Why Calacatta Marble Is So Expensive | So Expensive | Business Insider
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- Опубликовано: 4 май 2024
- Michelangelo's famous "David" sculpture was carved out of marble. The iconic material has been used for centuries by artists and designers alike. And calacatta is one of the world's most expensive types of marble. It’s more than double the price of Carrara marble, yet mined in the same mountains. But the key to calacatta's price is its rarity.
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Why Calacatta Marble Is So Expensive | So Expensive | Business Insider
Imagine cutting and moving a block of marble the size required for "David" and moving it to Michelangelo in his time. Now that is mind-blowing.
imagine building a few pyramids 4000 years before that
Ain’t that crazy! People are genuinely so uneducated that we don’t even think about those things and just how crazy that is!
You do realize there are marble deposits all over the world it isn't something that is specific to one region, some regions are known for their marble deposits like china, spain, india, and italy, and they likely didn't have to climb mountains back when this stuff wasn't being harvested to suit the needs of a 7 billion populous (World wide).
It was probably found in huge boulders back then all over the place by these mountains.
@@FunSkipping No, India's famed Makrana marble comes from quarries like this.
@@cheysheefel7584 and the fact it would take us hundreds of years nowadays to build the pyramids and some say it's not even possible. They did it all in a lifetime
This Series could report about any product now considering how everything became expensive.
“Why gas is so expensive” would be interesting, but depressing
Have it covered in one video titled: Why Is Everything So Expensive
"why air is so expensive"
@@parsaledm don't they have the "So Expensive" Marathon videos?
Why is bread so expensive lol
Something tells me 95% of the people who have calacatta countertops wouldn't be able to tell the different between theirs and 4 other white marble counters if held side by side. Like to rich people enjoy being scammed or is it just a flex? Because getting "Calacatta Gold" looks like the pieces they would normally deem unworthy of selling but some people are dumb enough to eat that shit up at a higher price so why not sell it to them as "an exclusive luxury item"
100% truth. That gold mark looks nasty, not desirable, but that's the genius of marketing. Instead of throwing away a few pieces, they profit many times more from them than the other regular flawless inventory.
Rich people can afford to be scammed :)
Don’t be a hater, just because your not in the position to afford stuff like this
@@craigalchin272 You’re, not your
@@craigalchin272 We're happy to be in a positioned to not be scammed. You can literally buy the same looking product for much cheaper. These slabs are for materialistic people that have lost sense with reality
As an estimator at a countertop company I can confirm people pay absurd prices for Calacatta Gold, having done an estimate recently where the material alone was $22k for a single slab.
Wow, were they paying for just one slab total or more? That’s absurd.
@@IdesofMarch223 Just the price of 1 slab was $22k the whole job was over $150k.
that's true!
we just to pay $15,000 per slab back on 2007.
RUSSIANS LOVE THEM.
@@josehernandez-kl5yn hey I don’t LOVE calacutta….
@@IdesofMarch223 yes that's absurd to us. To them, it's an hour of works wage.
Can’t help but appreciate Sergio’s passion. His comment on how meticulous they are about the sealing process because a crack may turn black from catching dirt if used as flooring…even when the marble is out of their hands, he still cares about the value of it.
Screw sergio
@@TheMaleNurse777 No you.
I had a job at a marble and quartz slab company and did everything in the video other than the extraction process. I cut slabs, sealed and polished and it was a really cool job. Amazing process from start to finish. Unfortunately I had a serious lack of training and was just let loose to run machines that consistently broke down daily and nobody around who could fix them. I unfortunately was eventually fired because I was forced to run the machines in manual mode which vacuum suction the blocks to pick them up and stack them after they are finished and when suction cups failed I would inevitably drop slabs and shatter them. If that place had better management and decent equipment I would still be there today and would have no plans to leave. If you ever get the opportunity to get a job doing that stuff you should jump on it bc it's so cool. Now I'm a locomotive mechanic and have good management...quite the change in career
Quite a story
@@Janken_Pro yea...
I mean obviously if your now a heavy mechanic why wouldn't you press them to hire a maintenance tech or have them pay you to maintain and fix I would have pressed and kept pressing and kept record
Nice that it worked out
Did you learn to fix locomotives on the job?
Stuff like this is always incredibly fascinating because there's so much knowledge that is just passed from one person to the other and could be traced back to the very first person that discovered it and that's always been amazing to me
Wow u gave me a new perspective
Literally talking to my wife about that same thought like it blows my mind that a species can learn to cut rocks off the side of a mountain with a blade made out of diamonds and water i guess we are pretty amazing after all
Yeah. I agree
Sadly chances are humanity had much more knowledge WAY before this "first person" you refer to. We were probably wiped at least 12 thousand years ago. We might be learning and discovering all over again and in our own new ways.
@@RobbyBabes Not true, child. Humanity has been around for over 100,000 years. Probably even longer. Don't spread misinformation if you don't know what you're talking about.
I work with Calacatta marble but on a smaller scale. I’m a tile setter and there’s been projects where I’ve worked with Calacatta, had to spend almost $100 on a diamond tipped blade for my wet saw so the cuts come out clean and don’t chip the marble. These tiles were retailed at $600 a box and there only a quantity of 4 per box and the dimensions are 12x24. Scary material to work with when you keep the value in mind 😭💯
Lots of pressure not to f-up, yeah?
Better make that shower perfect boi
Can we just appreciate the art on the crane at 0:43
it’s not even a good surface for a countertop that’s what’s crazy about it. i looked into buying a counter and prices and it stains the easiest, chips easily, looks pretty but there are knock off surfaces that look identical and don’t crack when you put a hot pan on them. marble is soft which makes it great for statues, not countertops.
"This step ensures that the marble has no flaws" except the mayor flaw of being filled with a man-made plastic.
Marble is porous. Sad that we have to fill it with plastic for everyday use. How ironic!
Haha I said ew when they said, polyester resin
What exactly does it change for you? Why the pain? Lmao
It’s the only thing you can put on it .
I had some black marble fitted and some of them break in the places they've glued during the cutting, it's shocking!
As an interior designer, this marble is very much overused to the point where i can’t appreciate the value anymore 😂
Humans can survive without marble. Nobody needs it, its not even a necessity. Marble is completely pointless.
I fabricate and install it so imagine how I feel... Lol
I used to load slabs on the carts to go get cut for counter tops
I'm a bit more of dark smoke slate kind of man
Many are fake - like the print the pattern on the surface
"It pollutes the drinking water for locals and experts say, if they don't stop, the problems even get worse. But the customers don't care."
Yeah, humans pretty much explained in two sentences.
it DOESNT pollute anything...thats STORIES of frustrated italians
Sad, but true
I bet this quarry pays enough taxes to run the entire city
The fall of The Roman Empire. Could be. Ju know? 🤣
Its not the job of the customers to care, its the job of the producers
As a marmor worker... Just don't use Calacatta for exterior use or countertop. It's a marble so anything acid will "attack" it (like rain / vinegar / lemon / tomato sauce) and the beautiful polish will disapear for a granular touch (but only where acid stayed). AND it will always be "dirty". Even if you wash it directly after a bad use, some time after, it will have stains of what you prepared on it. Same goes for cutting on it, it will make cavity. And hot plate will cause slits.
Same goes for every marble and limestones (exceptions do exist but yes 99% of marble won't like it)
Thank you labelling practical problems from it's use, this was super helpful to know
I by no mean a professional in this field of work and my question may sound dumb but isn't the marble coated with resin/epoxy during the imperfections filling process? Does the coating get scraped away during the smoothing process?
@@Lawrence94 It depends of the marble and the quarry, so not every marble is coated in Epoxy.
But do not cut on or prepare raw food on epoxy surfaces, transfer between Epoxy and your food can happen. And even if it "protects" the stone, after some uses and wash, the Epoxy will "disappear". So if the problem of acid on it isn't in the first few years, it will happen after :)
Sorry if my response is not well written, english is not my first language
what is the best material for a countertop?
@@Pepsi-Mann21 You can use granit, that's generally a safe (and natural) choice. Then you can use quartz composite (Brand like Compac / Diresco in Europe) or Dekton (extremly hard material).
It's not mentioned clearly, part of the reason why Calacatta is so expensive is that these quarries are owned by a very small group of families or organizations.
lol, classic omission
You mean if the quarries belong to the government, marble would be way cheaper…😂😂😂😂
Calacatta is expensive because there is lots of people willing to pay the price to have it …
I understand that marble is expensive and beautiful, but man I am just thinking what the first humans who discovered the mountains were thinking when they saw this mysterious weird looking mountain. I also curious about how it look back then.
I'm in Turkey and I literally hiked a mountain made if white, black, and red marble. From the outside it gets dirty so it isn't pure, shining polished marble. It just looks like you are walking and climbing on a dirty, slippery, white rock.
I saw this quarry in Italy few months ago. Coming from Finland I first thought it was snow! The mountain isn't that high and it starts at sea level basicly so after i saw these blocks in industrial site i knew I was in Carrara :D That was a good memory from trip that was otherwise so stressful
Absolutely beautiful material… I’ve done a lot of tile jobs with this, sometimes it’ll break, but the end results are worth the extra work
Same did 40000 tiles took me a year
This is soooo cool! A marble mountain. This is going to sound crazy but I obviously knew marble was a rock, but I never knew it came from this! How crazy.
Same
marble is basically limestone heated, limestone is ancient hot sea bed, and the ehat come from volcanism.
yet i find a less cool thing, i visited vietnam, and they litteraly raze their pretties marble mountain (the one like in ha long bay) for sell statue and marble stuff. i'm not opposed to mining, but i prefer they dig a hole instead that raze mountain :x
and archeologist find that roman were using water mill saw tools for cut slice of marble for plate their building.
I've always wondered myself.
@@phlegmony Plate tonics
Same
I remember seeing miles of marble when I was travelling through India, it was quite an incredible sight.
Man... We Indians thought it was Calcutta mines 😂
Bro Indian makrana marble way better then this you should have search for that in marbles it has highest Calcium count
@@ajazrander6391 keep dreaming.
@@ajazrander6391 What’s good in India has been taken by the British already.
Uneducated people think like that not others
See indian supremacy we always find someone indian around
Used to be a real estate agent and most people (millennials include) still want it for kitchen countertops.
Cheers from San Diego California
Makes sense, easy on the eyes and minimalistic while not being boring.
I understand, it looks so exquisite
Engineered quartz is a more affordable and all around better option with the same final product.
Most people aren't picky about marble types
@@tylerkent5251 it's like lab-made diamonds. there will always be people who prefer the real thing, and engineered quartz does have a few disadvantages over real marble
That marble cutting w the water is so satisfying
Best everything comes out of italy..
Cars..Clothes..Gold..Food..Leather..list goes on
I was lucky to to see these mountains and quarries this fall when our flight to Pisa got transformed to Genova and we drove by in bus. Immediately I recognized this white carrara marble as i saw a document earlier this year of production. Really cool plaze and must be a precious for locals.
Interesting to see this contrasted with the video on Carrara Marble from a year ago
As a tile Setter who often works with marble in the past, this was very interesting, however nowadays it is faux marble porcelain which is kind of a shame
I have seen bathrooms done in this marble it's the most beautiful craftsmanship I have seen! The bath that was made couldn't find any flaw and my colleagues and I where speechless!!
Those mountains look gorgeous. That's a lot of marble.
It really makes me wonder how was all that originated and changing over the centuries...
Sometimes, we can find a vein with a different color, that makes it more expensive: the red, white-pink or literrally green marble! The white marble is the most common, with the black one!
Well said! I am also here to learn how to invest after listening to a lady on tv talk about the importance of investing and how she made 7 figure in 3 month, somehow the video taught me nothing and left me even more confused, I'm a newbie and I'm open to ideas on how to invest for retirement
@@rajeshupadhyay5683
lookup Priscilla Dearmin-Turner, this is her name online, she's now the real investment prodigy since the crash and have help me recovered my loses
Financial management is a crucial topic that most tend to shy away from, and ends up haunting them in the near future
Investment now will be wise but the truth is investing on your own will be a high risk. I think it will be best to get a professional👌
@@lezliewhicker8450Thank you, Going through her profile in her webpage, she smashed all her state certificate and accreditation🙏
I work with these plates, most of time I'm cutting them using a waterjet cutter. I used to work on hand polishing the edges but the waterjet is more fun.
In future you get TB,SILICOSIS,COPD(LUNG FIBROSIS).Ware a FACE MASK in your workplace. ⚰🇮🇳🙏
@@swarupadhikari3198 the waterjet is in a closed box with ventilation.
The water prevents most dust formation and the ventilation takes care of the rest 😉
Beautiful marble
Thanks for sharing
My favorite is the marble with the color flaws…delicious and stunning. I want all the marble! Ha ha! Beautiful.
The entire series is just "It's rare and takes time to work with".
Yeah, supply and demand. Thanks Business expert.
Well done for pointing this out, you're so clever. What did you expect, for it be to magic? It's still interesting to see, some of these things I wasn't aware of.
I'll admit most ultra-expensive things are just scams/for boasting in all honesty.
I mean, yeah obviously we know the answer is going to be either "it's rare, takes a lot of work, or both" but it's about seeing the actual process behind it and realising *what* exactly they do that makes it rare/difficult and thus expensive.
Or in the case of Japanese things, just take a normal thing and add 100s of process and quality checks to make it expensive
@@hariharansivan2585 For the record, that's kinda why those Japanese things are so high quality.
very succinct. The ability to sum up well in very few words is a dying talent. not sarcasm.
As an Indian and a Bengali, at first glance I thought I read Calcutta! 😂
Yeah, same mistaken for me
I use to work for a local trash company. Filled three trucks to total just over 36 ton! That was my PR! Informative Video! Well Done 👍
Hard to imagine that people from the past cutting these without the help of power tools and then transporting huge chunks of these.
I wanna see them cut it.
In Alabama our state’s stone is Sylacauga Marble, it has been called the world’s whitest marble and has been mined for over 160 years. It’s interesting to see how Marble is mined in different parts of the world 🌎
THIS IS CONTENT 💯🔥
Excellent short documentary.
0:07 his loud Italian gesture shows how mad he is over marble cracking haha 🤌
It is beautiful, but I don’t know if I would pay that much for it.
i'd certainly pay for that if i was rich enough, if the price of my house ran at 100's of thousands of dollars then i wouldn't mind splurgin 10-50k$ on a kitchen counter top.
I work for a company that produces engineered quartz stone. We make many versions of Calacattas. They’re stronger and require less maintenance than natural stone. On top of that, they’re waaaaayyyyy more affordable.
@@tylerkent5251 may I know price ?
Ha you poor useless people.. my floors are made of this material... I dont know why how people can live poor
@@freelancepear87kakkoka11 Its just polished stone.
I mistook the word for Indian City Calcutta.!!🤣😁🙄🙋🏻♂️🕎♎
Me too
Finished product is gorgeous
This stone is true beauty 💓
someone wanted to argue with me up and down about diamonds but industrial grade diamond drills are used to free the marble from the mountain. Diamond drills, bits, etc...are still standard in work like this. They're not up the side of a mountain with lasers quite yet.
Argue what about diamonds?
their intrinsic value and so on.
@@let_uslunch8884 Well that usually has to do with jewelry grade diamonds, which are pretty worthless if not for all the hype. But, on the plus side, diamond mining for the jewelry grade stuff also yields large quantities of the industrial grade stuff, ensuring it remains at least somewhat affordable. Diamond grit tools are of course top notch for pretty much anything involving stone or metal and definitely have intrinsic value in their usefulness.
It's rare like diamonds, which explains why there are hundreds of thousands of jewelry stores across the world full of diamonds.
hahaha nice one
The irony is that diamonds aren't rare.
That block of marble stone itselft is beautiful enough to put anywhere, infront of a big bank's bulding or in a living room
Straight off the bat when the block cracked and I saw the classic Italian hand gestures from the dude up top I pissed myself laughing. Amazing stuff.
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Couple years back my jobs owners had large portions of their mansions replaced with marble. Not sure if it was this type but I know what they spent so probably. I’d be happy just to own a small house and garden
My quartz lookalike seems to be doing just fine tyvm
That marble mountain is pretty cool.
Insane, there won't be any mountains left in this place
my favorite series :D
1: It's marble
2: it's from Italy
3: tons of labour and machinery
4: processing said marble and importing it to markets overseas
I can't wait to see videos like this for valuable lunar blocks
Thank you for using metric tones :)
Always confusing when American productions say just "ton" never know what that means
That's good I agree, you noticed the tendency of Americans to weight things in lbs too, things like aircraft carriers, once it gets a certain weight stop using such a small measurement. Saying it weights 500000000 lbs doesn't mean anything to me
@@jackjohnson6884 absolutely, my native language isn't English either so if they just say something like 3 quarters of an inch or 250 foot pounds of torque my eyes just glaze over cause it means nothing to me and I can't visualize it
Was looking for an alternative to all the plastic that's used and so disheartened to know that polyester, a known carcinogen, is also used on this beautiful marble!
Don’t eat the polyester and you’ll be fine
Make me a list of 10 things that are known to NOT be carcinogens. Go.
Bless the Lord. This Channel is Amazing.
You should make a video on Makrana marbel (it's a haritage marbel) and it shine like a white gold
Imagine this quarry is in China
or India. Imagine how much of this video would be about environmental damage and protest from locals.
🧟♀️
It’s incredible how we split mountain into small block. And it’s weird knowing one day it will forever disappear
Sadly the landscape pays the price for being excavated. All that'll be left is a weirdly shaped shell.
These miners. They will rock you.
I have Cararra Calcatta in my kitchen and it looks so wonderful. Yes, it costs alot more than the normal marble or stone but after its finish, its totally worth it
Mother Nature is just so unbelievable. I kind of think it’s so shallow to cut through the mountain of marble for vanity purposes.
...We cut through these stones and turn them into home furnishings to appreciate mother nature, or the vanity of which you speak of. If not this way, you wouldn't even know that this rock existed.
@@TheBanjoShowOfficial The amount of stone taken is quite alarming.
@@allisonle8596 there are locals that are upset bc eventually the future generation wont see the mountains anymore. it used to be round and curve now its geometric and square
"You think nothing is going to happen, but then the block cracked."
Is that really so weird? I mean, come on, it's not a slab of solid iron... and you just dropped it like that with no cushion..
Yeah it doesn’t seem they are being very careful at the extraction faze
that part is weird to me too, if it's so expensive, why not have a crane to slowly drop it down? or any other heavy machinery to slowly bring it down rather than just drop and break it
Plus they dropped it on sharp rocks. And marble is porous... the cracking was expected.
@@conradgardner3757 I think he's referring to the process of extracting it from the mountain rather than it breaking in transport.
5:18 Yoo, Toyota GR Yaris in the background!
Nice information👌
I like how they slather some cheap resin over the surface to fill in cracks and defects, like this resin is going to LAST, all resins and glues turn color, get brittle and fail, especially with exposure to sun, UV light. Mable stains easily, I would not use it for a kitchen counter- fired porcelan tile is much better
Using Polyester resin to polish marble has been an accepted method for 50 years now..
those are not the top of the line slabs for sure
to each his own
It’s saddening to think that the mountain is awfully exploited and the natural resources cannot be replaced at all
Not really, there is plenty of mountains out there and the ones that are worth exploiting in such a way are very few
@@marcocelotto3058 really. This cannot be replaced ever and you say thete is plenty out there. You are part of the problem
@@uskok4636 i understand where you are coming from but before they found marble in it that was just another mountain. I don't want to sound to cynical but mountains aren't an endangered specie and i don't see much harm in exploiting those that us human have a particular interest in.
Amazing
I’m getting that in my shop where I do business transactions for good luck 🍀
I haven't watched the video yet but judging by the other So Expensive videos, I'm going to guess:
The marble is extracted by tribal artisans from the endangered marble tree, who struggle every day because of government regulations and climate change threatening the natural habitat of marble.
That marble looking nice but the price holy
What an original comment !
Wonderful
It’s a nice feeling picking out and having a beautiful countertop installed it’s definitely luxurious
didn’t they do a segment on this same mine a year ago? i remember watching this on yt already.
What is her accent? She says "mau-en" instead of mountain
Was wondering if I was the only one
I afctuqlly use this for the backsplash of my kitchen. Just Bought 2 slabs of 2mx3m. The final choice was either calacatta or pegasus white marbles
Saw the thumbnail
Had to say that's a beautiful specimen
The Calcatta gold, looks like a rust stain. People are dumb.
keep living in poverty, stay strong !
Mount-ins? Or mountains 🤷🏾♂️
Not even uh T.
I wonder how big the mountain was in 1986? Any pictures of before and after 86? Would be neat to see how much has been removed in my life time.
Probably unessary and bumb
But where the construction cushion to stop from breaking
I just like that stuff they also have nice smooth glass light reflexes shapes when people try to curve some pieces to have shapes .
well
+1 315
515
4439
I lost a lot to bearish’ markt, how can get in touch with Rowland
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So how much is a cube so I can start practice on my statue carving?
Very interesting
Is shipping cost included in that $10k slab?
I wish to make my whole house out of it.
Goodluck with the earthquake.
How much do you make yearly cause that would cost millions of dollars
@@thefoundingtitanerenyeager2345 I can't. I'm a poor student. It's that kind of wishes that may never come true. But feels good to think about.
I wonder : How far human can go to justify his behaviour towards things ( mostly believing that such things SHOULD be tagged expensive ) and i realised nature never really acknowledged much to anything, neither humans or its biased beliefs. And maybe, somewhere, Nature blames itself for creating such highly intelligent organisms, aka - Human Being, that, is destroying itself and the others around them.
First of all nature didn’t create any human beings. We actually came from apes and evolved thereafter. But all living things eventually came from the Big Bang which was ultimately 1000 times stronger than any supernova. Oh and for reference a supernova has the power of 10 suns combined.
Nice video.
If you live near Connecticut or New York, I suggest you going to Fame Luxury Stone. They have the best looking Carrara, calacatta, and statuario marble.
Imagine the environmental damage done locally and then when shipped around the world. We should be sourcing materials locally.
Source me some marble locally.
Mountains not Mounains! I had to stop 40 seconds into this video because it was almost the same to me as the word Moist is to others!! 😆
A lot of people in the industry do not punctuate "t"
That's the proper pronunciation, the t is silent
@@giantalaskanworm719 you must be joking
@@benjaminjohnson2510 in america it is
I would like another mount - ann please
Calacatta fontinelli is my favourite one.
So comforting to be poor. I don't have to worry about what kinda marble to use in my kitchen, what kinda porcelain to buy or what grade of kobe beef to eat :D
Drops massive 20 ton Rock 10 meters. It Breaks.
*Surprise Pikachu Face*
"HOW COULD YOU BREAK IT" You can't be serious
probably a " structure test", i doubt is an obvious error
I guess it's supposed to be really durable and not break at those falls?? I was surprised too, I can't imagine it not breaking ever or not being at least structurally damaged. Must be hella strong
Beautiful stone it will be a sad day when its all eventually used up... marble has been used for thousands of years..
Calacatta means Limestone. Our city Calcutta (Kolkata) got its name from this word, because there used to be a huge trade of limestone by the Portuguese traders in the 16th century.