Sawn rainbow sandstone

[rolysatch]

hi

i'm about to lay my patio with some sawn rainbow sandstone. someone on a different forum when asking about sealers has said not to lay it but hasn't expanded on the comment.

are there any issues with this product i should be aware of? regarding laying, usage, staining that's different from normal sandstone slabs?

is got the machined edges, what's the best product for grouting the small joints, any ideas?

any advice appreciated

thanks in advance

[seanandruby]

There has been a few posts regarding rainbow. I think Deegan posted back in May sometime and also another guy actually did his patio with them and his wife was delighted, he posted photo's but not sure when except it was this year. Wrong time of year to be sealing anyways.

[rolysatch]

thanks i'll do a search.

i'm wondering if i can lay it, clean it in the spring and then seal it. it's wet already, so the other alternative is to clean it, bring it in the house to dry out, put one coat of sealer on and lay it and top up the sealer in the spring.

[seanandruby]

Personally i've never sealed anything. I would just lay them and if you still want to seal them then warm weather is needed. Roger the resident expert on cleaning and sealing will no doubt let you know what's best...R&APressurewashing.

[lutonlagerlout]

rainbow is soft as shite
its the stone locals carve into ornaments by hand
that is its biggest drawback
LLL

[RAPressureWashing]

Far to late in the year now to seal successfully, Lay the paving let the winter throw it's worst at it, then come late April give it a deep clean, allow it to dry thoroughly then seal, for the type of paving you have you want a colour enhancing impregnating sealer, one coat is usually enough, job done.

[danstan]

Hi

Rainbow Sandstone is extremely porous, so much so that many Indian suppliers i have met are amazed that its so readily available on the UK market for external use.

Sealing will obviously help but my advise would be to go for something more durable especially given the fact it isn't cheap.

If you are attracted by plenty of colour, maybe look at sawn and honed Camel Dust (or many other marketing names it is given by UK importers)

regards

Dan

[rolysatch]

Far to late in the year now to seal successfully, Lay the paving let the winter throw it's worst at it, then come late April give it a deep clean, allow it to dry thoroughly then seal, for the type of paving you have you want a colour enhancing impregnating sealer, one coat is usually enough, job done.

thanks Roger, that's very helpful

[GB_Groundworks]

gaffer told me about some rainbow laid in a kitchen that had worn down by something like 15mm in a year

stay well away if i were you

[rolysatch]

Thanks guys for all the advice. I've already bought the sandstone, and got an amazing deal of 45m2 of new 30mm thick bradstone pattern set for £340. So I'm going to take a chance on it and lay it as its really beautiful stone.

I'm happy to wait until the summer to seal it but my major worry is that I really wanted to get at least get 1 coat of some sort of sealer on it prior to laying as I'm a competent diyer but worried about mortar stains etc during laying. Would mortar wash off sawn sandstone while wet if the stone isn't sealed prior to laying?

Also I see that the recommended joints are only 2mm to 5mm for this paving, is one of the brush in jointing compounds best for this type of paving and if yes would it need sealing prior to that? Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance

[lutonlagerlout]

roly there is a reason why it is cheap
and its not because it is long lasting and durable
its way too late to seal unless you have a drying shed
when if you dried the flags completely before you seal the top side
however with this stone being so soft it is going to take a LOT of expensive sealer

has to be completely dry to seal mate sorry

LLL

[rolysatch]

roly there is a reason why it is cheap
and its not because it is long lasting and durable
its way too late to seal unless you have a drying shed
when if you dried the flags completely before you seal the top side
however with this stone being so soft it is going to take a LOT of expensive sealer

has to be completely dry to seal mate sorry

LLL

i've taken onboard what you and others have said regarding durability. however i've bought them now so i'm going to lay them anyway. for the sake of a few hundred quid and a couple of days of my time i'm willing to take a chance.

i've decided i will clean them first, give them a spray with fungicide so that i don't seal in any algae, then dry them out in my conservatory (much to the wifes disgust lol) and then seal them with a decent impregnating sealer, lay them, use a jointing compound and in 2 years time come on here and moan that they look like crap lol.

thanks again for the advice

[seanandruby]

Fair play to you doing what you want to do Roly.
If it makes you and the other half happy then that's what it's all about m8.

[RAPressureWashing]

Roly,
If you give the stones a very light bleach wash, say 4:1 then a good flush off, then no need to use a fungicide really, there is a mix on the stain removal page of the main site, it is the fruit & berries one, just change the ratio to 4:1 assuming the paving is new and relatively clean?

[rolysatch]

Fair play to you doing what you want to do Roly.
If it makes you and the other half happy then that's what it's all about m8.

Thanks I may live to regret it but I'll give it a go.