Granite? smooth sandstone? budget(ish) slabs help - New patio, advice required.

[lynniep]

Hello, I am a newbie, and also pretty ignorant to the ways of the paving slab.

I have a paver lined up, and not having the foggiest what I wanted, he just quoted me for a bog standard 450x450 laying of a new patio. I asked for a couple of samples and he brought me a stonemaster rio buff (which is very grainy) and a riven (which I wasnt keen on - it was far too uneven for me) I have realised having seen them, that what I want is something smoother. And something that can be preferably cleaned with a pressure washer.

I can't keep asking him to bring samples, and brochures give me and idea but I'm not choosing based on a photo, so have been visiting builders merchants (Jewsons will be this afternoon, build centre, gibbs dandy this morning) and garden centres as thats all I can find locally. Its flipping difficult to 'see' any examples of what I want locally - I find at the garden centres its either the cheap stuff my paver showed me, or really top end out of my budget stuff.

I've seen two slabs on line that caught my eye - I really like the look of the Stoneflair Polished sandstone in Modak - I want equally sized slabs, so would have to go with 600x600 - but I note that these are only 20ml thick - does that seem too thin for that size slab? and I'm not sure what these would be like w.r.t cleaning. Is sandstone quite soft (or is that a stupid generalistic question?) I havent been able to find this in 'real life' to look at yet.

I also note that Marshalls do 'Perfecta' which looks similar to the buff slab my paver showed me, but smoothed off.

I also thought that granite might have the properties I'm looking for if I got it with a smooth surface. Again I found the nustone site other folk have mentioned - but would consider going with Stonemarket or Marshalls if thats better quality (I note that it is thicker at 25mm than the nustone at 20mm) I also noted that the colours are more expensive than the 'greys' and I like colours better - gah!

I only know that I prefer colour (modak looks lovely but I could cope with any reddish tone or buff)

Basically I'm floundering. I dont want to spend more than £35per square metre.

Does anyone have any advice for me please? thanks in advance.

[London Stone Paving]

In my humble opinion 20mm stone is too thin for exterior paving. You also need to take into acccount that all natural stone is subject to a minimum of +/- 2mm in cutting tolerance, so some of the slabs sold as 20mm could be as low as 18mm. Modak sandstone is one of the hardest Indian sandstones available and granite is also a very hard material, but even so I would not dream of selling them in 20mm thickness. The only reason that companies supply 20mm material is because they can then stuff a lot more stone in the shipping containers which brings there shipping costs down. Not really in the best interests of their customers

Its ok to power wash stone but just dont do it too often and if you do it then dont use the really fine jet and dont hold the water jet too close to the surface of the stone.

We have a few products which are available in 25mm thickness, come in single sizes (600x400, 600x600, 900x600), and wont break your budget. I have PM'd you with details

All the best

Steve

[lutonlagerlout]

^^ with what steve has said
LLL

[lynniep]

thank you - thats helpful. I dont want to get it wrong because I'm not planning on having this done again!!