Where Do Marble Worktops Come From

WHERE DO MARBLE WORKTOPS COME FROM Marble is a very popular choice for manufacturers of modern kitchens, bathrooms and other parts of the home, bringing a touch of elegance, character and constancy wherever it is used. Its smooth texture, characteristic veins and multifarious colour qualities make every piece, slab or tile or block totally and utterly singular. Anyone who has a developed sense of the aesthetic has an appreciation for this most exquisite and historically famous of building materials – but where exactly do marble worktops come from? Well, the obvious answer is from the manufacturers! But if you're asking where they get it from, then that is an altogether different matter.

In effect marble can come from practically anywhere, being a metamorphic rock made from limestone, but is usually sourced from Europe, Africa and South America. One of the most popular sources of quality marble is Italy, which has long been associated with using it as a building material – since pre-Roman times in fact. When a client requests a manufacturer to provide a marble for their project however, it is the request that defines where a particular piece of marble comes from with certain colours and types more prevalent in one area than another. (Interestingly, not all that looks like marble is marble, and two popular marbles from the UK, Purbeck and Ashford Black, are not in the true sense of the word marbles at all, although they do take a similar sheen – hence the confusion.)

With a client's specifications in mind, it is up to the manufacturer to locate a quarry that produces the nearest raw material to that requested. However, it is not colour and texture etcetera alone that decides whether that particular quarry will be chosen to supply the marble as the quality must first be tested. If the integrity of the material is not up to the task of being used as a kitchen worktop or for whatever other purpose it is intended then it will be not be selected to manufacturer the requested product. Additionally, a complete block of marble can hide its internal veining and texture from common view, with only a trained eye able to predict the truth of the matter. With blocks of marble costing into the thousands of pounds, simple mistakes as these are costly ones and experts will avoid them at all costs.

Once the right kind of marble has been found, and the quality seems to be of the right kind, blocks are cut into slabs of a more manageable size and shape and shipped to the required destination.

From thence it is the manufacturers responsibility and now needs to be cut to the clients specifications and finished likewise. This is a very highly skilled task and something that only an expert in the field can achieve. The machinery that is used to cut the marble is immense for a start, the cutting is a very slow and careful process as is the polishing of the marble. Slow and arduous it maybe, but the results are beautiful. From whichever continent it comes, from whichever quarry, to whichever manufacturer, there is no more beautiful nor sophisticated material available to the house or home.