Micro marble is the most popular choice of marble used for fireplaces today and surpasses natural marble in the production and sale of fireplaces ten times.
So what is this type of stone?
It is an artificial stone that consists of finely ground real marble and other stones, mixed with resins, hardeners and other additives. Color is added to the recipe and then mixed, before being poured into huge metal molds. These are around three meters long, 1.2 meters high, and 1.2 meters wide.
The mixture is then allowed to harden, once set, the block of artificial marble, which weighs several tons, is removed from its mold and taken to huge collective saws, where it is sawn into sheets.
These three meter sheets are then taken to a finishing production line where they are calibrated, finished and polished. The sheets are ready to ship to factories where they will be cut and fabricated into hearths and backs for fireplaces or full fireplaces. Micro marble can be cut and worked much easier than real marble, and it is just as hard and durable.
This artificial stone offers numerous colors, from almost white to almost black, with a large number of variations from beige (the most popular). Some even have veins and specks created within the stone. The best ones are difficult to distinguish from real marble. Most, unlike real marble, are quite simple, which goes well in current fashion and allows marble to blend in well with a wide variety of décor.
Interestingly, the advantage of artificial marble over real marble is also its disadvantage. Being very consistent in color and certainly not without beauty, most sheets of the same type of micro are almost identical, so each fireplace made in micro marble is the same as the one before or the next – the fact is; When you buy this type of fireplace you know exactly what color and brands you are going to get!
Natural marble fireplaces are beautiful and will always be unique in color and shade. Real marble can vary in color from batch to batch; This is due to the fact that nature favors variety and therefore does few identical things to each other. You can’t really know the exact color or veins the next natural marble fireplace will have, whereas with man-made, you can …
The uniqueness and beauty that natural marble possesses is also its strength; the buyer can always be sure that no other buyer will have another natural marble fireplace, totally identical to his own.
The other important factor with artificial marble that is so popular today is price. They may cost less than half the price of a natural marble version and this, combined with their uniform color, makes these types of stone fireplaces a fantastic value.
Micro marble fireplaces can be purchased at btf1.co.uk. They are based in Broxbourne, on the Hertfordshire / Essex border, but supply marble micro fireplaces to many locations across the UK.
Buck richards