Granite & Marble Cladding Contractor in Jeddah

Choosing the fixing system

The fixing method follows the height of the elevation, the size and weight of each panel, the exposure and the wall behind it. For a worked example of a mechanical system on a government building, see Finishing a Government Institution: The Institute of Public Administration Project. In outline:

Whichever system is chosen, external stone fixings should be stainless steel: carbon steel rusts, swells and stains the stone. The fixing design should be prepared with calculations by a party accountable for it, and approved by the consultant before any panel is cut.

Stone, finish and what goes wrong

Granite is dense and absorbs little water; marble is softer, more porous and reacts to acids. That is why granite is the usual external choice and marble mostly stays inside. Finish matters too: polished stone can be slippery when wet, so honed or flamed finishes are common on steps and entrances. The defects seen most often:

• Staining in marble or pale stone. Moisture, rust from carbon-steel fixings, or grey cement adhesive showing through. Use stainless fixings, an adhesive matched to the stone and a dry background.
• Cracked panels. Usually a point load from a badly set anchor, panels wedged tight with no movement gap, or a flawed slab that was not rejected on delivery.
• Stained or failed joints. Sealant that stains porous stone, a joint too narrow for the movement, or sealant applied to dirty or damp edges. Test the sealant on the actual stone first.
• Shade and vein mismatch. Panels from different blocks or batches. Order from one source, lay the panels out dry and number them before fixing.

Movement, set-out and the interfaces

Stone and structure move at different rates with temperature. The large day-to-night swings in Riyadh, and the humidity and salt in Jeddah, make that a design input, not a detail to sort out on site.

• Cladding movement joints line up with the structure's movement joints, and stone never bridges them.
• Set out from a datum, with panel and joint positions on shop drawings, including corners, openings and returns.
• Keep the joint widths the design shows, then seal with a backing rod and a sealant sized to the joint.
• Agree the interfaces early: roof edges and parapets (Roof Treatment & Waterproofing), window and door reveals (Doors & Windows Installation) and wash terrazzo bases (Terrazzo Facade Cladding (Qasr Rukham)).
• Protect finished panels from later trades until handover.

What to inspect and put in the BOQ

Ask for these before stone is cut, and check them again on site:

• An approved sample of the stone, finish and joint width, plus a delivery inspection for chips, cracks and dimensional errors.
• A fixing design with calculations, stainless steel fixings and the anchor type for each substrate.
• Anchor pull-out tests in the actual structure where the specification requires them, before production fixing starts.
• Shop drawings showing panel layout, numbering and joint positions.
• Inspection of fixings before they are covered, recorded per elevation.
• Spare panels from the same batch, cut and stored, for future repairs.

For real external stone scopes, see Institute of Public Administration (external granite cladding with a mechanical system), Safwa Tower (external granite decoration and minaret cladding) and Prince Sultan University of Engineering (cladding and facades). For the stone-versus-terrazzo choice, read Terrazzo vs Granite Cladding: Which Is Right for Your Facade?.