Marble wall had to be sunk into wood floor
Giovanni La Fauci, owner of Stone Age Marble, says Andrew Beckerman’s request to build a slender wall of bianco Carrara marble in his kitchen was unusual and challenging.
“This was totally different for us, a unique request, and it was exciting to do,” said La Fauci.
“It’s very unlikely that people do this kind of application, but Andrew is an architect and has a different perspective.”
The wall is two centimetres thick but very strong because it is dense material. La Fauci had to make special preparations.
“For stability, rather than having the wall sitting on the floor, we had to sink it into the actual floor by three-quarters of an inch. The carpenter cut a channel for us.”
Then the owner chose a striato olympico countertop, “a natural beauty from Italy with layers created over the years … not a standard material.
Typically, the wall would go up first, before the counter was installed, but in this case, the main counter was done first. “There would be very little space to get in once the wall was up — and because it is quite high,” La Fauci said. “This marble is not light. It’s not like plastic.”
La Fauci, who comes from Calabria in southern Italy and formed his company here 20 years ago, noted Stone Age was the first marble-fabrication shop in Victoria.
While all marble will stain with time, even with a sealer on it, it’s all part of the beauty, he said. “That is why people love Italy. The marble gets its own patina, so everything is old but still beautiful.”