The two stones of volcanic Lazio
The region produced a hard, dense, nearly black basalt and a lighter, more open lava stone. The first paved roads; the second built walls, doorframes, steps and floors.
Basaltina is the second. It is a warm mid gray with a fine even texture, softer to work and more forgiving to cut than the road stone, which is exactly why it became an architectural material rather than a paving one. Basalt tile deals with the rock type in general.
Why it is specified rather than just sold
Basaltina is one of a small number of stones that architects name directly in a specification, alongside travertine and Carrara, rather than asking for a category.
It earns that by being extremely consistent. A volcanic rock that cooled quickly has no bedding, no veining and no direction, so one piece looks like the next and a large elevation stays even. That is a rare property in natural stone and it is most of the reason the name travels.
Three finishes, three surfaces
Honed, bush hammered and chiseled make up this range, and all three are done with a tool rather than a chemical or a coating.
Honing grinds the face flat and even. Bush hammering strikes it with a pointed head and leaves a regular pocked texture. Chiseling cuts furrows across it. A stone with no soft layers and no veins takes all three cleanly, since there is nothing in it for a tool to follow or break away along.
Warm gray, which is unusual in a volcanic stone
Most basalt runs cool, from a blue-gray through to near black. Basaltina sits warmer, closer to a mid gray with a faint brown in it.
That warmth is what lets it sit with travertine and limestone, which is how it is most often used in Italian work: a gray volcanic stone against a cream sedimentary one, both from the same part of the country.
It will take a polish and rarely gets one
Nothing in this range is polished, and that is a decision rather than a limitation of the stone.
A polish exists to bring up depth in crystals and contrast in veining. Basaltina has neither, so polishing it produces a flat gray reflection and throws away the one thing the stone offers, which is an even surface you can put a texture into. The three finishes here are all working with the material instead of against it.
12x24 and the thickness
12x24 throughout, at 5/8 and 3/8 inch.
Five eighths is a heavy figure for an interior tile and it follows what the stone is for. The thicker pieces are the ones intended to take traffic; the 3/8 inch sits at the ordinary stone tile standard. At a threshold the difference between them is enough to need resolving underneath.
Where Basaltina goes
A floor, an entry, a stair, a courtyard, a wall where the bush hammered or chiseled texture is the point, and a fireplace surround.
It is the stone for a project that wants gray with no pattern in it at all, which almost nothing else offers. Gray tile and mosaic takes the color into every other material.
