The Story of the Granite Countertop
From
quarry to kitchen, the story of the granite countertop is
fascinating, and the process is as painstaking as it sounds.
The
story starts in the quarry where granite formations equivalent to
thousands of countertops are found. Granite being a tough rock,
miners don't come to the site with pickaxes and shovels on hand.
Instead, they use heavy machinery like jackhammers and belt-driven
cutters to prepare for the next step: the big boom.
That's
right--the drilling and cutting only soften the granite chunk enough
to be blasted off. Keep in mind that the quarry has to perform a
controlled explosion for the chunks to slide to the ground safely.
The wrong explosion may trigger a dangerous chain reaction that can
render the quarry useless.
From
the quarry, the granite
blocks
are shipped to a manufacturing facility. The blocks are rinsed with
water while being cut into huge slabs, the water making it easy for
the cutting tool to do its job and ensure a smooth cut. In the
countertop industry, these slabs are called "rough plates,"
and will then be coated with resin and baked for a set time.
After
polishing and quality control, the huge slabs are trimmed down to
retail sizes. The rough edges are smoothened and the slabs cut to
spec for shipping to countertop retailers around the world. The
resources and the amount of work needed to make the countertop tiles
justify its price.