Guides · Delivery

Who carries the stone top up, and who fits it

In short. In the stone trade the word «delivery» covers three different services at three different prices: the lorry that stops in the street, the piece brought inside, and the piece fitted and levelled. Which of the three you bought depends on what the order says, because the default rule in Italian law is the least convenient of them. And the measurement that decides everything is not the front door: it is the narrowest point of the route, to be surveyed before the slab is cut rather than on delivery day.

What does the word «delivery» actually cover?

Three very different things, and this is almost always where the misunderstanding starts.

Kerbside. The lorry arrives, opens, and the piece is set down on the pavement or stays on the bed. Beyond the front door it is the buyer’s problem. It is the cheapest form and, in the stone trade, also the most common.

To the room. Someone carries the piece into the flat or the premises. That takes people, equipment and time, and it is paid for.

Delivery and fitting. The piece arrives, is set on its base, levelled, sealed where needed, and the site is cleaned. Here whoever delivers also answers for the result.

Why it pays to know this in advance: in a sale involving carriage, article 1510 of the Italian civil code provides that failing any agreement or usage to the contrary the seller discharges the delivery obligation by handing the goods to the carrier or the forwarder, and that carriage costs fall on the buyer. In plain terms: without a written line, «delivered» can legitimately mean «loaded onto the lorry». That is not sharp practice by the supplier, it is the rule that applies when the parties say nothing else. So there is one line to insist on in the order, and it has to be explicit: how far the piece travels, who unloads it, who brings it inside, who fits it.

Who has to unload the lorry?

Nobody, unless it was agreed. On an ordinary carriage job the driver brings the goods to the address: he is not required to enter a courtyard, climb stairs, or handle a piece that needs two people and equipment. If the lorry has a tail lift, the tail lift puts the crate on the ground; from there on, someone is needed.

And it is not solved by calling four friends. For the manual handling of loads, Annex XXXIII of Italian Legislative Decree 81/2008 refers to the ISO 11228 series of standards and lists among the risk factors not only that the load is too heavy, but that it is bulky, hard to grasp and unstable: a slab is the worst case on all of those at once. There is no weight in kilograms above which a prohibition kicks in, and that is precisely the point: a two-hundred-kilo top does not divide into four people carrying fifty. It travels on edge, with suction cups, straps and trolleys, handled by people who do it for a living. The weight figures are in how much does a stone top weigh; what matters here is the practical consequence: unloading is a service, it has to be ordered as one, and it has a price.

What is an access survey, and when is it done?

It is the measurement of the route the piece has to travel, from the lorry to the point where it stops. It is done before cutting, not before delivering, because as long as the slab is whole the piece can still be designed to fit.

These are the measurements that count, in this order.

• The narrowest point of the whole route, not the front door. Often it is a column halfway down a corridor, a meter cabinet, a handrail.
• The landing, not the flight. A slab will almost always pass along the flight; the problem is turning it at the change of direction, and turning it needs the landing.
• The lift in two steps: first the length of the piece against the diagonal of the car, then the weight against the capacity on the plate. The binding limit is almost always the first.
• The clear height wherever the piece has to be tilted or raised on edge, especially under a staircase or a dropped ceiling.
• The clear width of doorways with the leaf removed, which is two or three centimetres more and sometimes enough.
• Where the lorry can stop: street width, restrictions, limited-traffic zones, the height of a carriage entrance or of an underground car park.

The survey also settles something invisible: whether the piece should be one or two. A seam planned on the vein is a design decision; a seam decided in a hurry because the piece will not go in is a makeshift, and it shows. Where to put a joint and how to make it disappear is covered in how long can a marble top be without seams.

What happens if the piece will not go in?

Four routes, in rising order of cost; the difference between the first and the last is only when the problem is discovered.

• Split it. Two pieces with a joint planned on the veining: the cleanest solution, but only available while the slab is still to be cut.
• Thin it down. A 20 mm top with a doubled visible edge reads as a 40 mm one, weighs half as much, and takes up less space as it passes.
• Bring it in from outside, with a ladder lift, a platform or a crane. You need an opening large enough and, almost always, a municipal authorisation to occupy the road where the vehicle is positioned: applied for days in advance, not on the morning itself.
• Make the piece again. The only route left once the top has been cut and polished, and it costs what a new piece costs, because it is one.

Who fits the top, and what difference it makes

Three recurring situations, with three different liabilities.

The maker fits it. This is the case on projects and on important pieces: the team that made the top brings it and sets it. Whoever sets it knows how the piece was conceived, where the fragile points are and how it has to be supported; and fitting is part of the obligation, so inspection and acceptance bear on the fitted result, not on a slab leaning against a wall.

The kitchen or furniture fitter fits it. That works well if the top arrives finished and if the base is his. The two things to agree in advance are the cutouts — sink, hob, taps — which are made in the workshop and not on site, and the type of support.

The builder or the client fits it. This is the riskiest route, and not because of the weight: because of stiffness. Stone has no tolerance for bending, so if the structure underneath gives, the top does not bend, it breaks. Two rules always apply: continuous support along the length and not only at the ends, and no rigid gluing to the frame, but elastic supports instead. The overhang and thickness limits are in how thick a marble table top has to be, and the case of a new top on an existing base in a stone top on the table you already have.

Who is liable if the piece arrives broken?

It depends where it broke, and Italian law is more precise about this than people expect. During carriage the carrier answers: article 1693 of the civil code makes the carrier liable for loss of and damage to the goods from the moment it receives them to the moment it hands them over, and leaves it one way out only — proving that the damage is due to a fortuitous event, to the nature or defects of the goods or their packaging, or to an act of the consignor or the consignee. The same article adds that if the carrier accepted the goods without reservations, the packaging is presumed to have had no apparent defects: one more reason for a stone crate to be properly built.

Then comes the moment that decides nearly everything, and it lasts a few minutes. Article 1698 provides that claims arising from the contract of carriage are extinguished once the consignee takes receipt of the goods without making reservations and pays what is due, except for wilful misconduct or gross negligence by the carrier, and except for claims for partial loss or for damage not detectable at handover; for those, the damage must be notified as soon as it is known and in any case within eight days of receipt. A reservation has no prescribed form: it only has to make the carrier aware that there is one and what it says. In practice: you do not sign a clean note on a crate with a stoved-in corner. You write down the anomaly, you photograph it, and then you open it.

If instead the piece breaks during fitting carried out by the seller, this is no longer a carriage question: fitting is part of the obligation and whoever performed it answers. What to look at in the half hour of the handover, and where the line runs between a defect and a feature of the stone, is the subject of a defect or a natural feature?.

What has to be ready on delivery day

A short list, and every line on it has cost somebody a day.

• The route clear and the floor protected. Nobody moves furniture with a slab in their hands.
• The base already assembled, in position and level. The top gets set down; it does not get held up while you wait.
• Room for the lorry, with a parking permit if the street needs one.
• Someone who can sign and who can write a reservation: not the first person who happens to be there.
• Power and water if any touching up, polishing or sealing is planned on site.
• Who takes the crate away. Packaging for a large top does not vanish on its own: put in the order who disposes of it.

How we work

Stoneform makes tables, tops and works in marble, onyx and natural stone. We buy blocks directly at the quarry and cut the slabs ourselves, in our own factory; when a stone we do not hold as a block is needed, we buy the slabs from importers we trust. Before cutting, every slab is examined against the light, to see what it is like inside before deciding where the cut goes. We do not use resin to reinforce slabs: on large surfaces a support helps, and the mesh on the back is in itself a good support.

On projects, fitting on site is part of the job: counters, tops and claddings are set by us, and the Contract page shows some of that work photographed during fitting, before the rooms were dressed. When the piece is bound for a home, the delivery terms — how far it travels, who unloads, who fits — are defined in the quotation, before cutting, together with the survey of the route.

On price: resellers apply a 35-50% mark-up on the maker’s price, buying stone direct saves a further 20% or so, and a 240 cm marble table costs around 3,800 euro — the price depends on size and finish, and smaller does not mean cheaper. The detail is in how much a made-to-measure marble table costs. The pieces are in the tables collection and among the works. On a hotel project the most valuable thing is time: products that are compliant, certified and delivered on schedule mean opening on time and a client who starts invoicing — the calendar is set out in when to order hotel furniture to open on time. Stoneform and Brianform are two divisions of the same company: it starts from a drawing or an idea, write to us.

Frequently asked questions

Is delivery to the room included in the price?

Only if the order says so. Under Italian law, article 1510 of the civil code provides that in a sale involving carriage, failing any agreement to the contrary, the seller discharges the delivery obligation by handing the goods to the carrier: «delivered» can mean loaded onto the lorry, not set down in your dining room.

Who has to unload the lorry?

Nobody, unless it was agreed. The driver on an ordinary carriage job is not obliged to bring the piece inside, and a stone top cannot be unloaded by two people by hand. Unloading is a service: order it, with a tail lift, with equipment, or with the team that will fit the piece.

Which measurement really matters on a staircase?

The landing, not the flight. A slab travels on edge and has to be rotated at every change of direction, and rotating it needs the landing. And what counts is the narrowest point of the whole route, not the front door.

Will the top fit in the lift?

Compare the length of the piece with the diagonal of the car first, then the weight with the capacity on the plate. The binding limit is almost always the dimension: a long top will not enter an ordinary building lift whatever its capacity.

The piece arrives chipped. What do I do before signing?

Write the reservation on the delivery note. Taking receipt without reservations and paying extinguishes the claim against the carrier, except for wilful misconduct or gross negligence and except for damage not detectable on handover, which must be notified within eight days of receipt.

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The legal references cited are articles 1510 (place of delivery in a sale), 1693 (the carrier’s liability for loss and damage) and 1698 (extinction of claims against the carrier) of the Italian civil code, with the eight-day deadline for damage not detectable on handover set by article 182 of the implementing provisions, and Annex XXXIII of Italian Legislative Decree 81/2008, which for the manual handling of loads refers to the ISO 11228 series without setting any limit in kilograms. Occupying the road to position a ladder lift or a platform requires a municipal authorisation, on terms and timescales that differ from one municipality to another. All of this is Italian law: outside Italy the carriage and acceptance rules differ, and the contract wording is what settles the question. This page describes general practice and legislation and replaces neither the contractual terms of an individual order nor legal advice. The monetary figures cited are orders of magnitude and are not a quotation.