If you have a marble countertop in your office or retail store, or marble tiles in your bathroom at home, you’ll be able to appreciate just what a stunning material this is.
But of course it doesn’t get extracted from the quarry ready to be installed. The final magic happens at our factory in South London.
Although we usually order specific types of marble to match customer specifications, we sometimes keep samples in stock to help us with our bespoke terrazzo production – enabling us to make up samples for our clients as quickly as possible. We have a permanent team of 12 based in the factory.
The marble might arrive already cut to size, but often we need to work it, so it is stored in the yard prior to being taken to the cutting section of the factory. The marble is moved around the yard with our gantry crane, installed in 2015.
We have three permanent saws to facilitate efficient cutting including a new saw that we introduced to the factory last year. If the job is for flooring or cladding, the sharp edges (arras) are removed prior to material being taken to the finished area.
With countertops, once the cutting is complete, the edges, if un-profiled, are polished using our CNC machine. If profiles are specified, this process is carried out prior to polishing. A more recent development is the move from dry polishing to wet polishing, which not only gives a better quality finish to the marble, but is better for our valued workforce in terms of less dust.
Once polishing has finished, the completed countertops are moved to the finished areas. Every piece of marble, whatever it is to be used for, is inspected to ensure we continue to meet the highest standards before transportation to its final destination; a private home, business premises, shop or other location. We have a site-fixing team of between six and 10 experts who are responsible for installing the marble.
This year we introduced a first rate water recycling water plant to recycle water used in the factory processes. This £30,000 investment is part of our drive towards improving our environmental credentials and commitment to sustainability.
The Diespeker factory is well equipped with state-of-the-art production equipment, not just our saws and polishers, but water jet cutting equipment as well. This means that every piece of marble that passes through the factory receives the attention it deserves – after all, it’s been 400 million years in the making, so why stint on excellence at this stage of its existence?
We’re very proud of our facilities, not just our factory and workshops, but also our showroom, which clients can visit to browse the many materials we supply. We have hundreds of samples on view, not just marble, but also conglomerate marble, granite, standard terrazzo and examples of our stunning bespoke terrazzo.
To visit the factory and showroom, just drop us an email sales@diespeker.co.uk or call 020 7358 0160.
