This Q&A originally appeared in Home & Gardens magazine in 2008
Why buy a stone floor?
Durable & hardwearing. Easy to maintain. Many different colours and finishes available to suit most settings.
Where are stone floors suitable for?
Kitchens, Utility Rooms, Bathrooms, Wet Rooms, Hallways, Conservatories, Patios, Swimming Pools, anywhere that it can be suitably fixed really.
Where is the best place to source stone floors?
Hard Rock Flooring – we can source & import stone from around the world.
How ecological is having a stone floor?
It’s a natural product (hard to say whether it is sustainable because this stuff was created millions of years ago and beds & quarries run out!) & Hard Rock specialises in English Limestone which hasn’t had to travel hundreds of miles across the oceans. Also the sealants we use are from Italy and they have researched in depth the effect these have on the environment.
What prices do they range between?
Our prices range roughly between £20.00 per sq mtr to about £75.00 per sq mtr + Vat but there are stones that can reach into the hundreds – these don’t sell very often as you can imagine.
Advice on Installation.
Always use an installer that is used to dealing with natural stone because they have a full understanding for how the product needs to be sealed and what it needs to be bedded on. So often our customers use their builders or usual tilers and it creates nothing but problems – these tradesmen are fine if they can prove they know what they are doing.
Pros & Cons of stone floors.
Obviously it is colder & harder underfoot than wood, vinyl or carpet but combined with underfloor heating it is luxurious underfoot.
It is very good in the fight against allergies which are all too common these days. It also fares very well under flooding – once dry, a top coat of wax and it is as good as new.