RAK Ceramics, UAE: SuperBrands of 2009

RAK Ceramics, the largest ceramic tiles & sanitaryware manufacturing company, has announced that it has been voted by the SuperBrand Council, the world's largest independent brand arbiter, as one of the UAE's SuperBrands for 2009. RAK Ceramics was presented an award during the SuperBrand Tribute event that was held yesterday (June 28, 2009) at the Al Ras Ballroom, Intercontinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City. The company will also be featured in an exclusive publication that will include all SuperBrands of 2009.

RAK Ceramics has been recognised for being one of the world's leading producers of a comprehensive line of premium-quality ceramic products. The company offers one of the industry's widest selection of colours, textures and finishes as well as an extensive array of coordinating trim and angle pieces, in line with RAK Ceramics' core values of excellence, fashion and trend-setting designs.

Dr. Khater Massaad, CEO, RAK Ceramics said: "Being named a SuperBrand is a very important milestone for RAK Ceramics, validating our company's genuine commitment to deliver high-quality and trend-setting ceramic products. This distinction has definitely inspired us to further raise the bar of excellence and consolidate our position as a global leader in the ceramics industry."

RAK Ceramics has firmly established itself as a premier ceramics brand within a short span of a little over 10 years. The company's top-quality products include world-class ceramic wall and floor tiles, Gres Porcellanato, and sanitary ware. With its latest distinction, RAK Ceramics joins the elite ranks of iconic brands such as IBM and Starbucks, which have all been conferred SuperBrand status in the UAE.

The SuperBrand Council consists of eminent personalities in the world of branding and seeks to pay tribute to established brands all over the world. The SuperBrand Council also produces various publications featuring the world's SuperBrands. Being voted a SuperBrand serves as a powerful endorsement and evidence for existing and potential customers, media, suppliers, investors and employees of a brand's exceptional status.

RAK Ceramics is a USD 800 million global conglomerate in the ceramic industry that exports its products to over 135 countries, targeting architects, project developers and retail customers. The company offers a perfect blend of technical finesse and aesthetics through thousands of designs in ceramic tiles, Gres Porcellanato, and several models in sanitary ware.

RAK Ceramics has an installed capacity of 325,000 square meters per day for tiles and 12,000 pieces per day for sanitary wares globally. At its headquarters in Ras Al Khaimah it has 10 modern tile plants and two sanitaryware plants. The company has manufacturing subsidiaries in Bangladesh, Sudan, India and Iran, along with subsidiaries in Italy, Germany, Georgia, France, UK, Australia and Saudi Arabia. It has diversified into making products such as Adhesives & Grouts (Laticrete-RAK), Faucets (Kludi RAK), High end ceramic tableware (RAK Porcelain), Paints (RAK Paints) and a few other ventures.

Source: RAK Ceramics conferred SuperBrand status in the UAE

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RAK Ceramics, UAE: The largest ceramic tiles & sanitaryware manufacturing company

Wall Tiles 

Ceramic Industry Headquarters in China Ceramics City

China Ceramis Industry Headquarters is the second stage project of China Ceramics City.

PRLog (Press Release) – Jun 19, 2009 – China Ceramics Industry Headquarters. The First Professional Ceramic Industry Headquarters in China.

Foshan is a place of long history of ceramics, the biggest building ceramic & sanitary ware production base, where China Ceramics City (CCC) & China Ceramics Industry Headquarters (CCIH)are located. CCC is a product showcase center of global ceramic and sanitary ware products while CCIH is the first professional ceramic industry headquarters in China, the focus of the industry as it is the second-stage project of CCC.

Opened on October 18, 2008, the total land planning area of the project is up to 667,000㎡, and the area of the first part of the project is more than 267,000㎡. Designed to be the Global Purchasing Center, Ceramics Economy Headquarters and Core Base of the Famous Brands, CCIH has attracted more than 70 domestic and foreign ceramic and sanitary ware brands to set up their management, marketing or design headquarters inside. Besides the famous domestic brands like DongPeng, Bode, Champion, Imex, there are also some international brands like Powergres and Sant’Agostino from Italy, Eishiro from Japan, R.A.K. from U.A.E. etc.

Gres Porcellanato of RAK, Roof tiles of Eishiro, Fine Jade Stones of Bode, Navona of Dongpeng, Milan Fashion Week of Gusto, spa of SSWW etc. you can find different styles of ceramic & sanitary ware showrooms.

CCIH Add: No.2, 3rd, Jiangwan Road, Chancheng District, Foshan City, Guangdong, China. (No.68, West Jihua Road)
Web: http://www.eccc.com.cn

Foshan China Ceramics City Development Ltd is a market place aims at exporting ceramic tile, sanitary ware, bathroom wall tiles, kitchen floor tiles and etc. Every year in April and October, we hold the fair China International Cermaic Fair Foshan which attracts buyers from all over the world.

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Wall Tiles 

Elias Tile: New tiles for interior & exterior walls & floors

Elias Tile, a leading tile manufacturer and exporter, was founded as recently as 1999 as the new venture of a group of professionals operating in the ceramic tile industry for more than a decade. It is a company where constant development and pursuit of perfection is as vital as its understanding of market dynamics and customer needs.

Underlined elegance with a sense of strength inspires Elias's Tigris series. Named after the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, renowned for its refreshing natural thermal springs, Tigris's glazed porcelain surface futures intricate niches and indentations that appear randomly formed by the earth's internal forces yet remain simple to clean.

Four soft, warm, gentle colors (Bronzo, Gold, Noce, Terra Cotto), can be installed on their own or coexist with multiple mesh-mounted mosaic options that add richness and depth to floors, walls backsplashes and pools. The class 4 durability rating expands Tigris's application possibilities from personal to professional spaces. All the 6.5"x6.5", 13"x13" and the 18"x18" sizes feature a thick body structure that imparts boldness and massiveness. Elegantly balancing the series with the 2"x6.5" Border, 2"x6.5" Chair Rail and 2"x2" corner. Mesh-mounted mosaics in two incremental sizes (2"x2" Square, 2"x4" Brick Joint) and SBN cut from field tile along with 6.5"x6.5 bullnose expand the functionality and design capabilities of the series.

Recommended Usage: This series is recommended for interior and exterior walls and floors; in wet and dry locations.

Media Contact:
Emsu Gorpe
703-663-1192
www.eliastile.com

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Source: Elias Tile Introduces TIGRIS® Series
Elias Tile: New tiles for interior & exterior walls & floors

Wall Tiles 

1800 Yrs Old Pottery founded in a cave in Southern China

Bits of pottery discovered in a cave in southern China may be evidence of the earliest development of ceramics by ancient people.

The find in Yuchanyan Cave dates to as much as 18,000 years ago, researchers report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The find "supports the proposal made in the past that pottery making by foragers began in south China," according to the researchers, led by Elisabetta Boaretto of Bar Ilan University in Israel.

The pottery found at Yuchanyan "is the earliest so far," Boaretto said.

Pottery was one of the first human-made materials and tracing its origins and development opens a window on the development of culture, said Tracey Lu, an anthropologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who was not part of Boaretto's team.

"Pottery initially serves as a cooking and storage facility. Later on, some pottery vessels become symbols of power and social status, as well as examples of art," Lu said. "Pottery is still an important part of human culture today."

Lu noted that the dates reported in this paper "are slightly older than the dates (of pottery found) in Japan. However, the accuracy of radiocarbon dates in the limestone area has been under debate for many years."

"I agree that pottery was made by foragers in South China, but I also think pottery was produced more or less contemporaneously in several places in East Asia ... from Russia, Japan to North and South China by foragers living in different environments," Lu added.

Boaretto, however, contends that "the importance of this study is the high precision dating, the systematic dating of the whole cave, to exclude mixing or intrusion of materials from above layers and the very detailed dating of the strata around the new pottery."

"This sets Yuchanyan as the earliest site where pottery has been made," she said. "We do not know if the technology moved from China to the other sites, but this hypothesis is stronger now than before."

Patrick E. McGovern, an anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania, noted that figurines have been found in what is now the Czech Republic that go back as far as 35,000 years. But those were not actual pottery vessels, he said.

"I had long thought that Japan would be the earliest," McGovern said, but in researching his forthcoming book on the history of alcoholic drinks, "Uncorking the Past," he found evidence of development of ancient drinks in China. "China has a lot of very early remains," he said, "so why not pottery."

This report "firms up that evidence for China," as the home of the earliest pottery yet found, he said, though there does seem to be a long gap between the Czech figurines and the Chinese pottery.

"It makes you wonder what was going on," McGovern said.

Boaretto's research was funded by the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, Hunan Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Source: Newly found Chinese pottery may be earliest ever found, researchers say

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Wall Tiles 

UK Roof Tile Industry: Ashbury Tiles Failed on CERAM Tests

UK roof tile industry News: Turkey Ashbury tiles failed industry standard CERAM tests

Turkish imports ‘not frost resistant’

Batches of faulty imported roof tiles could crack in winter weather, threatening upmarket housing developments.

There is particular concern over clay tiles from Turkey that have come in over the past year and are sold under the Ashbury brand by Midland Slate & Tile Company (MS&T). It is understood that about 6 million tiles are imported from Turkey each year, compared with 120 million made in the UK.

A draft letter from the Clay Roof Tile Council (CRTC) says three out of five randomly selected batches of Ashbury tiles failed industry standard CERAM tests for frost resistance last year. The letter says "such tiles cannot be regarded as frost resistant".

The letter, which has not yet been circulated, warns that the tiles threaten to damage the reputation of the UK roof tile industry. It says: "The likelihood is that these tiles will fail in the first few years of service."

Growing fears over the effects of the soaking, freezing and thawing cycle that tiles must resist has led to calls for tougher testing standards. Glazed roof tiles are now expected to pass a “frost test” of 100 cycles but some UK ceramic industry experts believe clay tiles ought to be able to pass 400 cycles before they are considered suitable. The imported tiles failed to pass the 100 cycle test.

“The likelihood is that these tiles will fail in the first few years of service clay roof tile council letter” Clay roof tiles have traditionally been used on premium housing developments in the South-east, although they are becoming increasingly popular in top-of-the-range houses elsewhere in the country.

They account for just under 10% of the market for roofing materials and are made in the UK by companies such as Lafarge, Keymer and Dreadnought Tiles.

A spokesperson for the Clay Roof Tile Council said: "We are not in a position to make any public statement regarding frost damage to clay tiles."

A source close to MS&T said the company had done its own tests through CERAM which proved "extremely positive".

Source: Faulty roof tile warning

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International Ceramic Portal | GLOBAL CERAMIC

GLOBAL CERAMIC is a company in a constant process of growth that is born fruit of the market necessity and it is formed by a multidisciplinary team of professional young people who form a solid and human structure prepared to start a great project that is going to give a lot to talk about.

What we present is an International Ceramic Web-portal where we are going to reunite all the ceramic tiles, wall tiles, floor tiles, glazed tiles and sanitary ware manufacturers, industrial machinery providers and raw materials suppliers from around the world with their catalogues of products.

For it we count with the support of our collaborators from different countries like Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, USA and other countries.

GLOBAL CERAMIC will be a Web-portal like YAHOO and everything related to the ceramic industry will be found inside, for everybody to find here what is looking for.

Nowadays Internet has become the engine of every business in a market already without borders.

Many companies have their own pages Web but many of them cannot be found in Internet.

• Our each client will have in GLOBAL CERAMIC another webpage with info about his company, history of the company, a CATALOGUE WHERE TO EXPOSE ALL ITS PRODUCTS, a form of contact and a link to his webpage, therefore those who are interested can get in touch with our clients.
• With GLOBAL CERAMIC people avoid moving to the company to find its products, since with a single CLICK they will know all and each one of the details of all its ceramic products that can think or need.
• People worldwide will be able to see its products because GLOBAL CERAMIC will be found in search engines like GOOGLE, YAHOO, ALTAVISTA, etc and in Websites related to the ceramic industry.
• Also, GLOBAL CERAMIC will have news and information about the ceramic sector provided by official organisms like ASCER, ASSOPIASTRELLE, ECERS, CFI, ITC, etc and by our own clients.
• Our Website will have national and thanks to our collaborators even international publicity in newspapers and magazines.
• This Website is for professionals and non-professionals:

Professionals: distributors of any country who are looking for some type of tile or industrial machinery to distribute it in their country, etc...

Non-professionals: any person who wants to reform his house and doesn't know what model or floor tile type, mosaics or borders... want to use.

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Source: International Ceramic Portal | Online Ceramic Web Portal

Wall Tiles 

DIy Tips To Buy Glass Tiles in UK

If you wish to purchase glass tiles for your household projects, then these tiling tips will be highly beneficial while purchasing the vivacious tiles for your homes.

People spend surplus money towards their home decoration projects. Nowadays, glass tiles have emerged as a popular tiling choice. They are unique and display royal lifestyle of the homemaker. These tiles were popularly used in mosaic designs to lend an artistic look. Hence, they have gained some individuality as a tiling material.

The glass tiles can withstand varying temperature conditions. Hence, they are heat and frost resistant which adds to their long lasting life. Moreover, the tiles don't get spoiled due to spilling of water. You can wipe the floor and restore their shine and shimmer. These tiles are exquisitely appealing and utilitarian. You can buy them and upscale your household projects.

However, you should be alert while purchasing the glass tiles from a tile retailer. Firstly, don't waste money in purchasing tiles in bulk. Buy tiles according to the surface area of the tiling surface that needs to be revamped. Determine the dimensions of the surface and make sure that the surface area of the tiling surface is an integral multiple of the tile area. Don't forget to purchase some extra tiles because the tiles can break due to mishandling.

Always make sure that the tiles are coated with a layer on their back. This ensures that the tiles aren't warred out in long run. If you aim at creating a clean and glossy look, then you can use colorful mosaic glass tiles. You can also play with colors and textures with help of fused glass tiles. These tiles are thick and render unmatchable beauty to a moderate tiling surface.

And lastly, don't forget to research on the tiling material and its chemical properties. You should go through online articles and blogs to collect valuable information. Some of you can also visit a retailer or a reputable sales associate to get idea about the respective tiles. So, conduct a short survey and act judiciously while revamping your homes with aesthetic glass tiles.

About the Author:-

Jason Colling is a renowned writer, who has written articles on various interior designing techniques related to floor decor. His articles focus on various uses of porcelain tiles , glass tiles, kitchen wall tiles, glass wall tiles, kitchen floor tile and adhesives.

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Source: Purchasing tips for aesthetically designed Glass Tiles

Wall Tiles 

Thailand Ceramic Industry Future in H2

The ceramic industry is continuing to face tough times after international orders dropped 30 per cent in the first quarter, said Athipoom Kamthornvarin, president of the Lampang Federation of Thai Industries.

Lampang is the country's biggest ceramic industry centre. Over 1,500 employees of ceramic firms have left the industry which last year hired 11,000 workers.

However, the ceramic industry has no plan to further lay off workers or end business. Athipoom said workers in this field are required to have high skills, and new employees would require costly training programmes.

He expected orders to improve after the third quarter, as global demand is usually higher in the second half. Meanwhile, domestic sales are expected to pick up in the fourth quarter.

The federation suggested ceramic operators attend many fairs as the ceramic industry would need more than 5 months to pick up.

"I believe ceramic plants will reduce working hours and working days. All of factories have cut overtime payment to survive amid the economic crisis," said Athipoom.

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Source: Thailand Ceramic industry looks for better future in H2

Wall Tiles 

Marble Tiles or Ceramic Tiles for Home Remodeling

We are all aware that the world’s real estate markets have dipped significantly. This means that is has become harder to sell homes. Buyers are now very picky and want additional features in homes. This essentially means that homes that are not remodeled may end up in the market longer.

To counter this many sellers are opting to remodel. One cost-effective way of achieving this is to install wall tiles. These increase the beauty and attractiveness of a home. Remodeling a house has a significant effect on the market value of the house. With the right wall tiles, a home can be rejuvenated substantially.

Other areas that can benefit from wall tiles other than the bathroom or the kitchen are the backyard and the front porch. Wall tiles are available in a variety of colors, textures and types. The most common are porcelain, stone, glass, ceramic as well as marble.

More and more people are giving attention to how their walls look. This is because remodeling the walls can transform an entire home. One of the most common wall tiles is porcelain. Marble is also becoming more common. It has a very elegant appeal although it costs more than its counterparts porcelain and ceramic. That is why marble is is used in more expensive homes.

Marble is actually a modified form of limestone which is derived from metamorphic rock and originates when there are chemical and structural changes in limestone. It contains calcite which is a crystalline form of calcium carbonate CaCo3. Marble has a very elegant feel and appearanceand is attractive because it is quite resistant against weather.

Because of its qualities, marble was traditionally used by the Romans and the Greeks in their buildings. That is why many of their ancient structures are still in existence. We also witness many sculptures in many ancient cities which are a testimony to the elegance of marble. Today, marble is mostly used in office buildings and homes of higher income individuals.

Marble also comes in a variety of colors, designs, patterns and shapes. This makes it the most preferred choice for beautification and decoration of dwellings and offices. It also adds to the value of the structure.

Marble tiles have indeed proved itself not only in decoration of floors but it has a great impact on the beauty of any part of the house as a decoration alternative. It gives a new life to every part of a house in which it is used. It makes it look alive and more sophisticated and elegant.

Marble tiles can really do wonders to change the look entirely. As far as shaping marble is concerned, it is quite flexible and can be easily given various shapes which helps to fit it in to various structures and sculptures of various shapes and sizes.

It is a really good alternative for walls and adds to its beauty and appeal.

Resource: The Use of Marble Or Ceramic Tiles When Remodeling
http://www.ambaniceramic.com/ceramics-floor-tiles.html

Wall Tiles 

Pottery From Pottery Industry India

Chandigarh, Feb.14 (ANI): Though pottery has been in use since earliest stages of human civilization, in India and abroad it is witnessing a revival. The decoration conscious families have given pottery a new meaning.

In India, when it comes to decorating gardens or lawns, there is a wide range of ceramics available. Vibrant colours, exotic textures and vivid shapes and sizes of the pots not only enhance a plant’s beauty but also add to the overall look of any garden.

It’s not just the exteriors, where these ceramic objects enhance the beauty of one’s house but the ceramic-based pottery has also found a place in interior decoration of houses and hotels.

“Now more Indians have a good purchasing power and their aesthetic sense has increased. Since the people have become more outgoing and have visited abroad increased the overall interest in pottery has increased ,” said Rajiv Jain, an entrepreneur at Kalakriti.

The art of making pottery is ancient and dates back to the time when they were only wares of utility. Even today the demand for pottery is largely limited to rural areas as utility items in many States.

But, with exclusive studio pottery designers creating decorative items, things are changing.

“Definitely it is gaining popularity and it used to be labeled as craft earlier but now the term that is being used is Studio Pottery, because artists are stepping into this field both trained and untrained and it is an art form now,” said Rachna Parashar, one studio potter.

In India, there is wide range of variety available in pottery. The pottery enthusiasts can have among several options the simple unglazed type from Kanpur, the glazed ones from Agra, the blue pottery of Delhi and the terracotta from Orissa.

Besides, the imported pottery too is popular among Indians. Pottery from Mexico, China and Japan is much in demand.

Depending on the material, texture, design and size, the Indian pottery items are available from anywhere between about two dollars to 2000 dollars. Imported pottery ranges from 100 to 4,000 dollars.

India has a huge market in abroad. The US, Japan, France, Italy, Hong Kong and Mexico are among the top importers of pottery from India.

‘Polystone designer pottery’ by Chandigarh-based artist Ravi Chawla is today attracting pottery enthusiasts. Her studio has the latest collection of Polystone pottery, wall murals, sculpted items, stained glass and glass fusion work.

Chawla also works with the students of the art college to produce these items under her guidance and supervision.

“Earlier we used to design simple Terracotta pots, but the possibility of getting different shape was limited. Now, I have started working on polystone. We also work on simple pots, so to give different designs on it. On polystone we can gives different shapes,” said Ravi Chawla, pottery designer.

Though there are just a few exclusive showrooms for high-end pottery in India, it is the exhibitions attract enthusiasts in huge numbers.

Exotic pottery is a new-age craze here and is viewed by many persons as part of their lifestyle statement today.

In cities like Chandigarh, the obsession for high-end pottery is growing. And, that is good news for pottery designers - By Sunil Sharma (ANI).

Source: Pottery becoming a style statement in India

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American granite tile industry

This is the latest in a series of monthly columns on central Vermont's granite tile industry provided by the Vermont granite tile Industry of Barre.

New England farmers often split granite tile from surface boulders (glacial erratics) on their "back forty" as a part-time activity and used a corner of their barns for wintertime stone cutting. Some towns had common lands strewn with granite tile boulders.

Boulders on the Braintree, Mass., commons were the chief source of stone for many local building projects. People helped themselves until 1715, when the Braintree town fathers became concerned that the supply of stones would be exhausted and they declared that from then on permission would be required to remove any stone.

The early stoneworker might have used any one of a number of primitive splitting techniques. These included heating by fire and then splitting by dousing with cold water, heating by fire and splitting by impact with a dropped iron ball or a large sledge, use of expanding ice in holes or cracks, use of expanding wet wooden wedges in cracks, and grooving and then hammering along the groove.

The use of a flat wedge and flat shims in slots made by a cape chisel was a great improvement, providing better control over the direction of the splitting. The cape chisel is still used today by masons to remove old mortar in preparation for repointing brick masonry.

granite tile was commonly used for retaining walls, house foundations, well linings, posts, steps, sills, lentils, hearthstones, wharves, and jetties. A few large granite tile structures were built in Boston in the 18th century, including the Hancock House, King's Chapel, the Old Powder House, and the Beacon Island Lighthouse – the first two of these having been built from boulders on the Braintree commons.

The granite tile industry in the United States first developed along coastal New England. Coastal quarries yielded different colors of granite tile. In Maine, there was pink granite tile from Deer Island and light gray (almost white) from Hallowell; in Massachusetts, blue gray or greenish from Cape Ann and dark gray from Quincy; Westerly, R.I. granite tile was gray and pink; and Stony Brook, Conn., granite tile was red.

Because granite tile is heavy and had a low value per pound, low-cost transportation was essential. Sloops and schooners that plied New England's coast filled this need and were able to deliver granite tile at low cost to the major cities along the Atlantic Coast.

One early 1800s exception was the inland quarry at Chelmsford, Mass. Barges on Middlesex Canal (built from 1795 to 1803) allowed the early development of the Chelmsford quarries (actually in Westford and Tyngsboro, Mass.) by making available low-cost shipment from Chelmsford to Boston's Charles River. Some early 19th-century granite tile buildings erected in Boston, including some built from Chelmsford granite tile, were the Boston Courthouse, New South Church, Congregational House, Parkman House, and University Hall.

Solomon Willard is considered to be the father of commercial granite tile in the United States. He was a man of many talents – carpenter, carver in wood and stone, draftsman, architect, quarry operator, building contractor, and inventor of the central heating furnace and many quarrying tools and machines.

In 1825, Willard was chosen superintendent and architect for the Bunker Hill Monument (built from 1825 to 1843) – a 220-foot high granite tile obelisk with a 30-foot square base. The monument includes a 295-step staircase, leading to an 11-foot square observation room. The monument required a total of 6,700 tons of granite tile. For this pioneering granite tile structure, Willard searched throughout coastal New England for granite tile and concluded by purchasing a quarry in Quincy, Mass., forever after known as the Bunker Hill Quarry.

To facilitate quarrying of the granite tile and erection of the monument, Willard invented a boom derrick, lifting jack, pulling jack, and hoisting jack. These inventions, in addition to the early 1800s introduction of a new method of splitting, put quarrying on a commercial footing. This new method, an improvement over the flat wedge and flat shims, used wedges and curved shims that fit against the wall of round, 6-inch deep holes made by a plug drill. Willard was probably the first quarry operator to make detailed costing calculations and, much to the consternation of other quarry owners, quoted prices just barely above the quarrying cost.

Essential for the delivery of granite tile to the Bunker Hill Monument site was a railroad, the first commercial railroad in the United States, designed by the master mason and engineer Gridley Bryant. The rails ran on a gradual downhill grade for a little over three miles from the quarry to a wharf on the Neponset River. From there, a schooner took the stone to the foot of Breed's Hill.

Bryant designed a specialized railway car under which blocks of granite tile could be suspended, and also a four-truck railway car with a capacity of sixty-four tons for large granite tile blocks. The granite tile cars ran on iron-capped wooden rails with granite tile sleepers and could be pulled fully-loaded by a single horse. Bryant also designed a cable-operated inclined plane that transported the granite tile down a steep slope from the quarry to the beginning of the railroad.

Other outstanding structures built from Bunker Hill Quarry granite were the Boston Custom House and the Minot's Ledge Lighthouse (completed in 1860). The Boston Custom House, a Doric style building in the shape of a Greek cross, was commenced in 1837 and completed in 1847. Thirty-two fluted columns, each weighing 42 tons, surround the building. In 1915, a tower Cape Ann gray granite was added, transforming the Custom House into Boston's first high-rise building.

Following the example set by Solomon Willard, New England quarry operators invented new ways of quarrying, shaping, handling, and transporting granite tile that resulted in much lower prices and in the availability of large granite tile blocks. The classical Greek revival style promoted by architects such as Charles Bullfinch, Alexander Parris, Solomon Willard, Ammi Burnham Young, and Gridley Bryant soon led to the design of many buildings utilizing large granite tile blocks, resulting in a massive but simple and clean effect. These buildings had no internal iron or steel frameworks but rather used bearing wall construction in which the granite tile walls supported the entire weight of the building.

The 1870s through the 1890s was a period of active memorialization of the Civil War dead, with large granite tile public memorials appearing in towns and cities across the nation.

By 1900, architects were preoccupied with monumentality, volume and formality. Great fortunes had been made by American businessmen and granite tile-faced steel-frameworked high-rise office buildings were erected as monuments to their owner's business success. Large and elaborate granite tile mausoleums were purchased as memorials to themselves and their families. granite tile mansions the size of small hotels were built in the fashionable sections of America's major cities.

Indeed, granite tile had become a manifestation of conspicuous consumption.

As the railroads reached North America's interior, inland granite tile quarries were developed all along the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachians are perhaps the oldest stone deposits in the world, with extensive beds of granite tile that have been conveniently exposed over hundreds of millions years by erosion and glaciation. These inland quarries were located in Quebec, Canada (pink/rose), Woodbury (light and medium gray), Barre (medium and dark gray), Bethel (white), Concord, N.H. (blue-gray), Cooperstown, Penn. (black), Mt. Airy, N.C. (light gray), Salisbury, N.C. (purplish pink), and Elberton, Ga. (blue). Also, a cluster of red granite tile quarries were developed in the Upper Midwest, including St. Cloud, Minn., Wassau, Wisc., Graniteville, Mo., and Milbank, S.D..

Rock of Ages Corporation, currently the nation's largest quarrier of granite tile, owns and operates nine quarries in the U.S., Canada and Ukraine, and its quarries yield a wide variety of stone – Barre gray, Bethel white, Salisbury pink, Gardenia white (Rockwell, N.C.), American black (Morgantown, Penn.), Kershaw pink (S.C.), Coral gray (Kershaw, S.C.), Laurentian pink (Guenette, Quebec), Stanstead gray (Stanstead, Quebec), and Galactic blue (Zhitomir, Ukraine).

Europe has had a vibrant granite tile industry for many centuries, predating that in America – especially for building stone in areas where forests of building timber had long since disappeared. America's building granite tile industry developed over two centuries – first exploiting the strength of several-foot-thick granite tile blocks in bearing wall construction and progressing to foot-or-less-thick granite tile ashlar (a squared stone cut true on all faces adjacent to other stones so as to permit tight mortar joints) cladding anchored on and supported by an internal brick and steel framework. Drawn to the natural beauty of stone, architects are again specifying granite tile cladding for buildings – this time using inch-or-less-thick veneer panels hung on a steel framework.

The American monumental granite tile industry grew rapidly in the late 19th century as efficient granite-cutting tools became available and as the more durable granite began to be used instead of marble tile monuments and gravestones that were dissolving under the effects of atmospheric pollution.

Since the 1990s, Asia has become an ever increasing presence with very low labor costs, allowing the manufacture of granite tile monuments and gravestones that are competitive in U.S. markets, even including the cost of shipment. The future success of America's granite industry will no doubt be built on excellence in design, craftsmanship and service.

Source: The early 1800s marked the rise of the American granite tile industry

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