Guides

Know before you lay.

What we tell customers across the counter, written down. Choosing, laying, sealing, cleaning and what happens on delivery day.

All guides

Outdoor porcelain

Porcelain or sandstone? Choosing for a UK garden.

The honest trade-offs between riven Indian sandstone and 20 mm vitrified porcelain, so you pick for the garden you have rather than the photo you saw.

5 min read
Sandstone

How to lay Indian sandstone.

Full bed, primed backs, 10 mm joints and a fall of 1 in 80. The method that stops slabs rocking and stops the patio holding water.

7 min read
Outdoor porcelain

Laying 20 mm porcelain outside.

Porcelain is unforgiving of shortcuts. Slurry primer, a solid bed, tight joints, and the right jointing compound.

6 min read
Sandstone

How many packs? Measuring a patio properly.

Length by width, plus an allowance for cuts, rounded up to whole packs. The maths that stops you being one pack short on a Sunday.

3 min read
Sandstone

Sealing sandstone: whether, when and what.

Sealing isn’t compulsory. It changes how the stone looks and how it ages, so decide before the first winter.

4 min read
Limestone

Cleaning a patio without wrecking it.

What each stone will and won’t tolerate — acids, pressure washers and the bleach your neighbour swears by.

4 min read
Sandstone

Why slabs vary in shade, and what to do about it.

It’s rock. The variation is the point — but it needs managing when you lay.

3 min read
Sandstone

Reading a mixed patio pack.

Four sizes, one pack, no repeat. What’s inside and how to lay it so it doesn’t look like a grid.

3 min read
Cladding

Delivery day: what turns up and where it goes.

A pallet of stone weighs a tonne. Here’s what to expect and what to have ready.

3 min read