“Living nature”. To date, this statement is no longer a simple phrase used on some advertising poster, but a real lifestyle sought after by more and more people. Also for this reason, natural stone is a material back in great vogue, sought after by many and able to ride any furnishing fashion, whether classic or modern.
If you were looking for a “textbook” description, suffice it to know that natural stone means, simply, rock extracted from quarries, cut into smaller pieces and without further transformation processes. A natural product perfect for use in design.
Natural stone is an ageless element, capable of making any home or external environment elegant and refined. From your kitchen to your garden, this material can help you make your home unique, green, and even more welcoming.
What is the Difference Between Natural Stones and Reconstructed Stones?
Despite the great qualities possessed by natural stone, there are many people who remain with legitimate doubts about which material is best suited to beautify their home. Clearly, reconstructed stone is something much more distant from the simple beauty and green properties of natural stone. These are, essentially, artificial stones, made using bases such as gravel or clay and adding binders of various kinds to give them the desired pigmentation/color. Reconstructed stone is undoubtedly a cheaper solution than natural stone, but one that moves greatly away from the visual and tactile sensation that true stone can grant. Even the sustainability of reconstructed stone itself is less than natural stone, as the binders used are not always green. On balance, we can consider reconstructed stones as an undoubtedly valid alternative, cheaper, lighter, and manageable, but one that will never manage to possess the brilliance, enormous durability, and almost zero maintenance costs of natural stones.
What Are the Properties of Natural Stone?
As already mentioned, the properties of natural stone are manifold. We start by reiterating, once again, the “sustainability” element. Natural stone is, in fact, a pure material, which does not require any treatment. Hence its second and greatest quality: that of being able to grant any environment, whether internal or external, a natural, brilliant touch capable of even alleviating stress.
Not to be underestimated, also its durability. Natural stone does not require special maintenance and can resist for centuries, just as the greatest monuments of ancient civilizations, Romans and Egyptians primarily, have handed down to us for generations. If this were not enough, we can also add that natural stone does not have to fear rain, humidity, hail, ice, wind, and snow, as well as attacks by mold or insects. By choosing to decorate your home with natural stone elements you can forget worries such as deformations given also its exceptional resistance to large loads, which makes it ideal also for adorning floors.
What Are the Defects of Natural Stones?
We have already reiterated the countless merits of natural stone, but we would not be honest with ourselves if we deliberately omitted to talk about defects. Yet, even in this case, we can give you good news: natural stone has no negative properties. The only element that could make it less “appealing” is probably its average cost, higher than artificial counterparts. However, this price difference is minimized by the already mentioned properties possessed, primarily resistance and almost zero maintenance costs, elements that make natural stone one of the best investments in the medium-long term.
How is Natural Stone Extracted?
Natural stone extraction is a process based on sustainability. Intervention is often on solid and outcropping rocks, located in open-air areas, or by creating special quarries located at the foot of hills, slopes, mountains, or on lake shores. The tools used, over the years, have evolved to reach the modern and advanced machinery that today characterizes large companies like Micci Peperino, capable of minimizing waste and impacting the surrounding environment as little as possible.
What Are the Types of Natural Stone?
There are myriads of types of natural stone in the world. In the construction sector, however, specific natural stones are used, characterized by high resistance, durability, and great aesthetic yield. The most used are Basalt and Granite (of lava origin), Porphyry (derived from lava cooling), Quartzite (a type of rock called “metamorphic”) and our dear Peperino, characteristic of Central Italy and, in particular, of Tuscia.
What is the Difference Between Stone and Marble?
Many people often find themselves having to face a similar doubt: better natural stone or marble? What needs to be known is that, basically, they are two very used types of rocks, totally natural and capable of granting great prestige to any element, whether internal or external. The biggest difference between the two is probably given by the peculiar shine that makes marble unique in its kind. Natural stone, in fact, is a “non-polishable” building rock, characterized by its own background color on which an always unique texture is presented. Marble, on the other hand, is a “metamorphic” calcium carbonate rock, which undergoes a very long transformation process deriving from the effects of temperature and pressure undergone naturally.
What Can Be Made with Natural Stone?
Everything. The real question should be: is there anything that cannot be made with natural stone? Nowadays, thanks to technologically advanced tools, it is possible to sculpt and give any shape to natural stone. Let’s take Peperino for example: with it, it is possible to create furnishing elements that can vary from fountains to floors, passing through walls, details for tops of any type of environment and area. The most striking example can be seen with your own eyes by visiting many of the towns of Tuscia, where Peperino reigns everywhere, as in the magnificent village of Vitorchiano, named one of the most beautiful villages in Italy.