In this Online Stone Fabricators Forum - conducted at www.stoneadvice.com - stoneworking professionals from around the country discuss their preferences and use of hand tools within the shop and in the field.
I was thumbing through an issue of The New York Daily News the other day, and my heart sank when I saw a headline that read “KILLED BY MARBLE SLABS.” I went on to read that Xavier Minchala-Cardenas, a 19-year-old immigrant from Ecuador, was stacking slabs in a Queens, NY, stone shop when several of the slabs toppled over, pinning him underneath. Although six New York firefighters and several shop workers were able to pull him from the rubble, he died from his injuries a few days afterward.
When Summit Stoneworks of Buda, TX, was founded in February of 2006, its owners decided to equip the shop with state-of-the-art machinery from the very beginning. And since finishing its first project that April, it has steadily grown as a fabricator in the Austin region of Central Texas.
In this Online Stone Fabricators Roundtable - conducted at www.stoneadvice.com - both users and non-users of CNC equipment offer their insight on the technology.
In the rugged countryside of Macael, Almeria, Spain, the mountains are scattered with stone quarries, and the roadways are filled with trucks hauling marble. It is in this region that the Cosentino Group was born, and the company has been a leading exporter to the world market for decades. Not only has the company created a “brand name” product with its Silestone® quartz surfacing, but it has also launched several innovations in the natural stone sector - with state-of-the-art technology for quarrying and production.
Taking advantage of a property’s proximity to downtown Philadelphia, the developer of a residential project in Paoli, PA, chose to tear down the existing property and build a new, upscale home. And while the original plan was to use stucco and a manmade Cultured Stone® product, the final design was able to employ native Pennsylvania fieldstone, supplied as thin stone veneer.
Recently, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation chose to renovate and enlarge its Warrensburg, NY, headquarters. The two-phase project completely renovated the entire building, and the architects at Hyman & Hayes Associates of Albany, NY, were able to stay true to the surrounding Adirondack Mountain environment by using natural thin stone veneer - quarried and produced locally.
In designing an upscale private residence in Westport, CT, Tyra Dellacroce of Connecticut Stone Supplies conceived a wide range of stone applications for the builder, Stillman Development Co. of New York, NY. These innovative uses of stone greet the homeowners and their guests upon arrival at the residence, as the structure is clad in thin stone veneer that offers a classic, traditional look.
Every spring, Major League Baseball heads to Arizona and Florida for Spring Training. And while much of the talk there is obviously about baseball, the ritual also gives rise to “human interest” stories about the ballplayers - particularly the non-superstars, who get enough press during the regular season.
Since the vast majority of stone countertop fabricators in this country are focused on kitchen work, it is a logical transition for them to also begin stocking sinks. This not only allows the fabricator to become more of a “one-stop shop” for their clients, but it also gives them another level of control in the process. By working with sinks that they are familiar with, fabricators are able to eliminate surprises, and they also have the opportunity to record a sink’s dimensions in their database, saving time for future work.