>> It's been here a long time this
Marble, 500 million years.
All of this has been here,
waiting for your use.
More than 80 years of
quarrying has taken out course after
course of one of the most beautiful building materials
in the world, Georgia Marble.
Channeling machines and 16 pound sledgehammers
carve out 20 ton blocks of
the same raw material used in
the facades of some of
the most distinguished buildings in America.
For centuries, marble has
stood as the keystone of quality building.
Today, marble still offers its qualities of
permanence and distinction to
architects of vision in a new form,
wetting marbles beauty with
the strength and construction economies
of reinforced concrete.
In marble-faced precast panels.
What is a marble faced precast panel?
Where it counts most, it is marble.
Thin slabs of marble beauty,
diamond sod out of 20 ton blocks.
These thin slabs are surfaced with
a sand rubbed or fine abrasive finish.
That's the marble faced part.
The precast panel part goes behind the marble,
a backing of steel reinforced concrete that supports
the marble facings in
place on the most modern of buildings.
Selected marble facings,
matching an approved range of samples,
are cut to your precise dimensions.
You get the coloring and the size
you want down to the fraction.
At carefully calculated spots,
anchor holes are drilled into
the backs of each marble unit.
A final inspection checks dimensions and finish.
Each piece is marked with
sharp drawing identification numbers,
so the precast panel manufacturer
who will make the panels will know where they belong.
The marble is ready now.
To get the details of what goes
behind the marble facing units.
Let's take a close look at
a mock up demonstration of
the steps involved in making strong,
durable, fast erecting marble faced panels.
First, the casting bed and the form are cleaned,
thoroughly cleaned to preserve
this fine sand rubbed finish of the marble.
The form must be made exactly level,
exactly flat, and exactly the right dimensions.
The marble units already are.
Remember the holes in the back of the marble.
Stainless steel anchors fit into them.
These anchors are a backup safety measure,
mechanically bonding the marble to
the concrete panel with fingers of steel.
Each panel is a part of your architectural idea,
and each piece of marble must
fill its place in precise proportion.
Uniform joints are insured by the use
of non staining removable spacer strips.
A minimum joint of 3/16 of an inch provides
room for a flexible weatherproof
caulking compound between units.
The marble itself is absolutely impervious to water.
As a matter of fact, that's one reason
the marble facing looks so good so long.
Its natural waterproof qualities
keep out rains and stains.
The joints also compensate
for expansion and contraction of the panel,
and so waterproof tape covers the back of
the joints to keep
concrete from flowing between the units.
Temperature changes from sub freezing to
scorching hot won't break
the bond between marble and concrete,
so long as specified joints
are kept flexible and water tight.
The panel behind the marble is made up
following normal reinforced concrete procedures.
In this mock up,
a deformed steel rod truss and
reinforcement mesh cage is set in place.
The panel is ready for the concrete.
The joints are sealed with tape.
The anchors are hooked into the marble.
Reinforcing steel rests on chairs with non staining feet.
The reinforcing rod trusses to control
panel warping are placed near
the anchoring fittings that will be cast into the panel.
Mesh, rods, and lifting fittings in
the edge for handling the panel complete the preparation.
Now the concrete can be placed.
In 24 hours, the concrete has cured enough for handling.
This demonstration panel is the simplest of designs,
but the design variations for
a marble faced precast panel
are limited only by your imagination.
The marble lies in perfect planes,
its joints precisely aligned and
ready for the final waterproofing of caulking,
stop and pointing when
the panels are in place on the building.
The marble facings are securely bonded to a rugged,
inexpensive panel of concrete,
a perfect combination of beauty and economy.
But this is more than a laboratory experiment.
Precast panel manufacturers have already taken
advantage of the perfected techniques
with striking practical results.
Marble faced precast panels are
going on the casting beds in more and more plants.
The same techniques developed in
the laboratory are in use on production lines,
casting many hundreds of square feet
of marble faced walls every day.
These handsome wall sections go together fast,
and today, accuracy and
speed means money in the construction business.
At this particular plant,
panels are fabricated for
a project demanding big sections,
two stories high and six inches thick,
seven eighths of an inch of marble backed up by
five and an eighth inches of
concrete reinforced with steel.
For optimum bond at
the interface of the marble and concrete,
a thoroughly tested, approved concrete mix
is selected and placed.
This concrete is vibrated into
complete contact with the reinforcement and the marble,
bonding the entire panel into one strong,
beautiful unit, ready to attach to the building frame.
The spacing strips are
removed from between the marble units,
and over 100 square feet of
marble faced wall is ready for cleaning and curing.
These precast panels, weighing over three tons,
are still precisely dimension
to tolerances of a 16th of an inch,
and this precision is achieved
in mass production quantities.
Protective covers are placed over
the panels for continued curing during storage.
The panels are ready for installation.
On the job site, the panels advantages stand out.
First of all, there is beauty.
Then there is speed of erection.
Each panel swings into place in a matter of minutes.
This means the other trades can begin their work sooner,
and so the building can be occupied sooner.
And that's just the beginning.
Once the buildings finished,
the advantages really begin to multiply.
Take fire resistance.
Marble-faced precast concrete panels
provide excellent protection.
Then there's the matter of interior temperatures.
Solid marble-faced panel walls form
a barrier to take the load
off heating and air conditioning equipment,
keeping the climate inside uniform and comfortable.
External noise reduction is another real advantage.
The traffic racket stays outside where it belongs.
Another contribution to speed.
The panels are aligned and secured to
the structural frame by
positive mechanical methods of bolting and welding.
Since these panels normally are structural members,
it is not always necessary to provide a backup wall.
Insulation and the finished interior wall surface
may be applied directly to the panel.
After erection, all joints are sealed.
It's a matter of filling each joint with
a resilient non staining calking stock,
applying it to a constant depth and
pointing with an approved non staining calking material.
Now the entire wall is completely watertight.
It hasn't been long
since marble faced precast panels
began dressing the American scene.
Many new structures are now
occupied or nearing completion.
With good reason, here is an economical system that
makes marble available in a variety of sizes and shapes.
Marble for facings of columns, spandrel beams,
mullions, soppets, arches, and,
of course, curtain wall applications.
It's a system that provides
almost unlimited design flexibility.
The myriad of colors and
markings are as varied as they are beautiful.
The combination of patterns and
veinings is close to infinite.
And yet all of these qualities,
along with the dignity,
the durability, and ageless protection,
the low maintenance factors that are inherent in marble
now are available at cost
comparable with other quality materials.
This exciting new application of
Georgia marble in precast facings,
proven and now available for you and for
all the imaginative practitioners
of the architectural art.