by The Pro Landscaper Team | 05 Mar 24 | Partner Content
When it comes to enhancing outdoor spaces, natural stone can add timeless beauty and functionality. However, to ensure the success of your landscaping projects, it’s crucial to consider three important factors when specifying natural stone.
1. Quality Assessment
Before selecting natural stone for outdoor use, it’s essential to assess its quality. Factors such as density, porosity, and resistance to weathering play a vital role in determining the stone’s durability and longevity in various weather conditions. Consulting with experts, such as Stoneworld, can help you understand the quality indicators of different natural stones, ensuring you choose the most suitable option for your project.
2. Suitability for the Environment
Every outdoor space has its unique environmental conditions, including exposure to sunlight, moisture, and foot traffic. When specifying natural stone, consider these factors to select a stone type that can withstand the specific climate and usage requirements of the area. At Stoneworld, we offer a diverse range of natural stones like limestone, granite, slate, and sandstone, each well-suited for different environments, ensuring your project remains pristine for years to come.
3. Maintenance and Care
To preserve the beauty and functionality of your outdoor space, prioritize maintenance considerations when specifying natural stone. Choose a stone variety that requires minimal upkeep and is easy to clean, especially in high-traffic areas or around pools. Rob Parker’s Best offers a range of stone care products designed for effective cleaning, sealing, and stain removal, helping you maintain the natural stone’s aesthetic appeal over time.
In conclusion, when specifying natural stone for outdoor projects, consider quality assessment, suitability for the environment, and maintenance needs. By consulting with professionals and making informed decisions, you can create stunning outdoor spaces that stand the test of time. For tailored advice and expert assistance, reach out to our knowledgeable team, ensuring the success of your landscaping projects.
by The Pro Landscaper Team | 21 Jul 23 | Domestic Landscaping, Garden Design, Partner Content
Creating a visually appealing and safe outdoor space requires attention to every detail, including the proper installation and design of stone step treads. These essential components not only ensure the functionality and longevity of your stairs but also contribute to the overall aesthetics of your landscape. In this article, we will explore the importance of correct installation and design techniques for stone step treads, allowing you to create stunning and durable steps, terraces, staircases and more, that stand the test of time.
Choosing the Right Step Treads
When it comes to stone step treads, selecting the right material is crucial. At Stoneworld, we offer Bullnosed step treads with a sawn joint edge, which brings several advantages over traditional hand-cut edges. By utilizing a sawn joint edge, we ensure that the joint width at the surface is consistent, making it easier to fill the joints with jointing compound and providing better support for the overhang. Our steps are also calibrated to ensure a uniform thickness, allowing for simple and easy installation and a safe, flat surface.
Tip: Use tape to cover joints and keep grout in until it cures.
Consider Gravity and Jointing Compound
When using stone paving slabs as step treads with an overhang, it’s essential to account for the force of gravity and the challenges it poses to jointing compounds. Traditional hand-cut edges can hinder the proper retention of jointing compound, as these edges are undercut and do not provide sufficient support for the compound – as in the example below, the gap will widen at the bottom. By opting for sawn edged step treads, you create a more secure environment where jointing compounds remain in the joints, minimizing maintenance issues.
“The Rustic Look” and Tumbled Paving Slabs
If you desire a more rustic appearance for your outdoor space, we also offer tumbled paving slabs. These slabs have undergone a tumbling process that results in a more vertical edge compared to hand-cut edges. The edge of a tumbled slab is softened and looks closer to a naturally fettled edge than an undercut sharp edge.
Correct Installation Techniques
To ensure the correct installation of stone step treads, a few essential steps should be followed. First, ensure a solid and level base for the steps, as any inconsistencies may compromise the stability of the treads. Additionally, use a high-quality mortar or adhesive to securely bond the treads to the base, providing a strong foundation for the staircase. Finally, pay attention to the alignment and spacing of the treads, ensuring uniformity and a seamless appearance.
Maintaining and Preserving the Beauty
Proper maintenance is vital to preserve the beauty and functionality of your stone step treads. Regular cleaning, sweeping, and occasional reapplication of jointing compound will help keep the treads in optimal condition. It’s essential to address any cracks or damage promptly to prevent further deterioration and ensure the safety of those using the steps.
Your Perfect Stone Step Treads
The correct installation and design of stone step treads are essential for creating a visually striking and safe outdoor space. By choosing high-quality materials, such as Bullnosed step treads with a sawn joint edge, you can ensure the longevity and stability of your staircase or natural stone steps. Understanding the challenges posed by gravity and jointing compounds, along with following proper installation techniques, will result in a functional and aesthetically pleasing set of steps. Whether you prefer a modern or rustic look.
All of our pool copings can be supplied as step treads. You can find our full range of natural stone pool copings here
Stoneworld offers a range of options to meet your needs, ensuring that your stone step treads stand strong and add value to your outdoor oasis for years to come. Get in touch today on (01844) 279274 or email us at sales@stoneworld.co.uk
by The Pro Landscaper Team | 13 Apr 23 | Commercial Landscaping, Domestic Landscaping, Garden Design, Partner Content, Promotion, Topics
As expert natural stone and porcelain suppliers and masons, we work with landscapers and garden designers to help them create unique and beautiful projects which use the best possible products. Often, we are asked questions around stone and porcelain, and how we can help ensure successful outcomes. We’ve summarised our four most common questions in this article, with some short insights into each.
Thickness
When it comes to natural stone and porcelain, there are a wide varieties of thickness available in the market, and which is right for which project can depend on a large number of factors. For example, the use for the stone; will it be in a high traffic area? Will it be subject to more intense changes in weather such as frequent heavy frosts? These can seem like small concerns, where a thinner slab can offer enough resistance and strength over time, however the lifetime of the slab will still be a consideration. While a 22mm riven or sawn sandstone slab can be laid, the impact of external forces can lead to defects such as cracking with freeze thaw cycles or extensive use can mean customers’ projects experiencing issues much sooner than initially thought. In these cases, we always suggest caution and a thicker slab, such as 25-35mm, in order to limit the possibility of disaster as much as possible. Nobody wants their brand new patio buckling after just a year or two.
Finishing touches/cutting porcelain
We are often asked about our cutting and finishing capabilities, in particular with porcelain. Often, it can be difficult to perfectly cut and finish on site with the equipment on hand, and also time consuming. This extra burden is something we hear about regularly, with tiles shattering or “pinging”, creating excess wastage and of course, the time and effort involved when this becomes an arduous process. Finding a company which can properly profile porcelain is front of mind in many conversations we have, and luckily at Stoneworld we are equipped with machinery such as our waterjet which is designed for this task. One example might be curved steps in a garden project, in which the task of creating the drawing and the product can be handed over to the supplier, allowing you to simply receive the finished product. Utilising an external business to cut and profile stone and porcelain means you can focus on the project, safe in the knowledge that the product itself is precision cut to perfectly fit the specifications of your customers.
Design sketches & drawings
Similar to the questions around finishing mentioned above, we also hear from landscapers looking for more detailed and accurate sketches and drawings, particularly when customers request bespoke features such as radius steps or copings. This can be difficult to do without CAD software, and also time consuming. The importance of creating the right design means that errors can lead to costly mistakes in fabrication, whether on site or with your supplier, costing you time and money. Every year, we help large numbers of landscapers create accurate and precise drawings for projects, from whole project, to bespoke features and designs, meaning that the stone can be fabricated correctly and match the demands of the end user.
Combining CAD drawings and purpose built technology, means that landscapers can approach suppliers such as Stoneworld with confidence.
Price
Of course, this list would not be complete without questions around price. Prices will vary from one supplier to another, and of course getting the best deal is important to any contractor. But what considerations impact price, and when does a cost become an investment? We have already discussed thickness; where thinner slabs will present good value for money, yet can often prove a false economy when taking into account factors that impact the quality and lifetime of your customers’ projects. Additionally, the quality of the product will impact the final outcome visually, with one example being unwelcome colour variation in sandstones such as Raj Blend, where a higher quality slab has more consistent colouring and is more aesthetically pleasing. The quality of supply and range of formats available will also feed into the issues around the versatility and durability already mentioned.
There are other aspects of service will also impact price. These can include relationships that suppliers have with quarries, allowing for shorter lead times, and more flexibility with bespoke sizes and orders.
At Stoneworld, we pay particular attention to quality, and providing consistent and beautiful natural stone which will withstand whatever is thrown at it. Where we are asked about questions of pricing and the considerations in this article, we always offer advice and products which will help you keep your customers happy for years to come.
Visit stoneworld.co.uk or email us to learn more at sales@stoneworld.co.uk
