Stairs from Pokostovsky granite “Grey Ukraine”
The Church has always occupied an important and special place in the life of every Ukrainian. So it is to this day. The temple is a place where we can pay respect to God, thank for all the joys given to us and ask for our loved ones and for ourselves. Of course, each parish wants their Church to have an appropriate appearance and at the same time show the heritage of generations.
In the autumn of 2020, we had the honor and great pleasure to help in the implementation of the project of the entrance group from the Gray Ukraine granite of the Pokostovsky deposit. This is the Temple of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, in the picturesque village of Podgorodishche, not far from Lviv. The church is located on a high hill above the village. Probably at the highest point of the village. Interestingly, the Temple was built in the zero years of the last century. And the consecration was performed by His Eminence Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky in 1910. Therefore, the community decided that the entrance to this temple should correspond to its history. No other material, except natural stone, could harmoniously fit into this project.
The implementation of this input group was divided into several stages.
Design of granite steps
Shortly before inviting our specialists to take measurements, community representatives poured concrete stairs on their own. The staircase was implemented in the form of a “semicircle”. Under such conditions, there are two options for making granite steps:
- The first – radial steps 350 mm wide are installed on the front extreme side. The rest of the plane is lined with segmented granite tiles. The format of such a granite tile can be 300×300, 600×600, 600×300 mm, and the like. This option allows you to save on the cost of stone, on the thickness of granite slabs and reduces the cost of installation work.
- The second is the manufacture and installation of solid, large, massive elements. This option is more expensive in execution, because each piece of granite is made individually. The weight of each of the large parts ranged from 40 to 230 kg. But the advantage of such facing with natural stone is that the number of seams is minimized. Yes, and such stairs made of granite look much more beautiful and solid.
Thus, the second cladding option was chosen.
The next step in the definition was colors. Usually the facade of the temple has warm yellowish hues. In this case, the yellow granite of the Sofievsky deposit “Scythia Gold” could appear. It could be tied to the color of the door. The door is brown. This color harmonizes well with the Star of Ukraine or Didkovichi granite, as it is often called. Finally, the plinth is made of gray granite. Under the color of the plinth, it was decided to collect granite. We chose Gray Ukraine, granite from the Pokostovsky deposit.
The last step before production started was the production of templates. Since the future staircases from Ukrainian gray granite were supposed to be radial, our workers made patterns for each element. This was done in order to replicate the shape of the concrete. The chamfer was specified, the overhang of the step over the riser was calculated, and the like.
Production of steps from granite
After all the above manipulations, the workers of our production set to work. To fulfill such an order, a block of export-grade granite from the Pokostovsky deposit was purchased. Since almost half of the large parts had a width of more than 70 cm, the block had to be transported for sawing with rope plates. After that, the manufactured granite slabs were delivered to our workshop.
Every Sunday and on all holidays in the churches there is a large traffic of people. Among them are many elderly people and small children. In order for granite steps to be safe and non-slip, the surface of the stone was heat-treated. She (surface) has become wider. Only then did the production of large parts begin. The elements were first marked on the slabs according to the patterns. Then cut out. Each element that was supposed to be joined to each other was checked for compliance with thicknesses and chips. The end of such steps was made polished. The risers made of Gray Ukraine granite were completely polished, and in the joints the ends were cut at an angle of 45 degrees. Such an undercut is performed so that the riser segments, when laying granite, can change the angle and repeat the semicircular shape of the steps. It should be noted that the approaches were put on the object in the second turn. It is impossible to immediately guess the height of the riser until the granite staircase is mounted.
Installation of finished steps
When all the elements of the entrance group were made, they were loaded onto the pyramid. Such transportation protected the products from the threat of cracking. The unloading was carried out by the people of our company and members of the community of the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. In fact, such unloading, when some parts weigh more than 200 kg, should be carried out with the help of special equipment. After all, there is a high risk of injury.
First of all, the specialists of our company installed granite steps. Given the weight and some other points, such a natural stone cladding took them 3 working days. In places where there were some inaccuracies, work was carried out to eliminate them. Then we installed risers made of polished granite. This work took another 3 working days. At the final stage, all seams on the steps and risers were treated with grout to prevent moisture ingress and salt release.
We are grateful to the community of the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and especially to Father Vladimir for the great trust and honor to help in the implementation of such a project.
We also want to point out that for many years of work we have been manufacturing tetrapods and thrones.
Our company manufactures and supplies granite stairs to the cities of the CIS and Europe.
