Often we see customers making decisions on natural stone and porcelain based on price, which of course is understandable, we all have budgets to work too. It’s important to understand the different types of natural stone and porcelain in the UK market so you can make educated decisions.
NATURAL STONE
Natural Stone has been used in projects for centuries, so much so now we are seeing products duplicated with different suppliers, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they will do the same job. Lets use the most popular Indian Sandstone for example, Raj. Raj has been ever popular in the UK market since the mid 90's, you can find it in most builders merchants and natural stone suppliers, however, just because they all call it Raj doesn’t mean they’re the same quality. Raj is from Rajistan, India, a vast quarry in which depending on what part and where vertically it’s quarried, it will have different properties, from colours to density. Our product similar to Raj is called WELLS OCRA, this variation won't be supplied by competitors and thats because it's personally chosen for us. As we prefer less colour variance than some Raj products offer we ensure that although it's still quarried in Rajistan, simply by using the lower part of the block we’re able to ensure browner tones and less variance for our customers. Raj, Autumn Brown, Meadow Blend, New Forest and even some call it YORK due too it's similar tones of British York stone, is without doubt the UK's most popular Indian sandstone, just don't make the mistake of solely choosing your stone on price, ask the rights questions. Go to our GOOD TO KNOW guide and find out what our Director and natural stone specialist Jack Wells has to say and what type of questions you should ask when buying natural stone.
PORCELAIN
External porcelain became popular in the UK market in the middle of the 2010's, porcelain has been around for years as an internal product but only recently did we begin to offer it externally, for many reasons, the technology for creating this product externally wasn't good enough, the baking process to make this man made product wasn't tested enough in our climate but most obviously there wasn't the market for it when you already had choices of natural stone and concrete for your paving projects.
Early on, we were very against it, that's down to the simple fact that we want to supply superior products that offer the end user longevity and as I mentioned the technology and testing wasn't adequate enough to prove external porcelain would last in our climate. Having spent several years watching the porcelain market develop I can say for sure that MOST porcelain's offer another choice for those wanting a paving area, however, i reiterate the word MOST. I have seen many suppliers offering poor INDIAN or CHINESE porcelain choices, now, there are a few good porcelain ranges coming out of India, we offer one ourselves but I can't stress enough when you purchase it from whoever you choose ASK QUESTIONS. Is it vitrified, is it full bodied? is it rectified? and just as I said about natural stone the same applies for porcelain, just because two companies offer 'Belgian Grey' as a choice for an example doesn't mean they're from the same place and offer the same guarantees, Go to our GOOD TO KNOW guide and find out what our Director Jack Wells has to say and what type of questions you should ask when buying Porcelain paving.