Calibrated natural stone paving has grown in popularity over the last couple of years. The majority of Indian Sandstone Paving now ariving in the UK is calibrated. Calibrated Sandstone Paving suits everybody involved in the supply chain. Suppliers like to supply calibrated stone because they can pack a much greater quantity of material into a container. Importers also like buying calibrated natural stone because they can fit bigger quantities in their containers which reduces transportation costs. Installers prefer to work with calibrated stone because its quicker to install and generally has a flatter surface than the standard 25-40mm thick stone. London Stone supply Reclaimed Yorkstone Paving and one of the biggest complaints we hear from our customers about Reclaimed Yorkstone Paving is the massive variation in thickness from slab to slab. Anybody who has worked with Reclaimed Yorkstone Paving will know that slabs can range from 40mm thick to 150mm thick. This is a real headache for the person who has to install the Yorkstone. An experienced installer will be able to get round this variation in thickness but it will add significant time to the job. London Stone have started to offer a calibrating service for reclaimed stone. The plan is to start calibrating all our reclaimed stone down to 50mm. This will make installation quicker and easier for the contractor and will also reduce our transportation costs. For more details on calibrated Reclaimed Yorkstone Paving please contact a member of our sales team.
London Stone are delighted to announce we will be moving our operation centre from its current address in Stanwell Moor. We are moving to a much bigger site in nearby Langley, which is very close to the M4 motorway. We are only moving the operation, our natural stone paving showroom will be staying at Vermuelens Garden Centre. The main reason for the move is that we have run out of space at our existing site which was starting to effect the smooth running of our operation. The new site has extensive outside space and a large building where we will be storing all of our Sawn Paving & interior natural stone tiles. We plan to begin the move in the second week of January and hope to have it complete by the end of February. This will mean that customers will no longer be able to collect stone paving from Vermuelens, however samples of stone, sealants, grouts and accessories will still be available to collect from Vermuelens. We will also be moving the stone cutting facilties to the new site as well as our stocks of Yorkstone Paving. We will be announcing further details closer to the time but if anybody has questions, dont hesitate to contact us.
Delivering natural stone paving is hard, heavy work for lorries. 2011 has been a tough year for London Stone because of ongoing maintenance issues with our vehicle fleet. Due to the heavy nature of delivering natural stone paving our lorries have required regular maintenance and repairs. This has resulted in lots of down time for our vehicles and has had a big impact on our ability to deliver our natural stone products to our customers. We have taken a big step towards resolving this problem by purchasing 2 brand new 32.00T delivery trucks. The new vehicles have four axles and are much more capable of standing up to the rigours of delivering heavy goods in the urban environment. The weight of our stone crates can vary enormously depending upon their contents. For example a crate of sawn Granite Paving is significantly heavier than a crate of natural Sandstone Paving. Some of the crates of stone we deliver can weigh well over a ton and when you have 15 of these on the back of a lorry it can have a signicant impact on the vehicle. The new trucks are capable of carrying 18 – 20 ton payloads and both trucks are fitted with brand new Atlas rear mounted cranes which can lift 1.6 tons at a full extension of 7.2 metres. This means that even heavy material like Slate Paving & Granite Paving can even be lifted to a full extension. Some of the pallets of Yorkstone Paving we lift are also up to a weight of 1.5 tons, so the new trucks are going to allow us to lift these heavy loads safely and at good distance.
Sawn Sandstone Paving has grown in popularity over the last 2 -3 years. This has been a positive move for the natural stone industry and has given consumers a much wider choice of materials. One negative development of Sawn Paving is that lots of incredibly soft sawn stones are popping up. Stones like teakwood and rainbow are extremely soft which in the past have always been used for carving and handycrafts are now being used for paving. While these stones look impressive they are in fact very soft and will weather very quickly. The main reason for their popularity is because they are extremely cheap. What people dont realise is that by the time they have factored in the cost of sealing the paving then the price is not as cheap as first thought. If you are planning to seal a patio then its important to use an impreganting sealant (unless you want a glossy, shiny patio). The best 2 products on the market to do this are Lithofin MN Stain Stop & Dry-treat Stain Proof. Another problem is that these cheap types of Sawn Paving will soak up copious amounts of sealant and customers will be lucky to get 5m2 coverage per litre. This is why its important to ask the right questions before you go ahead and purchase your natural stone paving. For example a hard stone like Raj Green Sandstone Paving which is less porous will need half as much sealant to cover the same area
Natural Stone Paving is supplied in a number of different sizes which gives endless design options. We are reguarly asked by our clients which pattern should be used. There are no hard and fast answers and it usually depends on the style you are trying to achieve. Generally if you are looking to create a traditional garden design then random patterns are the most effective way to achieve this style. Materials like Sandstone Paving and Slate Paving work well in traditional garden designs and can be laid in either three or four flag patterns. This is not to say that these types of Natural Stone cannot be laid in single sized patterns, people are trying to create individual outdoor spaces and just laying stone in a different pattern can really distinguish your garden from the rest. Fossil Mint Sandstone for example looks stunning when laid in stretcher bond pattern using 900×600 size.
On the other hand if you are trying to create a contemporary outdoor space it is generally accepted that using a single sized paving slab is the best way to achieve this. For contemporary designs Sawn Paving comes into its own. London Stone dont generally supply Sawn Paving in random sizes because most of our clients only buy single sizes. All the different Natural Stone Paving Patterns can be found on our website and if you need any further information about Natural Stone Patterns contact a member of our sales team