1. Pyrolave's Volvic lavastone is unique 
  • Most lavastone in the world has erupted onto the planet’s surface and in doing so has picked up numerous impurities, air pockets, and stones etc.  If you try to glaze this inferior lava, the result is often a very high level of undesirable marks and errors in the finished product. 
  • Pyrolave owns the quarry at Volvic in France and controls its extraction, producing the best blocks for glazing in the world.  The reason Volvic Lavastone is unique is that the lava flow was trapped between two granite flows beneath the earth’s surface, and as such is very pure and very even in density. 
  • This consistency allows us to extract very large blocks (up to 2.8m x 1.2m) of stone suitable for glazing.  There will always be some variations in shade, crazing, and pigmentation. These variations are inherent with the glazed lava process, but by using pure Volvic lava this is kept to a bare minimum.

​2. State-of-the art manufacturing process 
  • Pyrolave’s large-scale investment in the finest CAD/CAM equipment means huge slabs of stone can be manipulated and shaped with a very high degree accuracy to virtually any design.

3. Massive kilns
  • Pyrolave’s kilns are enormous, the biggest in the business. They are computer controlled and achieve a very high degree of time and temperature accuracy. 
  • Maintaining precise temperature during firing is vital for achieving consistent results.  Even a 1 degree variation in firing will result in a slightly different hue and a different crazing effect. With Pyrolave’s large kilns, we can often fit your entire order into a single kiln to be fired in one go. This means a greater consistency of the finished product.
4. Exceptional quality control
  • Pyrolave's end-to-end quality control processes ensure the optimum mix of robotic handling of heavy work, and expert manual hand-finishing of every piece single piece before being placed in the kiln.
  • After final firing and cooling, each piece is thoroughly checked by our Quality Control department and will not be released unless it meets our high quality standards.

5. Enduring experience & expertise
  • Pyrolave is the world leader in glazed lava stone. Our quarry has been operating for over 200 years, and we have been glazing lava for more than 30 years.
  • The inimitable strength and deep lustre of our glazes have been developed through extensive research, and our colour research laboratory has developed over 6000 archived colours.

6. Expert packing and shipping​
  • Our packaging has been carefully developed with leading industry experts over many years.  We deliver thousands of crates of stone per year, all over the globe, with extremely low damage reports (less than 1%).