Stones
From the beginning, Stone was an essential part of Humans life which appears in different shapes like Block, Tile, and slab with a vast variety of types like Granites, Basalts (Traps), Limestones, Marble, Sandstones, Gneisses, Laterite, Slates.
Shapes:
Block Stone:
A large solid piece of stone or other material with flat rectangular sides, as for use in building or a piece on which particular tasks may be done, like chopping, cutting, or beheading.
Tile:
A tile is a thin object usually square or rectangular. Tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, or other objects such as tabletops. The word is derived from the French word tuile, which is, in turn, from the Latin word tegula, meaning a roof tile composed of fired clay.
Slab:
A stone slab is a big stone, flat and of little thickness, that are generally used for paving floors, for covering walls or as headstones.
The main applications of the slabs as the material of construction are for pavings and in the construction of roofs. They can be employed for other uses, among them.
Types of Stone:
Granites:
A typical granite is an Igneous rock. Its essential mineral components are mineral Orthoclase and mineral Quartz.
They are common in light colors and often spotted.
These have, however, poor resistance to fire.
Basalts (Traps):
These types of stones are also called Traps. These are volcanic igneous rocks that have formed from the cooling of lava erupting from volcanoes.
Because of their composition (being rich in ferromagnesian minerals) most basalts are dark or light-dark in appearance.
Being very hard, they are very difficult to dress in fine shapes.
Limestones:
Limestones are sedimentary rocks of calcareous composition and generally showing a stratified structure. They are made up of Calcium Carbonate.
It varies greatly in limestones. From pure white (Chalk) varieties, Limestones of Grey and dark varieties are also known.
Limestones are widely used in the making of cement.
Marble:
Marble is a metamorphic rock of calcareous composition and often of a layered structure.
Marble occurs in almost all colors from pure white to dense black. The color of marble depends on the impurities that are finely distributed in it during its formation.
They are quite strong, uniform in texture, least porous and take an excellent polish. They are suitable both as ornamental stones and for general construction.
Sandstones:
These types of stones are sedimentary rocks, siliceous in composition, and mostly stratified in structure.
Sandstones occur in many colors: white, gray, pink, red, maroon, and dark.
They must be free from fine layers of minerals like mica and chlorite.
Gneisses:
A Gneiss is geologically a metamorphic rock. It is generally siliceous in composition and foliated or banded in structure.
Felspars, Quartz, ferromagnesian minerals and mica are among the main constituents of gneisses.
These are varieties of light in appearance and free from mica. Dark-colored, mica-rich, and banded types, however, are to be discarded.
Laterite:
This type of stone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of oxides of aluminum with varying amounts of oxides of iron.
They are poor in compressive strength which varies from 20-30 kg/cm2. They are quite often used in the ordinary type of construction and also as road material.
Slates:
This type of stone is the metamorphic rock with a distinct foliated (cleavage) structure. It is commonly siliceous in composition.
Black colored thin sheets are used for ordinary roofing.
This type of stone is practically impervious to moisture. Thickly layered slates have good compressive strength and may find use in sills and for pavements.