I'm a newbie to this site - but have promised my wife a new (sizable) patio. I start work on it end of May Bank holiday.
She has set her heart on something similar to the attached picture. (the truth is she WANTS the picture (without the wall), but she will get something similar!).
I have visited Bowland Stone this morning and almost had heart failure at the cost (which was for natural stone).
Anyone any idea where I can get something similar, natural or manufactured - the different shades of grey is the key as well as the sizes - the colour for the picture was "Pennsylvanian Blue" - from the US but I was hoping on something a little more local (Bristol!).
The two types of stone I know with this sort of variation in colour are Blue Slate and Grey Sandstone. Stone is expensive but its hard to compare with man-made products which are much more uniform - it depends what you'er after and want to pay.
Blue slate is fairly widely available and can be picked up quite cheaply(it's all relative), especially Chinese slate. Be careful of the quality however as it varies a lot, some is cut so thinly it breaks easily and other stuff (split slate) varies in thickness (even across one slab) so that it's pretty hard to lay. Also you may find that to get the different dimensions you need to go to a more specialist supplier. . Slate comes in different finishes: Riven (evenly textured), split (can be quite uneven) honed (matt polish) and polished.The picture looks like riven slate.
Grey sandstone is not that widely available but can have wide variation in colour and you can specify that this is what you'd prefer from a good stone supplier who can order it from different beds in the quarry.
I'd say slate is the cheaper natural stone option but man-made will certainly be a lot cheaper, you won't get the natural variation in colour and it can all look a bit flat and unlively, you need to plan a bit more with inlays or drop in planting holes to make it bit more interesting. You can now get man-made in a range of sizes and a plan of how to lay a pattern like shown (it's a complicated repeat pattern, often based on three sizes). Marshalls and Bradstone both do these kind of man-made products.
We're newbies too but have found out v quickly that you can save lots of money by looking on the net for stone suppliers. For instance we have been looking at some indian sandstone, really lovely but not cheap. Our local supplier quoted us £700 for a circle and squaring off set, in total about 12 x12. We saw the same thing from stones4less for £275! Suggest you look at this website, think its stones4less.com and alsothe sone and cobbles company, something like www.thestones andcobblecompany.com.
Thanks for the advice so far (any more advice is welcome).
The closest I have found is here (and I have looked at ALL linked websites): Global Stone (EIther the Castle Grey or Monsoon Black would suffice by the look of it)
It is priced £24 per m2 - however I have yet to see if they deliver (from East Anglia to Bristol).
I'd be wary about using stone4less - that bar steward still owes me a hundred quid!
Global Stone are very good, as are Rock Unique in Sevenoaks and Butterfields in Luton. Although they're not in the SW of En-ger-land, Paving Solutions have a pretty comprehensive range of stone flags and can deliver more or less anywhere in mainland Britain. I'm not sure if their website is up and running just yet, but the telephone number is 01978 710000
What about Stone and Brick in Llanelli? Would that be nearer to Bristol?
