Five Tips to Save Money on Big Import Bills of Natural Stones

Granite and Marble come in the luxurious items when it comes to Import of the material. The duty pattern is very high as well as processing and manufacturing are expensive in many countries, but you can save big on Import of Marble and Granite by using 5 simple tips.

Buy Smaller Slabs for Countertops

The big slabs of granite or marble are very expansive. There are genuine reasons for the expensive price of the big blocks. Quarries generally produce smaller blocks. Big blocks are available less on any quarry. Quarry owners prefer making big blocks because big blocks are sold expensively.

But the nature of granite and marble doesn’t allow this. The most of the production of any quarry is smaller blocks in long and short sizes, which are not appropriate to make big size slabs. So quarry people sell these small blocks at lesser prices.

The lesser priced smaller blocks are cut on a verticle cutter and not on the gang saw or wire saw machine to get slabs. Lesser priced blocks make the price down of the overall material.

Problems using Small Slabs of Marble and Granite

Thickness Variation
Bend in Slabs
Polishing Quality

These problems were so big to handle and the material processed on old machines were so cheap in quality. The cutting part was most pathetic. Imagin getting one slab of 22 mm thick and another as 25 mm thick. The vibration of old machines makes a bend in slabs, from one side the slab is 17 mm and from another side, it is 25. The slabs were of no use for high-quality projects.

The polishing was done manually by single head machines, in such polishing you get waves in the polishing. The Chinese abrasive had made it worse. The polishing came with different layers and the material comes out was shiny but with the problem of layers which shines differently.

The solution for problems

But now thanks to the new technology available, everything has changed. The new machines cut the material with the tolerance on less than 1 mm. Nowadays small cutting machines are totally computerized by PLC and CNC programs. The programs are so perfect that the tolerance is even less than many gang saw machines.

Now, the polishing is done on automated machines, which can polish up to 4 feet or 120 cm width and up to 15 feet of length in granite and marble. We use the machine of 16 head to polish the small size slabs. The slabs do not have the problem of uneven polishing and slabs are polished from every corner. There is a single layer polishing with the highest achievable gloss.

The processing price of smaller slabs in granite and marble is much lesser than the bigger slabs. A single slab of granite has a cost of cutting as around 15-20$ per Square meter or 1 to 2$ per Square Feet, while on the small slabs the cost of cutting is just 6-7$ per square meter or less than 1$ per square feet. This is a huge price difference in the cutting of granite on a small cutter and big gang saw machine.

As for the polishing, there is not much difference in the prices, however, the handling cost is also lower on smaller slabs than the big gang saw cut slabs.

The general price range of small slabs is almost two-thirds of big size slabs. The size of these slabs is width 70 cm to 90 cm and length as 200 cm to 320 cm, which is enough to use it as Kitchen Countertops. The size is also very important since the fabricator will have less wastage of granite and it will make the overall cost down. You can reuse the wastage for making backsplash tiles. The fabricator can use small slabs in different projects as well.

Many companies in the world already follow the above practices and get the premium quality granite and marble at cheaper prices. There are advantage and disadvnatage of both. But f you are working on big commercial projects these tips can save you a lot for money.

USE CALIBRATED TILES FOR COUNTERTOPS, WALL AND BACKSPLASH

Calibrated Tiles are the perfect choice for the countertops. You can make high-quality countertops using calibrated tiles. The cost of calibrated tiles in Granite and marble are much lesser than the expensive countertops made from Big Slabs.

Premium Granite such as Absolute Black Granite and Black Galaxy Granite is solid plain colored granite. If you use calibrated tiles to make the countertops from these materials, you will have the countertops at very less prices.

The Calibrated Marble Tiles of Rainforest Brown, Rainforest Green and Rainforest Gold Marble looks amazing in the tile form. The use of slabs as a wall cladding material will cost very much. Instead of using calibrated wall tiles will cost you very cheap.

There is also an option for using Fantasy Brown Granite and white marble in the wall cladding and flooring with calibrated tiles. The Calibrated tiles are very cheap in the white marble from India and fantasy brown. The tiles come in well sorted. less priced and similar color.

White marble slabs are very expensive, but you can use premium quality white marble tiles in calibrated and polished finishing for wall cladding, bathroom tiles, and other uses. They are less expensive and you will have the most premium feel after using such tiles in flooring or wall cladding.

BUY CUT TO SIZE MATERIAL

Any cut size in marble granite or sandstone above 1.5 cm is cut to sizes. The sizes are important for flooring and staircases. Fabricator generally cuts big size slabs of marble or granite to get the perfect cut to size for using it in flooring or staircases. The process of cutting big slabs is a very big expense. You may have the disadvantage of losing a lot of material due to expensive wastage. Buying small sizes or require cut sizes is the solution which can lower down prices for the projects very much.

Big Slabs comes in very big sizes, and if the project is of smaller sizes than buy cut to size material in the desired thickness. The biggest advantage of the cut to size is that you can buy well sorted cut size granite or marble for your projects. Cutting small slabs into rectangle pieces makes the price goes down.

Cut to sizes are less in the prices and the sorting of the material makes it first quality.

IMPORT PREFABRICATED COUNTERTOPS

Buying prefabricated countertops is one of the great choices to lower the price of your project. You can buy readymade countertops at a little extra price than slabs. Generally, the size of a countertop is standard. The prefabricated countertops just need edge profiling, and if you order edge profiled material it is also available.

Earlier, people did not use to make an order of prefabricated countertops, since there was a problem of precision cutting and handling, but as the new technologies entered in the market, the problem is sorted out.

Nowadays, automatic machines make high-quality kitchen countertops. The cutting and processing are perfect for any standard. Companies follow strict quality measures to get the best quality countertops. The wastage of the material is zero in ordering readymade countertops.

ORDER FOR FULL PROJECTS

If you have a project, which requires different sizes you should make the order as all outsourced to the exporter. Granite and marble yields tons of wastage in projects of different sizes. Sometimes, it is more than 50% of the total material. You can go for a full order of the project and get the best quality sorted material for your project at a lower cost.

The reason for lowering the cost is the wastage part. Since each project require different material and the wastage of any project have no use. But the manufacturer has an advantage of using the wastage in some other project. For example, we use the wastage to make different designs in granite and marble. We also sell the wastage to other companies who have different uses of the wastage. So it is better to prepare a full order to get precise material at lesser prices.