Decorative stones of Slovakia – an overview and the quality assessment

Recently, the demand for natural building materials has increased, simultaneously with growing demand for natural raw materials, especially decorative and building stones. This paper provides an overview and the quality assessment of physical and mechanical properties of rock materials from main Slovak sites (deposits and occurrences) of decorative stones. The input data for the assessment have been achieved in previous geological surveys. Chosen physical and mechanical rock properties have been assessed according to technical standards STN 72 1800 and STN 72 1860. These technical standards determine the basic preconditions for the rock material, if the stone can be labelled as decorative or not. From 46 assessed localities, 8 sites (Lubeník, Silická Brezová, ierny Balog – Sihla, Dobro – Kera ovo, Sihla – Tlsty Javor, Sihla II., Divinka and Pova sky Chlmec – V ivák) are convenient to both technical standards and have been determined as the highest quality grade.