The words of stone,
as the mason says them.

The traditional Jordanian and Palestinian method: the stone courses are laid first and the concrete is poured behind them, so the stone is part of the wall, not a skin on it. It needs all the thick pieces: quoins, jambs, lintels, sills and coping. Always 4 cm.

In the calculator: The calculator’s default: wall stone plus every piece, counted per linear metre.

The concrete or block wall is built first, then stone slabs are fixed onto it with mortar and wire anchors. Slabs only, meeting at the corners and framing the windows with no special pieces, so the total cost is clearly lower. The usual method in the Gulf at 3 cm; used in Jordan at 4 cm.

In the calculator: Choose cladding in the calculator: the wall area alone with waste, no pieces.

One horizontal row of stone on the facade. Stone is sold in fixed course heights (20, 25, 40, 50 cm), and the course is what turns a price per m² into a price per linear metre.

In the calculator: Pick the course height and the quantity converts between m² and lm by itself.

How thick the slab or piece is. 4 cm is the norm in Jordan for both methods, 3 cm for cladding in the Gulf. Thickness does not change the price per m², only how much a pallet holds and weighs (about 20 m² per pallet at 4 cm, 25 at 3 cm).

What is added to the net quantity for cutting at corners and openings and for pieces that break in transport and installation: 5% for plain walls, 7% for a typical villa, 10% for a facade with many corners and arches.

Straight off the saw: a flat face with faint cutting lines. The base for every other finish.

Ground until the saw marks disappear: smooth and matte, with no shine.

Ground to a full gloss, which deepens the color and brings out the veining. For interiors, floors and stairs; needs a dense stone.

Diamond brushes work the face into a soft orange-peel undulation with a low satin sheen and open pores. Feels like leather.

Abrasive brushes smooth the face and open its natural pits with soft edges, deepening the color slightly to a silky matte.

Grit blasted at pressure leaves an even, fine, sandpaper-like grain: slightly lighter and non-slip.

A toothed bush hammer pits the whole face: dense, even pits about 3 to 5 mm, shallow and flat, with no projection, no lines and no direction.

One step coarser than mattabeh: irregular pits and small chips about 5 to 8 mm, a little deeper, dense and random with no rows, on a face that stays flat. Between mattabeh and musamsam.

Short, fine, parallel chisel strokes in rows like sesame seeds, by hand or by machine (stugged). The classic Amman and Jerusalem facade finish.

Fine, closely spaced vertical grooves cut by machine, like corduroy. A light shadow in every groove.

Deep, wavy vertical furrows with broken crests, like ploughed earth. Wider and deeper than broached.

By hand with a point chisel: small, rough, irregular bites, each a shallow chip with broken edges, in loose staggered diagonal rows with flat stone showing between them, and a wide, uneven sawn margin around the stone. Low relief and a clearly hand-made look.

Split open on a guillotine to show its natural cleft: rough and irregular, flatter than rock-face.

By hand with hammer and pitching tool: a projecting rock boss in the middle of the stone with deep shadows, framed by a flat chiselled margin. Needs thicker stone.

Pieces are turned in a drum with grit and water: the edges round off and the face turns chalky and matte with an aged look.