The stone of Luserna

Perfect for floors, window sills, interior and exterior furnishing elements of the highest quality: the Pietra di Luserna, famous for its shades and its resistance to atmospheric agents, has been and continues to be one of the protagonists among the most used materials in the Italian architecture.
Just to cite a noteworthy example: the roof of the Mole Antonelliana in Turin was developed with this material. But let’s find out more together.

What is the Luserna stone?

The Pietra di Luserna is an alpine rock of magmatic origin. Its transformations, both metamorphic and structural, took place between 130 and 65 million years ago.

The Luserna stone is a Gneiss, that is to say today a metamorphic rock of the lamellar type and is composed in particular of white mica, feldspar, quartz and green mica. Feldspar gives the stone a gray color and the other minerals give the stone different colors and shades.

To date, this stone, which generates a business developed globally, is appreciated and desired both for its characteristics and for the high quality of the product. Thanks to its great resistance to atmospheric agents, in fact, the Luserna stone is ideal both for coverings and for flooring, stairways, kitchen tops and outdoor furniture components.
Frequent uses in both civil and public construction are reflected in the creation of floors, walls, exterior and interior furnishings with different top finishes: natural, flamed, polished, honed, brushed and sandblasted.

Processing methods of the Luserna stone

Following the extraction of the raw material obtained in large slabs, the Luserna stone is processed according to its final use as there are multiple stone processes based on its use in the order.
First of all, there are different types of top finishing:

• If our aim is to use Pietra di Luserna for external finishes or flooring, what is needed is the natural surface. In this case it is possible to divide the stone block composed of various layers of different thickness and use the slabs to produce the blocks or squares that can be sawn with a rectangular or square section in order to obtain the stone with sawn edges.
  
• If, on the other hand, we are looking for a suitable flooring for indoors, it is possible to point to another version of the surface. The blocks of Pietra di Luserna are sawn into large slabs and subsequently flamed in order to make the surface more rustic while maintaining the regularity of the top. Flaming, however, is a particularly versatile process that allows for elegant finishes to be used also outdoors. The result of this process, in fact, is a highly sought-after surface with strong anti-slip characteristics to embellish outdoor flooring, sidewalks and gardens.
  
• Finally, if we want this stone to enrich kitchen tops, stairs or windowsills, we can focus on a flamed and brushed stone processing in order to make it smoother and more easily washable.

But how can we treat the Luserna stone?

As beautiful as it is delicate: if struck by small accidents, such as the action of oil or grease stains, the Luserna stone can be visibly damaged on an aesthetic level. However, it is important to know that there are remedies: it is possible to wash the stone always and only with soaps and neutral detergents. Even polishing must then be carried out with basic and never acid compounds in order to avoid damaging the aesthetics.

Extraction, laying and installation service: Vottero Riccardo between passion and tradition

The delicacy of the material provides, whatever its use, professionalism and experience. In the world of construction, one of the most important points of reference in the field is Vottero Riccardo, one of the most renowned retailers as well as an extractor and manufacturer. Thanks, in fact, to the concession of three quarries in Cuneo, the city in the heart of the Luserna stone, Vottero Riccardo has been the ideal partner for more than three generations for creations, processes and renovations with this stone as the primary subject. In the Vottero Riccardo quarries, the stone is extracted with extreme care to preserve all the characteristics of the stone as much as possible. To realize your most ambitious projects, we can only recommend Vottero Riccardo.