2. What are artificial stones?
● Artificial stones are building material that are used in place
of natural stone in exterior and/or interior surfaces.
● The general characteristics of artificial stones are usually
copied from nature and produced natural stones.
● These stones are produced using cement, sand, and
natural aggregate such as crushed stone.
● Artificial stone can be cast into complicated and
considerably detailed forms and various sizes can be
manufactured. Added to that, it can be reinforced to
increase strength.
● Colour pigments are added in order to achieve coloured
artificial stone, the addition of pigment should not exceed
15% of total composition
● These are easily casted.
● These are economical.
3. Types of artificial stones
● Terrazzo stone
● Ransom stone
● Artificial marble
● Bituminous stone
● Reconstructed stone
● Cement concrete blocks
● Victoria stone
● Garlic stone
● Imperial stone
● Agglomerate
● Conglomerate
4. Terrazzo stone
● Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or
precast.
● It is used for floor and wall treatments and finishing.
● It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass,
or other suitable material, mixed with a cementitious
binder (for chemical binding), polymeric (for physical
binding), or a combination of both.
Ransom stone
● It is also called chemical stone
● has a compression strength of at least 32 MPa.
Ransom stone is manufactured by blending silica
soda with cement
● Used to provide fancy and ornamental flooring.
5. Artificial marble
● It is made by fusing and moulding constituent
mixture, which is composed of 80 elements 20 parts
of pulverised marble, 20 parts of sulphate of potash
with 5% of glue mixed with water.
● It is used for exterior surface. Widely used in France.
Bituminous stone
● It is produced by impregnation of granite and diorite with
refined tar. Used where high durability is required.
● Also used in case of noise, and dust resistant stone
surface.
6. Reconstructed stone
● It is produced by debris of limestone quarries by
crushing them and mixing it with lime made from
dolomite and heating it up to 980 degree Celsius to
drive of carbon dioxide, powder residue of Cao and
MgO, mixed with water under great pressure
● It is then dried and carbon is admitted till
carbonization of hydrate of lime blocks is completed
Cement concrete blocks
● Concrete blocks are used for the construction of steps,
window, sills, and piers. It is cashed in at the
construction site.
● These are made from mixture of cement, fine and
coarse aggregate, and water.
7. Victoria stone
● It is a granite piece which its surface is
hardened by submerged the stone in silica
soda for two months.
Imperial stone
● The procedure used to produce imperial
artificial stone includes careful washing of
finely crushed granite, mixing granite with
Portland cement, cast the mixture into a
favored form, and finally steam cure the casted
imperial stone for twenty-four hours.
8. Agglomerate
● Marble agglomerate is obtained by mixing first choice
marble chips carefully selected for size and colour with
polyester resin or cement.
● Colour homogeneity make it the ideal material for large
projects.
Conglomerate
● Conglomerate Marble is manufactured from
crushed Natural Marble mixed with coloured
resin to bond it back together.
● Manufactured in state of the art factories
conglomerate marble provide a way of using
smaller blocks of marble that would otherwise
have been waste or crushed for road fill.
