What Is Granite?

Granite is a preferred surface in both residential and commercial buildings, not only because it is visually striking, but because it took ages to create. Granite was formed deep in the earth, and is the end result of heat and pressure applied over thousands of years.

Granite is called as an igneous rock that is further described as “intrusive”. Granite was formed when liquid magma is forced between layers of rock, where it ultimately cools and forms a layer of its own. Granite magma in fact carries many potential origins but it must also break in other rocks. Most of the granite intrusions are emplaced at depth within the coating, normally greater than 1.5 km and up to 50 km depth within thick continental coating.

Granite is a merger of precious elements such as quartz, feldspar and mica among few other trace elements. The cooling process of granite is quite slow, the new layers of rock are protected by the layers above and below where the molten magma had been forced. The mineral elements that have been balanced in the cooling magma define the crystalline look of this unique natural stone. Due the hard origin and the lengthy process, granite creates an amazingly hard and durable surface.

Granite has been used extensively as dimensional stone and tiles in residential and commercial buildings and in making monuments. With large amounts of acid rain in parts of the globe, granite has started to replace marble as a monument material, since it is much more durable. Polished granite has been an admired choice for kitchen countertops due to its durability and visual qualities.

Granite Process

Raw granite is removed for the quarry in large blocks. These blocks are cut into slabs or tiles by means of wire saws that are treated with assorted types of durable abrasives, such as sand, diamond and aluminum oxide. Saws are widely used with water as a coolant.

In the case of granite tiles and slabs, high-pressure water jets are also used to cut the granite in tandem with most traditional wire saws. Once the process of cutting is complete, granite undergoes three processes, which makes it recognizable as tile flooring or countertop slabs. They are polished on one side, calibrated and gauged. These latter two terms refer to the process of creating the back of each granite tile and slab as even as possible, and the edges converted as square as possible respectively. Once completed, the granite tile and slab it is ready to install.

Granite is a solid vibrant rock, appropriate for many applications due to its durability. There are various shades of granite such as grey, brown, red and green. If you are looking for the granite countertops for your kitchen, Cangelosi will offer expertise in selecting the best material for your application.

The colors represented here are a sampling of available materials. Additional colors are available.

Granite Samples

Sunset Gold Rosa Beta Santa Barbara Santa Venetia Tunas Green Giallo Ornamental Gris Carmel American Mahogany Imperial Brown Blue Eyes African Red Amazon Blue Baltic Green Bianco Romano Brazilian Black Blue Bahia Brown Pearl Midnight Cafe Brown Colonial Dream Cambrian Black Castor Brown Golden Leaf Golden Oak Golden Sunset Impala Black Imperial White Indian Tropical Green Ivory Elegance Ivory Gold Jurassic Green Kashmir Gold Kashmir White Labrador Antique Black Labrador Paladio Red Marinaci Rosewood Santa Cecelia Dark Seafoam Green Tunas Green