Silver sand - North west supplier of silver sand

[Mintbuff]

Hi

I have been searching high and low for a supplier of silver grit/sharp sand in the Mcr/Cheshire /Stockport area but im really struggling.

Can anybody point me to a supplier?

Thanks

[DempseyLiverpool]

Berrys in Leyland sell silver sand in 25kg bags not sure if they do it in bulk bags or loose.

[ABILITY]

Try Lees Growers Supply at Ollerton, Knutsford. I think they do a silver sand, I am not 100% sure but worth a call.

[Mintbuff]

Thank you for you suggestions, im laying mint buff sandstone pavers and need silver grit or sharp sand.

The suggestions above seem to be selling finer silver sand. The Hanson silver sand is 1mm to 0mm.

I will keep looking.

[Mintbuff]

Still no luck. Would 4-0mm grano dust work?

[Mintbuff]

Found the suff! Cornishlime.co.uk do a Coarse Granite Sand which looks perfect from the sample they sent me. I had to search long and hard and in the end i sent a dozen emails to ask around, it wasn't as easy as made out in the paving expert write up as most "silver sand" is very fine and unsuitable for paving bedding. The stuff should be perfect for the mint Indian sandstone i have. I will be mixing with white cement to make light mortar.

[lutonlagerlout]

are you pointing with this or laying?
LLL ???

[Mintbuff]

Laying

[Stewpot72]

I’m struggling to find silver sand in Cheshire or the Wirral as well. I might go for a compromise and use grit with white cement.

[Stewpot72]

I have located a merchants who can source silver sand for me for £95 all in. WBS in north wales. When I told them what I wanted to achieve and asked about granularity to check it was coarse enough I was told “If you have concerns about mortar spots leaching through a porous stone, for paving we normally supply our grit sand which is a coarse, pale-coloured M-Grade grit sand. What some people do too is to coat the back of the slabs before laying with an SBR Bonding agent.�
Dingy Stone also tell me “When a full bed of mortar is used in conjunction with SBR (which as well as being a bonding agent to help the slabs adhere to the mortar bed, also provides a waterproof barrier) the slab is fully adhered to the mortar bed, and moisture and impurities cannot penetrate this layer from the ground below, protecting the stone.“
It really is beginning to sound as though silver sand is OTT.

[Tony McC]

Apologies for being late to this - had all sorts of health issues with angina during the heatwave and now an arthritic knee that is driving me mad with pain.


I know I've been off the tools for a while now, but it was never a big problem getting hold of Silver Sand. Admitedly, not every merchant stocked it, but a good 50% did. Mind you, back then, we had far more independents and were less reliant on the half-dozen or so Mega-Corps that control the trade nowadays.

While a good slurry primer bond bridge applied to the underside of flagstones is a methodology I've bene promoting for many years as a preventative against reflective staining, it still requires a pale or neutral sand in the laying course mix, and not all parts of the country have ready access to such sands, so the call for Silver Sand remains.

We are exceptionally lucky In NW England and N.Wales as we have ready access to a fantastic range of sands, grits and other aggregates, but not everyone is so blessed. When you see the garish colours of some of teh sands used in SE England, you can actually rtaste the iron in your mouth, and see the reflective staining form before your very eyes!

One final note abolut the use of a slurry primer bond bridge: the use of neat SBR on its own, with no added cement or other binder/aggregate, is NOT a guarantee against reflective staining. For reasons outlined in a post earlier this evening regarding the variability of SBR, you can't rely on it as a single agent. Either make it up into a paste by adding cement, or, even better, buy a proprietary primer product and mix it up as required.