Stone Types
Dimension Stone
Dimension stone is natural stone quarried and cut to specific sizes and shapes, such as blocks, slabs, tiles and pieces made to measure, as opposed to crushed stone used as aggregate. Marble, granite, limestone, travertine, sandstone, slate and quartzite are all sold as dimension stone. The term is used in standards such as ASTM C119 and in trade statistics such as those of the U.S. Geological Survey.
A dimension-stone quarry lives on its blocks. The aim is to take sound blocks of a size a saw can take, with as few cracks as possible, because the value lies in large, whole pieces. That is why these quarries cut with wire saws, chain saws and drilling rather than heavy blasting, and why a block's size, grade and soundness decide what it is worth.
From the quarry, blocks go to plants that saw them into slabs or cut them into tiles and pieces to size, then on to distributors, fabricators and building sites, often across borders. Each step adds work and value, and each one needs to know where a block or slab came from.
In Noria Strata
Noria Strata is made for the dimension-stone trade: every block is recorded at the face with photo, place and grade, and carries on to the saw, the slabs and the container without being typed again.