The Beauty of Natural Stone

Natural stone means natural variation! Please remember that natural stone paving is a processed natural product and therefore has unique and intrinsic elements, markings, features, patterns, hues and tones within the stone that makes each slab distinct. This is the essential characteristic that natural stone offers and what makes it so special, and why it works so well in landscaping and garden design. Each stone is entirely unique, and within each paving pack there is natural variation of each stone. When these individual unique slabs are blended and laid together, you get a tapestry of harmonious, but different slabs. And this natural relationship between the slabs is what gives stone paving its essential charm and beauty.

If you are looking for more uniformity and control of colours and patterns, then porcelain paving or concrete paving might be more what you want.

Light, Weather & Colouring

Natural stone will appear differently in varied lighting conditions, so in bright sunshine versus cloud your patio will have a different appearance. Likewise, the angle of the sun will also change the appearance of your paving. The biggest difference in appearance will be wet versus dry stone. Stone is porous, and therefore, rainfall will penetrate the stone, making it darker and making colours and pigments in the stone appear more vivid. These changes in the appearance are also part of the character you are buying into when you choose stone paving for your patio. It is a natural product, and it is a dynamic canvas that reflects the weather and lighting conditions as they change.

Laying Advice

To install and lay stone patio paving slabs, you'll need to do the following steps:

1. Measure up and mark out your patio - ensure you calculate both 1) area in square metres (m2)  and 2) the fall (slope) required for your drainage plan.
2. Dig out the patio area to create the substrate (220 -230 mm depth).
3. Lay the sub-base of MOT Type-1 hardcore (compacted & 150 mm depth).
4. Ensure you mix and blend the various paving packs to make sure the patio has a blended look, as pack to pack can vary in hue/colour distribution, so the packs need mixing up to avoid possible colour banding when they are laid.
5. Coat the slabs' underside with priming slurry to improve their bond and help prevent moisture transfer. As stone is porous, priming slurry will help protect the slabs from moisture transfer and capillary action from beneath the slabs.
6. Trowel-in and lay a bedding course of mortar mix (50 mm depth) immediately prior to laying each slab.
7. Lay the paving slabs on to the mortar bed and tamp down. Ensure you leave the desired joint spacing between the slabs and the slabs are “level” to the fall.
8. Leave to set for 24 hours, so the mortar mix can cure enough for you to walk on the slabs.
9. Fill the joints between the paving (pointing) with jointing compound.
10. Optional: protect your paving by sealing the slabs with a purpose made sealant (natural finish or colour enhancing).

To calculate the areas of paving in square-metres (m2), the amount of sub-base hardcore or the amount of sand and cement you'll need for the mortar mix bedding course, please refer to our paving calculators.

For the full step-by-step guide with videos for each step, see our How to Lay Patio Paving Slabs article.

Care & Maintenance

Stone is a porous material and contains tiny capillaries and micro-fissures throughout its structure. Consequently, stone paving is susceptible to water-based chemical erosion (acidic corrosion), physical erosion (frost action), and from staining from waterborne grime, salts and other mineral and particulate deposits. Therefore, as the UK has high winter humidity (generally 80-90%) and damp conditions are the norm, we recommend that you help protect and elongate the life of your paving by sealing the slabs against the water/damp based issues. Our impregnating sealers are designed to enter the capillaries and micro-fissures in the slabs, blocking those spaces to prevent water entering the paving.

1. Natural finish sealer
2. Colour enhancing sealer

In addition to sealing the slabs, we recommend ensuring you brush away leaves, dirt and other detritus regularly, especially in the autumn and winter when leaves, twigs, seeds and other windfall materials are likely to fall on your patio. If left on your paving, especially if damp, and worse still, allowed to rot down and become mulch-like, your paving will almost certainly acquire brown stains from the release of tannins from the windfall materials (think a used tea bag left on a kitchen counter for a model of what will happen).

As well as brushing off dirt and windfall materials, give your patio a hose down with water every so often. Use a low-pressure hose or keep any jet-wash far enough away from the slabs to ensure you don't damage them with the high-pressure water jet. For more stubborn stains and the build-up of grime, we recommend using a specialist non-acidic patio cleaner that will help lift out the dirt and grime.