Will marble stain in a bathroom?

It will etch before it stains. Etching is acid dulling the polish, and shampoo, citrus and many bathroom cleaners will do it. Sealing slows absorption but does not prevent etching. Honed marble hides it far better than polished.

Can natural stone go outdoors in Auckland?

Some of it. Dense granite and many basalts handle our freeze-thaw and salt exposure; most marble and softer limestone do not. We will say no to a stone that will fail outdoors even when the supplier has said yes.

How much wastage should I allow?

Fifteen per cent for stone against ten for porcelain, and more for a diagonal or herringbone set-out. Sorting for tone means some pieces get set aside, and a stone re-order is rarely the same block.

Residential

Natural Stone & Marble Tiling in Auckland

Vein-matched set-out, white adhesive to stop shadowing, sealed before grout goes near it.

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The work

Stone is not a manufactured product. Two slabs from the same block will differ, and a crate will contain shade variation that no supplier can eliminate. The work is in the sorting and the sequencing as much as in the fixing.

Sorted and sequenced before fixing

We lay the crate out and sort by tone and vein direction, then sequence the floor so the variation reads as intentional rather than random. Book-matched pairs are numbered before they leave the pallet.

White adhesive under light stone

Marble and pale limestone are translucent enough to shadow. Grey adhesive telegraphs through as a dark patch that cannot be corrected once the tile is down, so light stone goes onto white adhesive without exception.

Sealed before grout, not after

Porous stone is impregnated before grouting so pigment cannot stain the face. It is sealed again after grout cures. Doing it once, afterwards, is how you get a permanently grey-edged marble floor.

Honed, filled and maintained honestly

Travertine needs its holes filled and will open new ones. Marble will etch under citrus and acid cleaners. We will tell you what the stone will do before you buy it, not after.

What the price covers

Crate inspection, shade sorting and vein sequencing
Book-matching and numbering of feature panels
Substrate preparation to the flatness stone demands
White adhesive fixing for translucent and pale stone
Impregnating seal before grouting
Grouting with non-staining product matched to the stone
Post-grout seal and a written maintenance schedule

Standards applied

AS 3958.1
AS/NZS 3740

We reply to every quote request within one working day.

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What this work looks like

Panel of white marble tiles with tight, aligned joints

Close texture of light marble with soft warm veining

Close texture of deep red natural stone with dense veining

Moody grey marble bathroom with a steel heated towel rail

Often booked together

Bathroom tilingWet areas waterproofed to AS/NZS 3740, set out so the cuts land out of the sightline.Explore service

Large format tilesPanels to 1600 × 3200 mm, rail-cut and vacuum-lifted onto a substrate checked to tolerance.Explore service

Tile repair & regroutingWe find out why the grout failed before replacing it, because cracked grout is a symptom.Explore service

Questions

Natural stone & marble, answered

We reply to every quote request within one working day. If your question is not here, ask it on the quote form and you will get a written answer, not a sales call.

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Tell us the room. We will tell you the number

We reply to every quote request within one working day. Measured quotes are fixed and written, broken down by area, with tile allowances and movement joints itemised.