Marble

Marble's characteristics make it an excellent choice of stone for flooring, equally appropriate in home or office settings: Marble is a perfect solution to complement everything from a modern entrance hall or office atrium to a luxurious conservatory or bathroom. Marble's classic property of the diffuse light the stone reflects is ideal for both calm lighting (especially candlelight) in the evening and for bright sunlight during the day. Naturally-occurring patterns in the stone create subtle decorative effects which will be entirely unique and thus highly individual.

Marble price list

Marble has long been associated with classical architecture having been used in temples, palaces and churches across continents, cultures and religions. Its light hues, slight translucence and unique, delicate patterns lend it the sophisticated qualities which have kept it so sought after down the centuries. Marble has become a cultural symbol of tradition and refined taste. Its extremely varied and colorful patterns make it a favourite decorative material.

The smooth surface of marble, with its light, milky-white qualities combined with its strength, its relative resistance to shattering and its consistency are factors which have led to its use in sculpture. The low index of refraction of calcite allows light to penetrate several millimeters into the stone before being scattered out, resulting in the characteristic waxy finish which gives life to marble sculptures of the human body. This is evident particularly during the Renaissance in Europe, most notably in sculptures such as Michelangelo's David, carved from a single block of marble, rough-hewn, then polished. The finish of the 17ft statue is as impressive today as when it was carved over 500 years ago.

The characteristic swirls and veins of many coloured marble varieties are usually due to various mineral impurities such as clay, silt, sand, iron oxides, or chert which were originally present as grains or layers in the limestone. Green colouration is often due to serpentine resulting from originally high magnesium limestone or dolostone with silica impurities. These various impurities have been mobilised and recrystallised by the intense pressure and heat of the metamorphism.

Use marble to create an individual, classic design in your flooring. Call us or come in to the brand new Athena Stone Tiles showroom to see examples of the beautiful marble available, imported directly from quarries in Turkey.

Soft limestones re-crystallise under conditions of moderate amounts of heat and pressure, such heating is provided by burial to the warm depths of the Earth. This re-crystallisation (an alteration in the texture of the calcite crystals that make up the rock) is the most important change in the formation of marbles. The actual process of transformation of limestone to marble involves an increase in the sizes of the crystals present and the infilling of any pore spaces present in the original rock. Small amounts of new minerals may grow from any impurities in the original rock, resulting in coloured streaks and veins.

In Southern Europe, where the countries bordering the Mediterranean have been affected by the continental collision that created the Alps in the geologically recent past (in the past 60 million years or so), marbles are common, hence forming such an important part of the historical tradition of Greece and Italy.