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I received the information packet on Shirestone a few days ago and here is my synopsis. All information is paraphrased and no gaurauntee of accuracy is made. This is a crushed stone based product that is poured/formed/stained and sealed . The photos they have are pretty good looking but not having seen it in person I am skeptical. They seam to be 2 years or so into the formal marketing of Shirestone (maybe 4-6yrs since the developed the process) and in the process of developing a dealer network. Materials and process protocol are only available to dealers who must sign non-disclosure statements.
Off the top of my head here are the pro/cons that I see
Pros:
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Seamless and can be done in any shape
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Claims to never need re-sealing (I know, I know… groans from the congregation)
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Pots staright from the stove don’t hurt it (I saw a demo with a fire pot in the middle of an outdoor table)
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Non-porous (after sealing of course)
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Colors are unlimited
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Textured finishes
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Inlaid items
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Seamless sinks/undermount/dropins
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This product is in it’s infancy and could be big
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looks like stone, seems like SS, wears like quartz
thats it for now I am sure there are others.
Cons (some of these will sound familiar)
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this product is in it’s infancy and could be the next abestos or ssv or delorian (sp)
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Textured finishes, not sure about the breadth of the market for non dead flat products
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onsite fabrication is probably messy, could be managed of course but you are using forms, mud etc..
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Uses a sealer
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There is a VERY large initial product order (presumably to weed out DIY’s)(enough material for @ 1500 sq ft)
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Proprietary raw materials=no competition
Thats it for now. If anyone has use this material or deals with shops that have, chime in. I am interested in your perspectives.
Matt Jecker developed it,he is the owner of Stone Craft LLC in MO. http://www.stonecraftdesigns.com/galleries/index.html He has done some wild stuff with concrete, by the way they go out of there way to distance themselves from this being percieved as concrete (lighter, stiffer, not brittle etc..)
All of this info is public knowledge so what do you think?
Chris
Here’s another one I’ve never heard of:
Chris,
We brought this up on another thread once a while back.
Joe has seen it, I don’t think he was impressed. I’m intrigued and will check it out, but I’m not making any plans to buy yet.The dealers I’ve talked to seem to think it’s good, but they don’t know how long it will hold up. If I can find the thread on another forum, I will post it here.
Tom
Chris,
There is a good K&B Forum here.
You weill have to register to get into the contractors part of the forum, then do a search for shirestone.
Find the search result which points to post 1 of Is anyone selling Shirestone Then start there.
An interesting observation about who they will target for fabrication. One person thought the tile guys might be right.This brings up a point: If we make room on SS forums for estone, and Andy has a spot for laminate, how soon before we consider space for concrete and other poured materials? How about Pyrolave?
Tom
Looks like countertops but doesn’t seem to be the same tooling required for solid surface and Shirestone. Am I wrong?
Tom M wrote
Similar to concrete. Why?Tom
Tom:
I was not exaggerating when I said previously that this stuff looks like something your brother-in-law cooked up during a drunken weekend bender. It looks like he went to Home Depot, bought a bag of redi-mix cement, colored it and smeared it all over the countertops with a trowel in big ugly swirls.
I’m starting to think who am I to tell customers what they should buy? If this stuff takes off, maybe I’ll start Joe’s Recycled Lawn Clipping Countertop Product. It isn’t sanitary, it has no finish or strength, it falls off in clumps but it is biodegradeable, but most importantly, the design community loves it. According to every magazine article, if you don’t own my specially compressed lawn clipping slab tops, you are soooo out of it and your neighbors, the Jonse’s, are laughing at you for not keeping up with them.
Yeah, that’s the ticket,
Joe
Joe, I think I’ve beat you to the punch with my recycled plastic grocery bag countertops. We’ll also be offering the double bag countertop version.
Joe,
Can i be your first dealer? Just let me know where to send the check. You need to add an oversees component though to really make it the next hot thing.
Chris
Joe:
It looks like he went to Home
Depot, bought a bag of redi-mix cement, colored it and smeared it all
over the countertops with a trowel in big ugly swirls.C’mon, don’t be subtle. Tell us how you really feel.
I wonder if you seal it with hydrolic cement. Or that thick paint goop.
Tom
Chris,
What does it cost? Just curious because redimix isn’t that expensive. Can you make the product smooth if you trowel it on smooth?
Hi All,
“Shire” Stone? I really do have to visit this site more often. Is it manufactured in the “Shire”? If Gandalf designed it Im in! How would one get Frodo to mail a sample for testing?
Best Regards,
Lenny
Andy,
I don’t know if it can be troweled flat, I mean cement can be troweled “flat”,… but it isn’t really FLAT.As to the cost. The initial order would work out to about $18sq/ft for raw materials. That would include training for 3 people, materials for 1500sq/ft, marketing slicks, a tshirt, a flying logoed monkey etc……
Lenny,
One might call the office 417-725-0909 and see if they are willing to have the material tested by an independant (or not so independant) third party. I may be in Orlando for the IBS, If we make it I will check the stuff out in person and see if it really does look like King Kong’s dried up boogies. Or if it has the “wow” factor they say.
Chris
Finally got to see Shirestone at The IBS. The high gloss did not appeal to me at all. The satin looked like a really good fake slate stone or something. They did not have a sample that was finished flat enough for my liking, for use as a kitchen countertop( I’m sure it can be done, I just did not see it in the displays)
Looks like a really usefull niche item, maybe you large market guys could use it. However, for any kind of buy-in I’ll pass.
Makes a really cool mantle, though. (Although there were several companies at the show that had equally good looking mantles/corbels/beams made out of FOAM!!!.)
Chris
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