Introducing the Azul Valverde grey limestone

The Azul Valverde is a dark grey colored limestone from Portugal. It is currently a fairly known grey limestone, mainly due to the beautiful color and appearance of this limestone, but also due to the lack of reliable competitors in the market. We introduce you to this limestone here:

Azul Valverde limestone background

The Azul Valverde is explored around the area of Valverde – Portugal, by few quarries with small dimension. The extraction is done by layers and each quarry presents several different variations of the same limestone. This area where the Azul Valverde is extracted is at the core of the main limestone extraction area in Portugal, where other major limestones such as the Moleanos or Moca Cream limestones are extracted.

Due to its beautiful dark grey color and lack of reliable competitor, the Azul Valverde enjoys a great international demand at present.

Azul Valverde limestone variations

It is a real challenge to describe the main variations of the Azul Valverde, mainly because there are too many. There are also today, several direct alternatives to the Azul Valverde that are sold as close alternatives, such as the Cadoico or the Azul Peniche. Each quarry presents a diverse range of variations, all available in small quantities. Despite this, we present below some of the variations currently being supplied.

Azul Valverde limestone finishings

This limestone is extremely versatile and can accept well a great range of finishings. And the interesting part is that many of these finishings maintain the original color of the Azul Valverde. On the picture below, you can see some of the most common finishings of this limestone, but there are many more, such as the Polished, Bush-hammered, Flamed, to mention a few.

To find out more details about the most common finishing used for this limestone, you can check our article about the Azul Valverde surface finishings.

Azul Valverde limestone markets

The Azul Valverde is a limestone with a well-established demand and market worldwide. Despite having limited availability, this limestone keeps growing on the international market, which raises serious questions about its future sustainability. Nonetheless, we present here some of the most important markets for this limestone:

– China: This market imports large amounts of blocks, for transformation into slabs for the domestic market

– USA: This is a major standard tile consumer and importer of Azul Valverde limestone

– North of Europe: There is considerable demand in countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands and others for dark colored stones, which includes the Azul Valverde

– Middle East: Has seen a rise in demand for this kind of limestone, mostly to combine with light beige limestones on exterior cladding applications

Azul Valverde limestone applications

The Azul Valverde is not the hardest of limestones, if compared to similar limestones. Taking this into consideration, there are specific applications where this limestone should not be used, or used with care and attention.

But despite these limitations, there is widespread use of this limestone on a diversity of applications such as interior flooring, coverings, bath design, etc. If applied on exteriors, it is highly recommended that the limestone is protected with some type of sealant, and if possible that it has a specific finishing to be used outside.

For more information about the wonderful Azul Valverde limestone, feel free to contact us at any time.