Earlier in 2013 London Stone announced that we were opening a new showroom in South East London/Kent.  Were really pleased to say that the showroom is now open for business.  We have built a fantastic display and its a great place to go and view our complete range of natural stone.  The new showroom is located at Coolings Garden Centre in Knockholt.  The site we have taken on is large and that’s given us the freedom to build a really impressive display.  We have incorporated lots of steps and coping stones as we were very keen to show our client’s the endless possibilities of using natural stone.  We have also devoted a big area to display our sawn paving range because we know that client’s love to see large areas of paving.  The centre piece of the display is a large raised pool which is finished off with a black basalt coping stone.  If you are looking to use natural stone paving in any kind of project it really is worth coming down to see a London Stone showroom.  As well as our South East London showroom we also have a West London showroom which is located close to Heathrow airport.

If anyone needs to contact me or would like to arrange a visit to a London Stone showroom, dont hesitate to get in touch with me steven@londonstone.com

Steve Walley (Managing Director, London Stone)

London Stone have a real passion for natural stone.  One of natural stones greatest strengths is its versatility.  At first glance, stone seems to be a rigid material but with the right skills and tools, stone can be worked to create almost anything.  I am going to be  writing a weekly blog on our bespoke stone department.  The blog will explain all the different aspects to our bespoke stone operation and give readers a real insight into what it takes to succesfully supply bespoke natural stone.

Bespoke stone is nothing new in London.  Simply walk around the centre of our great capital and stone will be appparent everywhere.  Portland limestone is used extensively on prestigous buildings across London.  Buildings like St Pauls cathedral are constructed using Portland stone, as are many of the historical buildings across the city.  Portland is a relatively soft stone which makes it particualry good for intricate stone carving.

If you want to find stone when walking around the streets of London, simply look down.  Many of London’s streets are paved in sandstone, Yorkstone to be precise.  Also take a look at the grand entrance steps which sit at the front of the majority of Londons period buildings, they will all be faced in Yorkstone & Portland

Yorkstone & Portland stone are still used extensively acrosss London but we are also now seeing lots of different types of imported stones used in hard landscaping projects.  Chinese granite and basalt are particualry popular becauise of their strength and consistency.  We are also seeing hard European limestone paving used.  Examples of this can be seen in Brixton where the towns square was paved in the ultra hard Chandor French limestone.

The above information was to provide a background into natural stones use as a bespoke material.  I will be continuing this theme next week and will be discussing production methods of bespoke stone.  If anyone has any questions about the content raised in the blog please feel free to contact me

steven@londonstone.com

Steven Walley (Managing Director)

While much of the natural stone paving sold in Britain is imported, the British isles do have a diverse range of natural stone reserves.  Portland limestone and Welsh slate are revered across the world while the City of London is covered entirely in Yorkstone paving.  London Stone are passionate about our countries indigenous stones and have invested in machinery which allow us to cut and process homegrown stone.  Towards the end of 2012 we installed a wire saw at our processing plant.  A wire saw is used to create sawn paving from large, rough blocks of stone.   Buff Yorkstone is the most popular of our British stones and only todat we took a  delivery of 2 x 14 ton blocks of Yorkstone from a quarry in the north of England.  Yorkstone is not only popular as a paving material but is also used to create bullnose step treads, coping stones, pier caps and landing stones.

Since London Stone started our bespoke stone cutting operation we have started to create more and more waste stone.  Any stone company will produce waste.  It will usually come in the form of broken slabs, or rejects and seconds.  London Stone are now cutting and processing stone on a daily basis and this is creating in the region of 5 tons of stone waste every day.  The majority of this waste comes in the form of Yorkstone and Portland stone but we are also producing Indian sandstone waste as well as granite, slate and limestone.  Previously we had been getting rid of the waste by skip.  This was an expensive way to get rid of it and was also very unfriendly to the environment.  We invested in a concrete crusher which now crushes all of our stone waste.  We now sell this onto our clients at a reduced rate and they use it for patio sub bases.  Its only a small step but it is good to see material being recycled for a change.  The next focus is for us to reduce the amount of paper waste that we produce.

Not only have I taken the brave choice of installing my own Indian sandstone paving patio, I have also decided to publish a blog of my recent progress.  I must be crazy right?  Well, almost, I did used to be a landscape contractor and in the past I have installed thousands of metres of natural stone paving, so I was approaching the project with some previous experience.  I  had decided to use Autumn Brown Indian sandstone.  Autumn Brown hails from the Kota region of Northern India and along with Raj green and kandla grey is one of the hardest sandstones to be imported from India.

I was finally ready to apply the  pointing.  I decided to use Easyjoint to point the patio.  Easyjoint is a sweep in product which can be applied in all weather conditions, it goes rock solid after about 24 hours and can be installed very quickly.  I don think its suitable for all paving types but it certainly has its place in the paving world.  The finish provided by Easyjoint is granular so i would not recommend that it is used for sawn paving, however with riven Indian sandstone it looks ok.