I have a customer who is considering stone slabs for the kitchen and bath countertops. We’ve talked a bit about where stone comes from and she would like to try to pick material that is quarried under favorable conditions, i.e. environmental damage is minimized, transport distance is minimized, etc. She is not going to buy stone from China or Brazil. Curious to know what folks here know about issues like this. Is there a trade org that represents domestic or North American quarries? Are they ways to find/identify material that fits the bill? I’m fairly knowledgeable about this issue as it pertains to wood products but have never looked into this angle. TIA
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I don't suppose you're in England or Canada? All the hits I get seem to come up in those countries vs the US. There is the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association -- http://www.nssga.org/ -- but a brief check makes it look like they're more interested in fighting off environmentalists than trying to work with them.
Well, I'm pretty close to Canada, 10 miles west via water and maybe 50 miles north via land. Much of the lumber here comes from north 'o the border.
What little I know is that some slabs come from the northeast... VT and NH...? Soapstone is one that come to mind.
Good luck getting soapstone from the NE states. From what I understand most of the world's supply of soapstone comes from Brazil, India, and China. Even the Vermont Soapstone Company gets is stone from overseas.
Just curious, does this homeowner refuse to wear clothes from China?
Any chance she'd go for a composite type slab. I think we talked about this place a long while back. Still haven't made it down there.
http://www.environmentalhomecenter.com/shop.mv?CatCode=PRODUCT&ProdCode=SQUAK_MOUNTAIN
"Sustainably harvested... stone slabs"
I think that all quarries are like that.
Just need to wait a couple of million years.
BTW, What is wrong with stone from Brazil?
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
I toured the Rock of Ages granite quarry in VT. That formation is something like 10 sq. miles in area and 6 miles deep (60 cubic miles) or at least something very large-the tour guide had a thick Alabama accent. They said there was at least 10,000 years left in that quarry, mining at current rates to the practical depth of 600 ft.
What's next... Free range granite?
PaulB
http://www.finecontracting.com
Edited 3/21/2007 7:52 pm ET by PaulBinCT
The hot thing now is Organic and plantation grown Granite.
Free range granite. <G> That's funny. First I've heard of this type of request.
According to Al, it'll be covered up with sea water in a 1000 years. LOL
Ozlander
Hi David,
you might try calling Environmental Home Center up in Seattle. I do a lot of business through their sister store Environmental Building Supplies down in Portland. I've called up there and talked to Matt Freeman-Gleason before who was pretty knowledgable about just about everything. Someone there would probably have an idea if it's at least available.
You can check out their website to get a phone # I think.
http://www.environmentalhomecenter.com/
Thanks. My client lives in Seattle and has been to EHC several times. I've been down there a couple of times also.
Sustainably harvested stone is sometimes called concrete!
Sustainably harvested stone slabs.
Just when you think you've heard everything. I laughed out loud when I read this thread title.
I know what your customer wants! self sustainable /free range/green quarrying does seem like an oxymoron--but there is low impact environmental quarries out there,here is the story, I needed some stone steps on a restoration project I was hired to do in the ensuing material research I done, I ran into a few custom quarry companies that actually still had natural resources that enabled them to basically walk out the back door to an existing rock face and with wedges and sledge hammer and prybars and peelslabs off of the rock outcropping. That is about as green as your going to get .I have a friend who bought an abandoned rock quarry that still quarries rock by hand for his own supply in his masonry business..catawba stone,beautiful stuff.
The "TOH" resource site is where I got my info- the two quarries that I have done business with are Muddy Creek quarry in W.VA for large granite stuff and a place in Tenn.-cant remember the name now- for crab apple orchard flagstones and slabs ,a kind of sandstone slate, many areas of the country are dotted with small abandoned quarries and mines that nature has taken back ,people don't know they are there.
basically walk out the back door to an existing rock face and with wedges and sledge hammer and prybars
Have a small private quarry by my cabin between Mossyrock and St. Helens. David's client is welcome to have at it for a households worth of free countertops. Only problem it is that non-exotic easy to crack brown basalt stuff, good mostly for crushing for road base. Accessible only by foot or 4x4 though.
Sure wish the rock was something better looking, would probably do own counters if the quarry was catawba or even granite.
A friend of mine's DW is a real "Greenie" and smokes "organic Cigarettes." (Yes there is such a thing!).
My buddy has made the point to her that organic cigarettes are like organic nuclear weapons.
I've visited a couple quarries in Vermont and I can't imagine realistically satisfying your clients desires.
The stone is cut with "plasma cutters"; high pressure, high velocity water containing an abrasive and, the noise is overpowering, even from hundreds of feet away. (Not to mention a work environment that is clammy and wet....constantly).
(At the quarry in Barre Vermont, we were probably 400' above and another 600 ft away from the cutting operation and the cutting was so loud you could not have a conversation).
It's my observation that one's choice of stone has more to do with color variation, density, quality of the finish, etc., than how it's extracted, because the extraction process is pretty similar worldwide.
However, I would assume that work conditions in the U.S. would be more tolerable than those in China, Brazil, India, etc., so your customer may want to weigh that into the choices, because "sustainability" is not really an issue; the resource is quite abundant.
I think the main concern would be that major habitat destruction does not occur, and that waste products from the operation do not cause pollution. Particularly in 2nd-3rd world situations habitat destruction is apt to be easily 100 times worse than a US operation. And probably there can be a 10x difference between various US operations.And, of course, there should be a plan to restore the site once mining operations are done, and a trust fund or bond to assure this happens.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
Good point.
Remember the film "Breaking Away" about the wantabee bicycle racer...I was always enchanted with those deep quarry swimming holes....
Those quarry pits are quite amazing.
As an aside; when DW and I were driving through Vermont a number of years ago, she, being a native "Downeaster" wanted me to see the quarries.
We stopped in Barre to get gas and she asked the attendant how to get to the Barre pit. Obviously a young local, he says;
"Well, head up the road a mile or so and you'll see the signs....but I can't understand why you'd want to go there."
"...2nd-3rd world..." ?? I always wondered what the "2nd world" is. What is the 2nd world?ThanksBill
India, probably. Some eastern Europe countries, including Russia. Some SA countries. Maybe Malaysia, etc.It's not a "hard" definition, just implies that there's considerable "modernization" but still "primitive" by US/western Europe standards.The two maps in this article provide two views of the split, and the article also provides a reasonable summary of the history/background associated with the terms:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_world
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin