Stone Initiatives can provide objective and independent Expert Witness services related to the selection, installation and use of stone products and related infrastructure. 

As Stone Initiatives is a NATA Quality Accredited testing laboratory, our testing is backed up an externally audited quality assurance system that provides added confidence in court. 

Stone Initiatives has provided expert reports for litigation related to:

• Building façade failures
• Commercial and residential stone installation failures
• Disputes related to the quality of supplied stone products
• Slip/fall accidents

The principal has over 20 years experience in materials testing and failure analysis. Stone Initiatives can assist you in your litigation issues by providing a clear, comprehensive and concise Expert Witness report.    Our experience has extended across Australia and the Asian region. 

Like all building materials, dimension stone is subject to failure through improper use, installation or maintenance.  Whether it is the failure of  stone in historic buildings (see right) or the premature and dramatic failure of newly laid stone tiles, the identification of the cause of such failures is important to avoid recurrence of the problem. 

A failure to understand the properties of the materials being used - individually and in combination has resulted in this unsightly failure that developed within a year of the tiles being laid.  The investigation determined that the failure was caused by the use of a damp thick sand and cement mortar bed as a base for this water-sensitive tile along with inappropriate cleaning practices.

 
To effectively correct these problems, the investigation needs to take into account more than the failure itself. Failures, such as the salt affected brick wall shown below are the result of a complex interaction between the substrate, coatings and the environment including soil, rainfall and drainage.  To determine the cause and develop the correct rectification method, the investigation must cover all aspects of construction and service life.

Some failures are just unsightly, such as the the granite facade shown on the left.  The pattern that can be seen on the stone surface is not graffiti, but a representation of the adhesive on the rear of the stone.  In this case, the concrete structure was  actively drawing saline water from the soil and the adhesive used to fix the panels allowed the transfer of the salt from the concrete backing into the stone; the salt crystallised near the stone surface and caused permanent damage by micro-cracking of  the stone along grain boundaries. 

Failures are sometimes related to structural failure of the bedding or anchorage system (as above).

Some failures can be catastrophic - the images on the right and below show a failure where a 5kg fragment of limestone that fell nine storeys to the pavement of a busy city street.   The investigation showed that the failure was caused by the expansion of carbon steel anchors used to fix the stone elements.   Pollutants and biological growth visible on the fracture face showed that the fracture had developed over many years before the failure occurred.