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Have you started building your dream home? Or perhaps constructing a building for your new business?
Whatever your reasons, you need more than ensuring that your building faces north fortunately, you also need to know the right kind of stone for building construction.
Don’t worry, we will provide you with the best types of stones used in the construction of buildings below.
Stones commonly used in construction
granite
Granite is one of the most widely used stones in building construction, and although it is not the main stone used in construction now, granite is popular due to its hard and durable qualities.
As it is a deep-rooted igneous rock, it has soft and coarse grains with a crystalline structure, and this stone is highly valued thanks to its crushing strength, more than that, it can withstand high weather factors.
Usually, they cut granite stones into slabs and then polish them, after that, it can be used for stone slabs and floor slabs.
The problem with granite is that it is poorly resistant to fire, however, it is ideal for use in building a house since it is inert to some acidic liquids such as curds, vinegar, and lemon juice.
This makes granite useful for countertops in the kitchen.
marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock formed when limestone goes through excessive pressure and heat.
This stone is naturally hard and compressed with a compressive strength of about 70 MPa, its specific gravity is about 2.65.
Marble can be easily cut and carved into different shapes, and since it also occurs in various colors such as white and pink, it is popular as a decorative material.
Also, marble takes polishing really well, which is another reason why you’ll find it an excellent choice for home design.
quartzite
Another metamorphic stone, quartzite is the result of sandstone after exposure to high temperature and pressure. The main feature of this stone is its granular texture and crystalline structure.
Quartzite is also brittle and hard, which makes it easily unworkable.
The crushing strength of quartzite is about 115 MPa, and quartzite is available in different colors such as grey, white and yellowish.
This dense stone is highly resistant to chemical weathering, which also makes it ideal for use in the kitchen.
basalt
Basalt is an igneous rock also known as white stone, green stone or blue basalt, and this stone is hard, which is good and bad for building.
This hardness makes the rock difficult to use easily for any purpose.
The compressive strength of basalt is high between 150-190 MPa, and the stone structure is medium to fine-grained.
They are also compact and with different colors available, you can find dark gray to black basalt stones, which is an aspect that makes them sought after for home design.
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock formed when sediment particles weathered.
This stone is composed mostly of calcium carbonate.
This makes it a soft rock compared to the others in this article,
so it is easily applicable in the construction of various buildings.
This stone has a compressive strength of about 55 MPa, and is often mixed with small amounts of alumina and silica along with magnesia.
If magnesia is 10% or more, it becomes magnesite, if magnesia is more than 45%,
limestone is called dolomite.
alarm
Onyx is a type of marble, but mostly calcite, compared to granite, which is softer.
It is also likely to be engraved or stained, and compared to marble, onyx is translucent,
and as such, you will often find it used in construction along with lighting to bring out its beauty.
This stone is highly variable with heavy veining, as such, you will not find two pieces of onyx that look alike.
This quality makes onyx a highly demanded stone in home and interior design,
and on the other hand, it is also more fragile than other stones.
slate
Slate is a rock formed via a metamorphic process in which shale undergoes conditions of low temperature and pressure.
Composed mostly of mica minerals, clay, and quartz, and with a fine-grained lamellar structure,
slate is brittle and hard.
This stone is mostly available in black, but may also be available in greenish-grey,
gray or purplish-gray.
Because it is laminated, slate can easily be divided into slabs by following the rock’s natural levels,
its compressive strength is around 75-210 MPa.
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed of various minerals such as feldspar, quartz,
silica, and others.
This stone is available in different colors such as brown, gray, white, yellow,
red and dark gray, and its compressive strength is about 65 MPa.
The hardness of this rock depends on the amount of minerals present in it,
which is why some sandstones are harder than others.
It is also the reason why sandstone is so easy to work with,
making it ideal for various construction projects.
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