Materials That Age Well — and What You Need to Know Before Choosing Them

At Michael Robert Construction, we truly appreciate the beauty of natural materials.  Although we understand (and love!) the technology and practicality of maintenance free and engineered products for particular uses in the home, when it comes to architectural design, natural materials are hard to imitate convincingly.  There are a few materials in particular that we find are used in almost every renovation or new construction we take on: hardwood flooring, marble and copper.

HARDWOOD FLOORS

With hardwood floors, graining, knots and color variation are just a few features that make them beautiful.  Although oak is the most prevalently used flooring material in our area, there are dozens of other domestic and exotic hardwoods to choose from.  Like many natural products, wood is affected by weather.  Floorboards will expand and contract with seasons, and most noticeably with changes in humidity.  To help alleviate changes, interior spaces should be properly conditioned with humidity control.  Also, with the trend for wide plank floors, it’s important to remember that the wider the floor board, the more likely spaces are to open up with shrinking.

MARBLE IN KITCHENS, BATHROOMS AND EXTERIORS

Marble is a stunning natural material.  Both stately and tranquil, and no two pieces are ever identical.  It’s a fan favorite for home design because it is such a versatile stone. While commonly thought of being used as countertops, there are plenty of ways to use marble in home design. From kitchens to basements, marble can be used in literally every room of the house. And it can be used in exterior features too such as exterior fireplaces to create a timeless elegance.

Marble is porous and comparatively soft, and it takes two different kinds of mark that are worth keeping apart. Staining is absorption — oil, wine, anything with pigment soaking into the pores — and sealing slows it down. Etching is a chemical reaction: lemon, vinegar, tomato and many cleaning products dissolve a little of the surface and leave a dull spot where the polish was. A sealer does not prevent etching, and a honed finish hides it far better than a polished one, which is the decision to make before the slab is cut rather than after. Some marks are worth living with and some are not; a soft overall patina on a kitchen island reads as age, while a ring etched into a polished vanity top reads as damage. Choose the finish for the room, and know which of the two you are accepting.

COPPER AS AN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN ELEMENT

Architectural design values copper, and it has for a long time. The metal does not just keep its beauty over time, but improves with age. Architectural copper today is used in roofing systems, flashings and copings, rain gutters and downspouts and various other design elements.

When thinking of copper, the color of a shiny new penny may come to mind first.  Although at installation copper is bright and polished, within a few weeks it quickly oxidizes to rich brown tones.  Copper reacts to temperature and natural gasses and elements in the atmosphere – both inside and outside of the home.   While heavy moisture in the air speeds the patina process, in dryer climates it could take a couple decades to copper to age to the green color we see on the Statue of Liberty.  Patina patterns form to the unique reactive experience each piece of copper has to its elements.  While treatments to keep copper shiny are available, the aging process can also be sped up through the use of chemical products.