeping their heads down in case the Totterham rioting comes our way. It rarely, if at all, reaches a perfect state of rest here. Only when I’m asleep. If a tree crashes down and there is no-one there to hear it, does it make any sound? If I can’t hear the noise of the street, does it exist?
A piece of stone is only ‘beautiful’ after we have polished it. It is hidden from us. Does it exist before we polish it?
As a stone-man, part of my job is to make sure I can guide and shape client expectations of what to expect from any stone.
When a designer selects a stone, a sample has to reflect all the possible variations that nature can produce. If a small sample is pure, without blemishes, it spells trouble.
Belgian Black, for instance – perfectly black in a 100x100mm sample but when seen as a larger slab it will possibly have small white lines, darker streaks or crystals in the face. ‘Perfect’ is rarely possible in any stone.
There was an occasion this month when the question of ‘perfection’ arose. The piece was a small finished floor made from a single piece of beautiful Turkish Lilac stone, with a Belgian Black inlaid flowered pattern.
The designer was invited to view the finished product before delivery. It looked beautiful and consistent while standing up. But then the designer decided to get down on his hands and knees and found a small brown crystal in one of the stems of the flowers of the black inlay no bigger than half a finger nail. It was only visible close up.
But the designer wanted pure black. However unreasonable that request might be, I felt I hadn’t managed their expectations. I hadn’t explained about imperfections of white lines, darker streaks and crystals.
We had explained to the Italian manufacturers that we wanted pure black, but inevitably they argued that this was a natural material and the client was unreasonable. Perhaps. It was too late now in any case.
So what to do? We produced a sample of a ‘grafted’ repair. It was accepted and we carried out the work. It was fitted.
The floor is in a dimly room where the ‘imperfection’ will never be seen, except possibly by the cleaner or a particularly inebriate guest on hands and knees around the WC.
My point is that perfectly standard stone does not exist. Its natural variations are what make stone unique. If we pretend that purity of colour exists and present a sample so pure and small and perfect, then we will certainly fail. You have to tell it like it is.
If the client wants to select only certain parts of the material, the most consistent parts, then you make a judgement on cost and waste and if its even possible at all.
You tell them before you carry out the work what they can expect. You tell the manufacturer and everyone agrees the parameters and away we go. No shocks. No half-hearted explanations about natural materials. Just happy clients. Managing the client’s expectations so they understand the material is vital.
Like the sound of the tree falling in the forest, if you don’t hear it or in our case see it, it doesn’t exist. So don’t show them perfection. Show them the stone, warts and all.