For further information contact:
Gary Rodebush, Jr.
Manager, Milpitas Branch
400 East Montague Expressway
Milpitas, CA 95035
PHONE: (408) 263-2300 ext. 310
FAX: (408) 263-2925

SEMI-PRECIOUS STONE SLAB MAKES VOYAGE FROM ITALY TO
SAN FRANCISCO BAY FOR PRECIOUS DISPLAY

It's 6,000 miles and six weeks on the water for four semi-precious mega stones roughly 40 square feet apiece weighing in at just under one ton each. Valued for slightly less than $600.00 per square foot, the final price tag yields to its future owner a wealthy $20,000.00. That's if only one slab will do the job.

Is natural stone for the elite only? No. Today's technology for cutting stone is working its way around the world. More than 42 countries now find the United States a welcome market for natural stone surfaces in the form of slabs and tiles. Despite these rare examples, most stone slabs brought into this country are installed at comparable prices of other popular solid surface products.

Natural stone surfaces are increasingly the preferred natural building material for remodels and new construction.

Is natural stone durable? Granites have been heated to thousands of degrees Fahrenheit and buried beneath the earth for billions of years. Similarly, marbles and limestones were created hundreds of millions of years ago at lesser, yet still impressive, temperatures.

Literally blown out of quarries with dynamite, the blocks are cut and polished into slabs and tiles to be exported. Each piece is unique and bestows its own art.

The slabs and tiles are imported into the Bay Area, where they are inspected then trucked into stone yards and glamorous showrooms. These natural stone slabs are then hand selected by architects, designers, contractors and homeowners.

Dan Curtis, Architectural Representative for the company importing the stone, assists architects and designers in making appropriate material selections on larger projects. For example, many of the world famous casinos in Las Vegas are showcases for natural stone. One of these casinos is known to have the greatest square footage of natural stone installed in any one building in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

The semi-precious stones arriving are Graphic Feldspar, Labradorite, Ocean Jasper, and Petrified Wood. They will be on display among over two hundred other types of natural stones, and the public is invited to view these at the exquisite showrooms of Intertile Natural Stone Surfaces. Intertile's newest facility, with its state-of-the-art indoor crane system and design friendly examples of finished stone, is located at: 400 East Montague Expressway, in Milpitas, between 880 and 680.

See www.intertile.com for more information and locations.