The Coolest Countertop Rock!
Pyrolav Enammeled Lava Stone is maybe the coolest stone project we’ve ever installed. We can’t say that ‘we manufactured,’ because this special product is quarried and manufactured in Italy. We send them a template file, and they custom fabricate and apply the rich red and extremely durable enamel. The stone is then crated up for it’s airplane journey across the ocean and to our shop.
This particular countertop was going in through the backside of the customer’s home which was perched on the side of a hill. Our whole team watched while a crane operator boomed an A-Frame over the home and gently set the still crated countertop on the deck. This project is one of those projects that we will always remember. The home was meticulously designed, the workmanship on the Pyrolav was excellent, and the install went really well. Plus, without jobs like that, a business maybe would never really do their due diligence on whether or not their insurance coverage is really adequate 🙂
The journey from quarry to finished countertop is more interesting though. The manufacturing process is actually quite amazing: The Stone is hand quarried in the Nugere Crater in France, Each piece is selected based on the natural cracks in the rock, and then is carefully extracted and sawn into slabs of varying thicknesses. From there, the slabs make there way to another manufacturing center where digital CNC saws and routers create precise shapes of each custom order, ensuring a perfect fit when the get to their sites all over the world.
Sometimes the product gets installed at this point, in it’s raw lavastone form, but more often than not, the job specifications include a stunning enamel coating, which provides the signature Pyrolav look. There are 10 individual stages are involved in this enamelling process, from high-pressure washing to remove any remaining impurities, to extracting finished enamelled items from the kilns. Enamelling is an art that can only be carried out by a true craftsman, which only enhances the material’s unique character.
At CNG Stone, we get to work with raw stone slabs every day and make custom countertops and other building surfaces. Every now and then though, we get to work with materials that are even more rare and unique, and it really was a pleasure to work on this special project.
If you are in the market for something absolutely one of a kind, this stone is worth a look. It is multiple times more expensive than your typical granite or engineered quartz, but that’s a function of the workmanship, uniqueness and exclusivity of the product.
If you want to learn a little bit more about Pyrolav, come chat with us, and also, check out the Pyrolav website for more info about the product and the process.
