On Taking Stone for Granite

Have you ever thought about stone? We went to a stone store on Saturday to pick out the coping for our pool. For those of you not familiar with the word "coping" (I wasn't either until we built our last pool) it's the top edge that surrounds the pool. They used to use concrete or brick but now the "style" is a more natural looking stone.

According to our pool builder, it can be a very expensive mistake if you don't choose your stone wisely. Your decisions are literally "set in stone." I have to admit I haven't thought much about stone...but when you're trying to decide what color you want your pool to be you start thinking about it...and noticing it. Stone is everywhere! Stone walls, stone fences, stone buildings, stone steps, stone fireplaces...the list goes on and on. (I'm reminded of Forest Gump's shrimp boat friend).

So we go to the stone place. It's a modest building with a few offices and a small showroom. The guy walks us out back and WOW...It's a huge graveled area with piles and piles of stone. And they come in all sorts of colors from all over the place...Oklahoma Flagstone, Tennesee Blue Gray, Pennsylvania Lilac and some with names like Arizona Chocolate, Cherry Rock Flag and Cafe Blend... by the time we were through...I was starting to get hungry!

We ended up deciding on the Colorado French Vanilla...sounds yummy doesn't it? They gave me a small piece and OMG...it's heavy. Of course you would expect something sold by the ton to have a little weight to it. The whole time I'm wondering what the shipping charge would be to send one of those piles UPS. My husband asked the sales guy how they get their stone and I said "they dig it up" but I was immediately corrected. No! They BLAST it up. I looked closer at my stone pile and checked for burn marks...

Of course I've heard of a rock quarry...but I never really thought about it...ya know?

BTW...here's a pic of French Vanilla.
It's a smooth stone because they cut it. As a matter of fact, I managed to pick out the least natural-looking stone on the lot. I wanted my stone to look manmade...lol.

They're supposed to start digging the pool on Friday. If they hit stone on the dig it will cost $800 extra to blast it out. Maybe I could use that for my coping and save the $300 a ton for the French Vanilla.

More as it develops.