Limestone or Marble for Custom Home Features?
Do You Want Limestone Or Marble?
As a homeowner, you make a lot of decisions within your house. Not only do you get to decide when it’s time to update certain things, like the flooring or countertops, but you also get to decide what materials you will use. If you’d like to customize some home features, marble and limestone are both beautiful, elegant natural stone materials. But which one do you go with? Take a look at their appearance, composition, and application to get the best options.
Origins
Limestone and marble are both materials that have formed over millions of years. Limestone is the first step to forming marble. Limestone forms when shells, fossils, and sand solidify over time. After limestone is exposed to high heat and pressure under the earth, it can transform into marble. The mineral deposits that occur around the limestone makes it harder and more dense, and also gives it the distinctive veining and graining.
Aesthetics
Even though they come from the same general origin, marble and limestone look very different. Limestone is usually natural in color with tans, grays, and whites and you can see the impressions left by fossils and shells within the grain. Marble, on the other hand, comes in a wide variety of colors ranging from white and black to red, blue, and green. The fossils aren’t visible, but the veins and streaks of colors are.
Density
Marble and limestone have a big difference in density when you compare them to granite. Marble is harder and more dense than limestone, but they are softer than other stones, which makes them easy to mold into certain shapes. That means you can customize them with ease when you have a craftsman who knows what they are doing. Marble is more compact and less porous than limestone, but it can still stain if it isn’t sealed well.
Your Application
Do you want limestone or marble? That can depend on your application for the natural stone. If you want a countertop in the kitchen that brings a certain color into the room, marble might be the best look for you. If you want something natural that brings elegance to your fireplace surround, go with limestone. The material you choose depends greatly on where you are going to place it and what outcome you want from the appearance of that stone. You will also want to take your preferences into consideration. Many people simply like one stone better over the other and that’s why they choose one or the other.
The Costs
The costs differ between limestone and marble and can vary within the stones as well. Limestone is widely available and generally costs less, but there are rare types of the stone that cost more than others. Marble usually costs more, but easy-to-find varieties are less expensive than some of the more rare limestone colors.
Getting Limestone Or Marble
Whichever you decide to go with for your custom home feature, contact the professionals at Impression with your questions and for advice. We can help you as you move forward with your custom limestone or custom marble features.
