London stone catchup - Few photos

[lutonlagerlout]

just as a side note

still using london stone's little sample box

still looking good just a few stickers come away

why is it though 80% of people like mint?

I could have cried with Joy when a lady last week liked kandla grey

LLL :laugh:

[London Stone Paving]

Thanks for the feedback on the box Tony. We have got a solution for the stickers peeling off which we are testing now. It wont solve the problem completely but it will reduce it a lot.

People like in because it looks good, simple as. I know the gaffer has got a big issue with mint and I know where he is coming from but I have seen it in many occasions still looking good years later. North facing garden is a massive no no but in a south facer with a bit of maintenance it should be ok.

Kandla grey is much harder though as you find out when you have to cut the stuff

[London Stone Paving]

You coming down to the open day Luton?

[Tony McC]

Mint <spit> is more popular in the south than in the north, and it does seem to be a fact that brighter, paler, lighter colours in ALL forms of paving sell better in Lower Britain, while the north of England and Scotland seem to go for more robust hues and reds. Ireland just does grey, and always has done, but that makes it bang on trend at the moment - everyone is obsessed with a monotone pallette.

I'll be reviewing some new block paving products next week. For a new range of block pavers, there are (if memory serves me right) a sort-of black, a sort-of white/cream, four intermediate greys, a red and a buff.

Is Austerity Britain turning back to a black-and-white existence?

[London Stone Paving]

Got loads of work happening at our new factory. Its almost fully operational now. We are moving the big CNC over this week. We did the concreting for the floor on Friday. See below

This is the area where the CNC will be living. The reason its so big is because at the beginning of April we will be retrofitting a conveyor belt and an automatic loading function. Its real state of the art stuff and will automate the process.

CNC's and any stone machines need loads of water to operate and all the water we use now gets recycled. Saves money on the water bills and also is a more sustainable method of production

This is where CNC will sit



Water treatment facility getting lowered in by the crane. Weighs 30 ton when full of water







Worlds biggest wheelbarrow for the concrete pour

[London Stone Paving]

A few more shots from the new bespoke stone masonry factory

Here are a few shots of Yorkstone scant (big slabs cut straight from the blog) in buff and grey colour. Thicknesses here range form 40mm-200mm.







Buff Yorkstone slabs that have just been half bullnosed on the new edge profile machine



Some finished jobs from the stone masonry department. although we are investing in machinery there are always jobs that need to be done by hand



Loads of jobs of bespoke paving that have been cut and packed and are now ready for delivery



Big slabs of German limestone

[lutonlagerlout]

impressive set up steve
is that jura limestone in the last picture
I only ask because i know the jura mountains are a famous bit of southern germany,switzeland and france
cheers LLL

[London Stone Paving]

Cheers Tony
Yeh, it is Jura limestone. One of my favourite stones. The company who supply it completely live up to the German reputation for efficiency and reliability.

Jura Limestone

Here is a picture of how it looks on a finished job:

[lutonlagerlout]

went to london stones open day today
it was an informative day and there was a very nice buffet (lovin' that goat curry )
the gaffer was in attendance and a lot of designers and such
(people with names I couldn't pronounce)

things that I already knew and were enhance were the range and the attention to detail in every part of the process from importation, handling,cleaning,packing and transport

and last but by no means least the machining for the bespoke stone
a few random shots from me but I am sure other will have better

a lot of fossil mint


some kind of uk stone the gaffer knew which pit it had come from and the name of the guy who originally cut it
it just looked like big lumps of yorkstone to me



the leg-end!


some yorkstone waiting for machining



a wacking great diamond saw


dunno what these were as i missed most of the talking due to planes but I really like the look of them


hand finishing a pier coping


all in all it was a nice day out and nice to see a firm thinking progressively
I had a good chat with dave from drytreat and a few others

cheers steve

LLL

[KLS]

Looked like a good day. I'm gutted I missed it. But unfortunately I forgot and booed a job in that's got to be finished tomorrow so couldn't make it.

[lutonlagerlout]

I know that feeling Kieran but a while back I decided that there will always be another day to finish something if something worthwhile turns up
FTR I was the only one there with the arse hanging out of my jogging bottoms :;):
LLL

[London Stone Paving]

Thanks for coming down today Tony. I know that you busy so we appreciate it.
I didnt get a chance to try the goat curry, was too busy making sure everybody had a drink. I'm off to India next week though, so I will probably be getting more than my fair share of goat curry

[cookiewales]

stuck on a mini digger in alley way trencing clay all day

will get down there soon

[London Stone Paving]

Shame you couldnt make it Cookie. I hear that the goat curry was the best in the city :p

[Tony McC]

I had a big bacon butty, courtesy of Steve, earlier in the morning, so no appetite for the goat curry, but LLL certainly seemed to like it....both platefuls!

I don't know what happened when we left the sawing yard. I looked around to see where LLL had got to, and there he was: gone!

But it was a very interesting day which raised many follow-up questions which I'll raise over the next few days. Fascinating to watch that big red saw whose name I forget momentarily slice millimetre-perfect tight curves through that yorkstone. I could watch that all day....and nearly did!