Production of decorative stone as a business idea

We will begin our consideration of this business idea with a short history. The first building material that was used by our ancestors thousands of years ago, and only in the twentieth century, began to leave the wide construction site – this is natural stone. Natural stone, of course, is different, and depending on the cost of extraction, processing, uniqueness of the stone itself, the cost of the finished material varies, but is usually quite high. The high cost, along with some other points (for example, a limited color range) casts doubt on the prospects of the natural stone production and processing business.

But there is a rather interesting option for its replacement, from the point of view of business, including. This is a decorative stone that has appeared in the last century. Decorative stone has several advantages over natural stone:

design that can be invented and combined as you like;
reasonable production price;
it is lightweight, stable, and universal – it can be used for various finishing works;
and the most important advantage is the simplicity of its manufacture.
The production of decorative stone is constantly improving, new technologies are being introduced. Therefore, decorative artificial stone displaces natural stone, and the business idea of ​​producing decorative stone itself seems increasingly promising.

To produce decorative stone, you need a small set of tools and materials. In large cities, finding it is not so difficult, the choice of sets is wide.

Most often, the composition of the kit looks like this:

Mineral iron oxide pigments (very resistant to natural changes) and color can be selected as desired.
Plasticizer – an additive that gives the material plasticity.
Wax based vegetable grease.
Several polyurethane forms (for each type of decorative stone).
And, of course, the manufacturer’s instructions.
For example, for the production of 2 square meters of decorative stone, 12 kg of Portland cement, about 40 kg of quartz sand, 300 grams of coloring pigments, 120 grams of super plasticizer are needed.

The main components of the decorative stone production technology are tooling and staining.

In the production of decorative stone, the quality of the shape of the concrete mixture (which turns into a decorative stone) is provided by the tooling. A very important factor will be the use of molded materials, closely copying the properties of natural stone. Remember: the smaller the artificial stone will differ from the natural, the higher its cost. Therefore, it is so important to use high-quality molded materials so that they repeat the surface of natural stone and are resistant to shrinkage. Paint, pigment should be evenly distributed so that then there are no mixes and smudges. Formoplast is needed for the preparation of matrices. Although it all depends on your capabilities and desires. It is complex, not very easy to process, and even harmful to health. But it is cheaper and therefore the most profitable at the initial stage of the decorative stone business.

Matrices made of polyurethanes, produced in the USA and Europe, are of better quality than in Russia, withstand up to ten thousand castings. The cost, of course, is much higher than that of domestic matrices, but everything is balanced by quality.

Silicone compounds and rubbers are ideal in the process of casting gypsum-containing mixtures, but they are not suitable for the production of decorative stone from cement mixtures, since it easily crumbles and gives cracks with time and environmental effects.

In Russia, manufacturers of decorative stone prefer to make molds for themselves. Thus, high quality is checked at every stage, and it is also easy to switch to new product releases. In this regard, the organization of your own mold workshop is a necessity and your immediate task in organizing a decorative stone production business. But this is not so difficult: you need a small room plus a master with a set of tools.

The production of decorative stone is an exciting and promising business. If you have a certain interest and knowledge in this topic, go ahead!