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Stonemasonry
Jason Gittany - Gitani Stone Pty Ltd
Q. What do you look for in a stone?
A. Besides the obvious visual characteristics of beauty and uniqueness, we look for natural stones that are suitable to use for benchtops, floors and the like. The technical properties of the stone such as absorption rate, flexural strength and hardness are also important.
Q. What kind of skills or qualifications does it take to do the work you do?
A. All our factory and installation team are trained stonemasons. The majority are trained in-house in the techniques and methods of stonemasonry that we have learnt during our travels to Italy and Germany. The majority of our staff have over 10 years experience.
Q. What are the strong trends in stone?
A. We are finding a strong push in stonemasonry towards marble and limestone for benchtops and flooring, in honed (matte) surfaces. This type of surface gives the stone a low-maintenance finish that clients are able to clean themselves.
Q. What are the benefits of using stone in the home?
A. The most obvious thing is the unique colours and patterns available. Then there are other attributes of stone, such as easy stain removal, ability to repair chips and cracks and the resilience to heat and normal impact damage.
Q. Is there anything unique about your company?
A. We have our own Indoor Stone Gallery as well as state-of-the-art machinery. I also think the experience and knowledge of our staff and the attention we give to our customers before, during and after the works are complete are things we pride ourselves on.
Q. How do you source the stone that you sell?
A. We mainly rely on our natural stone suppliers, who we have been dealing with for over 30 years. My brother and I also visit the quarries ourselves to maintain the relationship with the suppliers, insisting on only the best quality stone. In our industry such relationships are invaluable.
