Indian sandstone :brand name vs own label - Comparing quality of indian sandstone

[deskirk]

Marshalls Haworth Moor : £50 / square metre

Jewsons own brand Indian Sandstone (allegedly made by Marshalls) : £25 / square metre

Stonemarket Trustone : £30 / square metre

Are there real differences in quality or are you paying for the brand name. Can make a big difference in price when buying 40 square metres....but is it worth it to get what looks best ?

[warnergrounds.co.uk]

www.landscaping-supplies.net

Depending on where you are their prices even with carriage are the best we have found.

Their stone is of very good quality and they have a nice range of colours. There is rarely a problem with stock and they will provide samples.

I have photos of most of their stone we have installed if you are interested in "real" photos of a particular colour.

I personally avoid Marshalls and Build Center for everything as they are completely overpriced. Use your local merchant if you can and see what they can offer you.

[David Sarti]

Firstly whoever's quoting you £50 for Haworth Moor is grossly overcharging you. I know, I run Marshalls. Shop around and you'll find it for much, much less.

Haworth Moor and Stonemarket's Trustone come largely from the same assured sources. The product is quality selected; accredited by the Ethical Trade Initiative (Google ETI if you're interested) and guaranteed free of child labour by independant third party audit. As of this year both brands are 'calibrated' to a constant thickness for easier installation.

Given that the premium brands are selected; where do you think that which isn't selected goes?

There is massive variation in natural stone quality, but that seems to pass straight over the head of the uninformed. Price isn't always a guarantee of quality, but if you're paying £15 a meter (as you can), you're generally getting crap. My reputation is 'branded' and it's a big reputation to lose. There's a big difference between the products I'm happy to put my name on - and charge for - and those which I'm happy to have another name on.

[Rich H]

I've used lots of Landscaping Supplies stone as well. They are buggers though for charging a lot for delivery - you can end up paying more than a punter buying 1m from them on Ebay. But I stopped using them because I could source locally for less (Gardenscape Supplies in Winnersh and Sonning) and with an ethical production guarantee.

[surreyhillslandscapes.com]

Here in Surrey you can put sandstone into three different grades, £15 a metre crap, £18- £20 good quality and £25 for the dogs nuts stuff, but for £50 a metre I would want it jump out of the crate and lay itself

[lutonlagerlout]

you get what you pay for really,but someone is having it off at £50 a m
£35 is more like it

LLL

[danstan]

We are a retailer who have sold natural stone for many years. We have many different colours displayed on the ground for customers to look at and make up their mind - they can see the quality of the stone and the colour variation in a patio like situation.
My advice to you is to find a reputable supplier who display the stone whereby you can see the quality, also have a look at the crates in the stock yard. We always show the customers our stock of crates to see exactly how the stone comes new, and what they will be getting!
£50.00 m2 is seems very expensive although in todays market there exists a massive range of different stone products e.g tumbled, polished, contemporary sized, sawn etc etc
Some of these are now sarting to push up to the £40.00 m2 and beyond. For a decent quality sandstone flag you should be paying between £24 - £30.00 m2
All the best with it

[matsfc]

i was recently quoted around £50 too for Marshalls India Stone, and yesterday they quoted me £75 for the 200x100 setts which are only £21 from another supplier (those won't be hand picked or ethical but for a saving of £54 a metre we can afford to throw a few bad setts away and the customer will surely live with his conciense with a £6000 saving on his driveway). I've also been quoted £15.50 for India Stone flags now from Bradstone (ethical) so maybe they do cheap setts too. Marshalls' prices are just ridiculous.

[Tony McC]

There's bound to be a significant variation in price, because there's a concomitant significant variation in quality and service. I can buy stone (in admittedly large quantities) at under a tenner per square metre, but what do I get for that? I get given whatever the supplier deems to dump on me: I have NO say in quality, variation in thickness, the ethics, sustainability and labour conditions used to source and transport the stone, and if I'm not happy, I can't nip down the road to complain and get my money back.

On the other hand, I can pay 30 quid plus for what seems, on the surface, to be the same stone, but be assured that it's been ethically sourced, that it's the "cream of the crop" (sometimes known as "first pick"), that should there be a problem, I have recourse to a reputable supplier and a good chance of getting replacements or my money back if it really is "crap".

You're buying more than stone: you're buying a service. You can choose the low-cost/no-support offerings, or you can choose the high-cost/hand-holding products. There's also the Goldilocks option - not too cheap, but not too dear, but with a 'reasonable' level of support. This is what most of us choose.

With Indian stone patio work averaging somewhere around 60-80 quid per square metre (depending on where you are) the cost of the stone is only a small part of the equation. Personally, I'm happier to pay a small premium to be assured that the stone is ethically sourced, top quality and comes with some form of redress. And if I were still contracting, I'd be using these very features to help sell the product to my customers.

[David Sarti]

Matsfc: Haworth Moor, my premier selected calibrated stone, leaves me - delivered to Merchants in full loads - at £22-25. My chaps have to quarry it, select it, calibrate it, ship it halfway up India then to the UK; truck to one of my sites, destuff, store and deliver at 36 hours notice to a merchant.

That's £25's worth. And I make a profit.

It leaves your local merchant who is what? 5-10 miles from you? And they want £50?

Someone is having a laugh, but it isn't me I assure you.

I'm probably not going to change your view as to what to buy, bu if you're going to accuse someone of overcharging please aim more accurately.

[mouldmaker]

The quality and consistency of Marshalls & Stonemarket's products make them worth a couple of quid more than the budget stuff, but regardless of quality I'd always buy stone from an ethical source - sitting on a patio made by children working in shit conditions for tuppence a month takes the fizz out of my Pimms.

[lutonlagerlout]

i agree marshalls and stonemarket do produce great stuff,some of it so similar as to be almost exactly the same??

marshall's old mill brick = stonemarkets cottage rose???

quality gear though and that quality saves time and money.

cant say the ethical side worries me greatly,or i would never kick a football handstitched by a 5 yr old pakistani kid,or wear any high street clothes made by underpaid workers in 3rd world countries ,worldwide.
as it happens, i believe we are going to start, to actually pay more realistic prices for things soon,now that oil is sky high, same for food etc
when i was a kid my first push bike cost the old fella half a weeks wages,my daughters first bike cost me half a days wages
something has got to give
LLL



Edited By lutonlagerlout on 1210178315

[Tony McC]

Hold the front page!! Marshalls' and Stonemarket products in stupendous similarity shocker!

Anyone would think they knew each other! :laugh:

[lutonlagerlout]

so are they one and the same?
it certainly looks like it productwise?
doh!
LLL

[MRA]

I think the £50 price you have been quoted it is most probably for the Marshalls Haworth Moor Sawn Sandstone - Calibrated with the face and dimensions sawn to some pretty strict tolerances. Laid correctly it looks simply fantastic, but due to the exactness of the stone grading, it really requires installation by an installer who really knows their onions (or quality workmanship, more to the point!).

Please get the merchant to clarify which Haworth Moor grade they are pricing for, because it has not been unknown for one grade to be ordered and another delivered.