We sell everything, we have to these days, but give me ten minutes with a customer and I can guarantee they will not buy granite unless they have only one criteria, looks. That is the one thing that no other material can compete with, granite is absolutely beautiful.
But granite is so diverse that finding a color that holds up well, has no radon or radiation, doesn't easily etch, is reasonably priced, and holds up to staining is quite difficult. Black granites for instance are quite good at bacterial resistance, very low radiation and radon emissions, don't usually need sealing. But it etches and UV fades easily.
I started looking into granite's problems to protect my business, I had to sell it to compete, but there were all these stories out there. It turned out that there were facts behind the stories but the science hadn't been done. That changed last year. Now even the granite industry is starting to test stone for radiation.
But I'll tell you, the toxic heavy metal issue is going to dwarf everything that has ever been said about granite. Our first XRF scan found huge quanities of Thallium and we spent the last year finding out how much of the radioactive elements are present in granites. Most of the radionucliedes are also heavy metals, far more poisionous than they are radioactive dangers. Some thought has been given to trying to leach out the surface elements, and it might be possible but it won't be done until consumers force the stone industry into doing it. It wasn't that long ago that most granites weren't resined, granite had pitts and you had best get used to it. But the solid surface industry, the laminate industry, and the quartz industry used the pitting of granite in their marketing so the stone industry had to do something.
Like it or not, this is how a free market works. It isn't fair or pretty, but it works best for consumers.
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