The stone industry is being forced to accept resin-mesh backing on stone and is seeing an increasing number of failures as a result.

That was the message from Peter Harrison, Director of stone consultant and design engineer Harrison Goldman at the Stone Federation Members Day and AGM in Leeds in November.

In last month’s issue of Natural Stone Specialist we reported on the out-of-court settlement of a £57million dispute at the Shangri-La hotel in The Shard in London, a large proportion of which related to the failure of marble glued to the walls.

Harrison Goldman was among the experts consulted in that dispute and Peter Harrison told the Stone Federation members what he had previously told NSS: according to BS 8000, if a stone has more than 25% covering of resin it should be fixed mechanically on the walls and the mesh should be removed before it is laid on floors.

He added in Leeds: “If you can’t remove the mesh because the stone is too delicate without the mesh then it’s not a stone that should be used.”

Contractors said it was not that easy to suggest a mechanical fixing because jobs were priced on the basis of the use of an adhesive. Bernard Burns from Szerelmey said a solution was to tell the client or contractor to buy the stone, and the fixer would fix it as instructed, but the panel of consultants, of which Peter Harrison was one, pointed out that specialists have a duty of care to those they work for.

Another problem with resins was where they are used to fill voids in the faces of stones. They can pop out, especially where the stone has been used in showers, leaving sharp, jagged edges.