There is wide range of stone finishes, selecting the right stone finish for your project is significant and can be overwhelming, most importantly it helps maintain the overall theme of your designed space.

Together with stone cut and color, stone finishes show the aesthetics, durability, and maintenance requirements of natural stone floors, walls and countertops.

Let’s take a look at the stone finishes,

Polished Finish

To achieve a polished finish, the natural stone undergoes repeated treatment with abrasives until a glossy, mirror-like surface is achieved. This process brings the stone’s natural colours and character to life, and makes its porosity virtually invisible. An advantage of a polished finish is that it can boost the stone’s overall resistance. Polished finish can be slippery, so it’s not recommended for outdoor paving.

Honed Finish

Polishing gives marbles and granites a glossy finish, which is aesthetically appealing, but if you want a more rustic look, a honed finish is your best option.

The honing process removes scratches, etches, and abrasions on natural stone surfaces. This results in a flat, dust-free finish. A honed finish is perfect for lobby floors and other high foot traffic areas. It also works great for limestone and sandstone..

Depending on the type of stone, your honed surface may require annual resealing with a penetrating sealer to prevent and delay staining. For instance, Granite would require sealing, but soapstone would not.

Leathered Finish

Leathered Finish is achieved through brushing stone surfaces with various brushes to give them an undulating look and a smooth, warm, and soft texture. A leathered finish is best achieved on darker stones with a non-uniform structure like granite.

A leathered stone finish is good at hiding fingerprints, water spots, and smudges. It is more stain- and slip-resistant and requires minimal maintenance.

Flamed or Thermal Finish

This process, as the name indicates, involves using a hot torch flame and running it over the surface of the stone to create a textured, non-slip finish that has a semi-rough surface.