Advice on the best silver grey flagstones to lay - Grey flags (sandstone vs limestone)

[Cor]

Hi all, great site and forum. I'm new so thanks for accepting me in and please go easy if I've posted this in the wrong place or if it's been covered elsewhere! : )

My question: I am looking to lay paving slabs for a patio and pathways in my garden. I'm trying to find the best Silver/Grey colour. I've picked up various samples of Indian Sandstone, some have more of a blue colour and others have more of a brown/green colour coming through. One colour is called Kandla Grey, one is called Silver Grey and one is called Promenade. (am I ok to mention which brands/outlets they are here?....I'll wait to do that just in case).

I really want the grey colour to remain and prefer the grey when it has more of a blue tone that a green/brown tone. I don't want the grey to fade to a brown or green colour over time, or to have brown/green variations in the patio packs once I order. I know the samples can be misleading depending on the colour variation used in that sample.

Are there any particular types, brands or colours that would be more consistent silver grey (and not green/brown undertones) or am I being unrealistic trying to achieve this? I've not used Indian Sandstone before but my friend has laid Indian Sandstone in Raj Green and loves it so as a product it sounds good.

It has also been suggested to go for Limestone instead to achieve this grey (and slightly more blue rather than brown/green colour). Is this a better option to get the right colour? I have no experience of Limestone paving (but in terms of limestone, being an Irishman and growing up in Ireland, we were all well aware, from various trips, of the natural Limestone landscape of The Burren in Co. Clare and the erosion effects of the rain on that environment - it erodes 0.005ml per year apparently so not too much I guess and it's been there for 340 million years so not bad going!! - sorry if this sounds like a crazy thought when dealing with paving - but it still erodes and this worries me! Perhaps this should not be a big concern but any advice welcome).

So I wonder what are the advantages and disadvantages of Limestone vs Indian Sandstone in terms of oxidisation, hardiness in the snow and frost (I now live in Yorkshire), whether they are slippery when wet etc. The ones I have looked at are called Azure (can I mention the outlet?), they are riven finished and calibrated to 22ml.

So, any advice would be very welcome and also whether any finishing products that I could apply would slow down oxidation or rain damage to Limestone particularly.

Thanks for reading this, I hope you can help.

All the best, Cor

[lutonlagerlout]

if you want a uniform grey you cannot go too far wrong with kandla grey
its a good hard budget stone
I have been to the burren but as you say has took yonks to erode,
you can mention who you like as long as you dont work for them
LLL

[Cor]

Thanks for the reply and advice, no don't worry, I don't work for any of them.

So I see your advice on black limestone on the main website but in general is all limestone a pain in the ar** in terms of staining etc or do you reckon I should stick with the Kandla Grey Sandstone as a better all rounder?

Thanks again.

[PavingSuperstore]

The limestone has more of a bluer tone than the grey sandstone, which would be 'very subtly' edging towards a beige grey if comparing the two together. This is a very subtle leaning though, so is certainly not brown by any stretch of the imagination.

The key thing to note however, is that both the sandstone and limestone could contain occasional buff/ brown/ copper tones as part of the natural mineral make up of the stone, so it may also be worth considering porcelain paving. A lot of this is designed to look like natural stone, but avoids nature's irregularities found in the real stone.

Hope this helps,

[joydivision]

If I am correct, 'Promenade', is a Natural Paving's product. They name there stone differently, but 'Promenade' is Kandla grey.
I may stand corrected though!

[PavingSuperstore]

Yes, that's correct - lots of the leading brands put their own 'creative flair' into the naming.

[Cor]

Yes that's right, Promenade is from the Natural Paving catalogue. The sample I have is slightly more brown than the Bradstone 'Silver Grey' which is the closest I've found to the Blue tones i'm looking for. I'll check out Porcelain but I think the price might rule that option out. We have quite a bit of ground to cover. Thanks again.

[PavingSuperstore]

Might be worth looking at the Steel Blue (Kota blue) then as well - this will be bluer grey tones. The 'Kandla' colours will be very similar across all brands and will be more of a dove grey. It's difficult to describe colours as it's rather subjective, but if you compared the Natural Paving Steel Blue next to the Promenade, then the Steel Blue would be more of a blue grey in comparison. Being natural stone, both will have a certain amount of variation however.

Let me know if you would like a Steel Blue sample sent - we can organise this for you if it would help.

[Quaife Landscapes]

Have you considered Granite at all? We've used blue black granite a few times from nustone and the colour is consistent throughout. Nice slabs too