The fact is natural stone, with all of its inherent qualities, represents one of the great values in the home building and remodeling areas. In most cases, real stone is less expensive than other premium materials available for countertops, vanities, shower stalls, floors, etc.

The reasons: supply, demand and technological improvements. The industry is booming as part of the recent globalization of the natural stone business. New technologies and new quarries have significantly increased the output of natural stone in the United States as well as in India,
Brazil, Spain, China, Africa, Russia and other parts of the world. With supplies from the United States, Italy and other traditional sources of marble, granite and other natural stone, there is a significant amount of stone now available for the world to savor. It’s virtually unlimited.

In the past, the stone industry was aware that some potential sources of beautiful stone existed, but the cost of extracting the stone from the earth was prohibitive. As in other industries, natural stone producers and their suppliers have developed advanced technologies for extracting
stone from the earth, cutting the blocks of stone into slabs and processing/polishing them for eventual fabrication and installation in the home. These advancements, combined with favorable labor rates in some quarrying and fabricating countries around the world, have helped to make natural stone very competitive. That’s why kitchen and bath professionals can’t go wrong recommending real stone.