Paving > Marble
Portuguese marble
Information
With total annual production estimated at almost 3 million tons, Portugal is today one of the world's leading producers of ornamental stone. The growth in production has accelerated strongly since the 1980s due to better organization of extraction and transformation activities, which up till then were relatively haphazard.
However, exports do not represent the largest part of this production, which demonstrates the robust activity of the domestic market.
Portugal's main customers for marble products are Spain, Italy, Germany and France.
As in all marble production, Portuguese marble is extracted in square or rectangular blocks. These blocks are cut into slabs between 0.4" and 1.2" (10mm and 30mm) thick or even more, using saws with multiple vertical blades. The slab surfaces are then finished (polished, softened, etc.) and finally cut into square tiles.
The offcuts around slab edges cannot be used in finished products due to their irregular forms, but are reconditioned in pallets to be used in patio paving. These offcuts are frequently used on the Portuguese domestic market (desperdicio) and distributed in France by EURO PIERRES.
Available in pallets of 40 or 50m², Portuguese marble exists in different thicknesses: 0.6", 0.8" and 1.2" (15mm, 20mm or 30mm). The product is of top quality, extremely hard and presents little risk of being subject to frost damage.
There are over 80 different types of marble, with colors ranging from white to salmon pink, with many cream shades in between.
EURO PIERRE has a subsidiary in Portugal, which for nearly 20 years has specialized in purchasing marble from companies that extract and transform it. The product is brought to its warehouses, sorted and reconditioned so as to produce pallets that are homogeneous in color and free of "small" bits.
TechnicalCharacteristics
Commercial name: PORTUGUESE PINK
Type of stone: MARBLE
Applications: INTERIOR/EXTERIOR
Density: 2717 kg/m³
Resistance to compression: 1754 kg/cm²
Resistance to bending: 157 kg/cm²
Absorption: 0.06%
Coefficient of thermal expansion: 0.0016mm/m°C
