A stone consultant is an independent specialist who advises a project team on the selection, specification, sourcing, inspection and installation of natural stone. You need one when the stone package is large or complex enough that a mistake would be expensive to put right: on major projects the material is usually quarried and fabricated overseas, and a problem discovered on site costs far more to resolve than the same problem caught at the quarry.
The natural stone industry features such an overwhelming amount of information and requirements that it simply doesn’t make sense to complicate these matters further by attempting to keep this in-house, especially for a large-scale project, without a stone consultant. The consultancy firm you choose should have the knowledge and experience already under their belt to be able to advise on multiple aspects including material types, appropriate materials for the required performance and appearance, inspection, testing and logistics.
Stone Expert
To explain in more detail around the basis for a stone consultancy, we need to look at the ‘Stone Expert’. There are many stone experts in the world, they all have experience and understanding of the materials, however, it is important to note that a single ‘stone expert’ does not know all of the natural stone materials that exist in the world, this is why, within a stone consultancy you will find a number of ‘stone experts’.
What a Stone Expert does know, is the process surrounding a natural stone project, the characteristics of the material which is important for the stone selection and the design priciples of the stone.
Working with architects, the owner of the building and the main contractor are what the ‘stone expert’ and the consultancy firm they work for are very good at and experienced in. Bringing together all of these different people within the project and finding the best solution in the natural stone available from around the world.
What is a Stone Consultancy?
A stone consultancy has all of the legal requirements and accreditations needed to operate and offer professional scope to large-scale projects with natural stone requirements.
They will work with the main contractor to help to save time and money at the time of procurement of the natural stone and subsequently the selection of stone supplier, stone manufacturer and the management of all of these.
Stone technical services are what is offered to architects to help them to select the most suitable material for their project, write up the specifications for the client and contractor, and select the correct layout for the design that has been put forward by them.
To avoid delay in the project and to ultimately save money, the stone consultant assigned to the project, will assist the stone contractor in specific technical aspects and any problems that may arise. They can deal with the material procurement and stone suppliers/manufacturers, managing these projects that require a specific technical expertise.
How can Ramsey Stone Consultants help?
At Ramsey Stone Consultants, we bring over 35 years of experience to the global design and construction industry, providing comprehensive, independent consulting services in dimension stone.
We aim to alleviate your project of any of the potential ‘surprises’ during and after the stone project, such ‘surprises’ can be disastrous if they are not actively kept at bay. So what are we talking about, what can cause problems in your project?
Source of Natural Stone
It is very common to experience a situation where a particular stone requirement for a project is to be sourced in a country that is foreign to a small manufacturer, they might have to transact via a 3rd party instead of being directly prescribed, which of course increases the final price and adds a complication to the project. The location of the quarry, in relation to the project location can exacerbate this further.
Delivery Time & Logistics
There can be many delays that can occur at various stages of the project, these delays can be on site at the point of extraction, on the road/sea during transportation or on the final site of installation. Lacklustre planning and a poor experience of international trade (import/export), can heavily impact the delivery time.
Unsuitable or Incorrect Stone Selection
It is unfortunate that this does happen in the natural stone industry, but as an example, we have been asked to step in to carry out an independent natural stone inspection for clients when upon this inspection we find that the material supplied and on-site (even sometimes already being installed) is not the same as what was specified, and consequently it didn’t match the price paid.
Poor / Dangerous Installation
Internationally, this has been a major problem and luckily not a particularly public one. Installation of natural stone whether as exterior stone cladding or paving/flooring, requires special skillsets, but it is especially important when we are talking about cladding systems in high-rise construction.
Structural engineers are involved in these larger projects and will calculate and recommend the correct type of fixing for the stone with factors such as ‘wind-load’ having been considered; as you can imagine, something going wrong with a panel of high weight at a high position on a facade is extremely dangerous.
Due to the wide variety of materials such as Marble, Granite, Limestone, Slate, Sandstone etc and the fact that there are sub-sets of these which include their physical & chemical properties, colour etc, it is very difficult to determine the material behaviour and how they should be used. This must be done at earlier stages, prior to arrival on site and the final installation.
What’s next?
If you have read this article, then it is likely you are looking to tender out to a natural stone consultancy firm for an upcoming project. We would love to hear from you and be given the opportunity to see how we could help.
Visit our contact page to find the best ways to get in touch with us.
If your project is in North America or the Gulf, see our dedicated pages for stone consulting in the USA and stone consulting in the Middle East.
If you would like to have a look at some of our completed work you can do so on our projects page.
