Here at Stone Made Drives, you’d imagine that stone is our expertise! In this blog post we’re going to go over how this material is made and the many techniques which are used in order to provide us with the polished and attractive looking material we use to cover your driveway…
The Origins of Natural Stone
The creation of natural stone began millions of years ago very deep beneath the Earth’s surface thanks to heat and pressure. Many different types of natural stone were created due to both of these factors- including marble, granite and limestone. As the crust of the Earth eroded, the minerals were pushed up from deep inside the earth’s core, forming rock deposits we use as quarries. Stone is the world’s oldest material for flooring and was used by the Greeks.
Quarries
A quarry can be found in many areas of the world including Italy, China, Spain and the United States. In these places, generations have been quarrying different kinds of stone for hundreds of years using a specific set of skills, precision and passion. Thanks to the updated technology in the 21st Century, the quarrying of stone can be completed with speed and efficiency compared to the early days of stone excavation.
Diamonds
As we mentioned above, machinery has played a big part in the quarrying of stone. In fact, diamond studded high speed machinery is now used in order to cut blocks of stone, revolutionising the process we once undertook to extract stone from the earth. These blocks of stone are then transported to a processing plant where high speed saws slice them into slabs. On average, it takes a saw 2 days to cut a 20 ton block of stone into even slabs.
Here at Stone Made Drives, we often take for granted how much the stone we used to complete our clients driveways must go through before it gets to us. If you’re looking for a stone made driveway, get in contact with the best driveways Lancashire has to offer today!
