Stone Fireplace, Stone Staircase, Limestone Fireplaces

We’ve always had a bad run of luck with forklifts. We need forklifts because our stone fireplaces are so substantial and heavy that they are not easy to move around by hand. Of course it is rare that our customers have a forklift on site when their stone fireplace is delivered, but if they are doing a big building project then some do, which makes life a lot easier.

If not, then we always ask that there are at least 4 strong helpers available on site when our delivery is made. In most cases, the stone fireplaces need to be carried through several rooms in order to arrive at the room in which they’re going to be installed, so there is always some element of manual handling no matter how much machinery is on site. There really is no subsitute for some serious manual labour!

At our works, we need a forklift, because the large stone blocks from which we make your stone fireplace or stone staircase are sometimes massive, and when they are delivered from the quarry on big articulated trucks, they are definately not a manual job to unload!

We just seem to have had bad luck with forklifts. You can guarantee the time it won’t start, or that it springs an oil leak will be just as 40 tons of stone turn up at our yard, or as we’re just trying to load up an export shipment.

We specialise in products made from Limestone. We like to use Limestone because it is such a beautiful stone. Our main products are stone fireplaces, but we also make architectural items and our masons can make anything in stone. The limestone we use for our fireplaces comes from France. We use a particulary beautiful stone, that has a lovely texture and fine figuring that gives it a very unique beauty. As with most sedimentary Limestones, there can often be remnants of sea shells or other sea creatures in the stone. Sometimes there will even be a whole sea shell still there embedded in the stone. Of course we can’t tell if there’s anything in there until we cut the stone, and so your stone fireplace is a ‘mystery’ until it is actually cut. The same thing applies though to any thing we make in stone, whether it’s a stone staircase, stone mullions, or stone gate pillars.

Limestone is not the only stone we can use for stone fireplaces though, and we can use any stone if you have one you particularly like. There are 1000’s of different stones, and thousand of different limestones. We have chosen stones for our standard ranges that have great beauty and colour.

If you have seen a stone that you like: In an old building perhaps, or some other old stone construction, then send us a photo or a sample and we’ll tell you if we can get something similar, or even the same.

just when we thought it was the last stone fireplace block that we’d have to dig out of a snow drift… we get a load more. Around 4 inches on Friday night, and surprise surprise, all the blocks are frozen together under a white blanket again. Not that the snow and cold actually hurts the stone in any way; after all, it’s a natural material that’s spent a few million years out in the weather, so don’t worry if you have stone fireplaces on order with us at the moment as they will be fine… just a bit cold!  We currently working on some very special stone fireplaces at the moment for a customer’s restoration of an old house in France. (Coals to Newcastle with our French Limestone then I suppose!)  There are several fireplaces, and each one is based on what they think was in the house originally. They are very large and very beautiful.

The building also needs a stone staircase putting into a stable block that is being converted into guest accomodation, but that depends on how much over-budget the project goes in stage one! Not that we will be over budget for our contribution, it’s just that at every stage, the customer is finding more work that he hadn’t noticed before.

Anyway. Here’s hoping that we soon see the end of the snow and frost so we can get on with our stonework without our thermals and woolly hats on.!

Never underestimate the amount of water that can be held in a piece of stone. When we carve our stone, we do it wet. This makes the stone easier to cut; it keeps the tools cool, and it suppresses the dust. It does mean however, that your stone fireplace is considerably heavier when wet than when it finally dries out. Not only that, but on a thick fireplace head section, the water can take a very long time to dry out. If you put the stone fireplace straight into a heated house, then the drying is accelerated, but in the case of a semi completed building project, (with no heating) it can take several weeks for the stone to be completely dry.

This is not in any way a problem, apart from the extra weight when moving the stone, and the fact that ideally the stone is best pointed when it is completely dry. This does not matter, because a fireplace is perfectly safe and secure (and still looks very impressive) even without the final pointing.

I recently had a stone mullion that needed a small repair. I could not repair it while it was wet, and it was freshly cut, and so was very wet! I decided to sit it on the storage heater in our small office over night. What a shock I had in the morning, as all the windows and the glass in the door were running with water. There was so much humidity put into the room just out of one relatively small piece of stone.

Although we specialise in unadorned products. Our masons can, if required, carve anything onto/into the stone that they are working. Perhaps you have a family coat of arms that you would like carved into the head of your stone fireplace, or perhaps a date in the lintol of your entrance door stone surround? Perhaps an oak leaf, or a shield in the corners of your stone mullion windows. The possibilities are endless, and our skilled stone masons can turn your ideas into reality.

We have carved very elaborate animals into the beautiful stone windows of a house in Leicestershire. The owner is a farmer, and the carvings reflect that!

If you are not sure about carving, because you worry what it will look like, and that perhaps it could ’spoil’ your stone fireplace or construction; you can always wait: Have your stone fireplace installed without any carving; live with it for a while, and then if you still think you would like some extra work, then we can come and do that while your stone work is in situ.

The beauty of stone is its texture. And limestone has a particularly lovely texture. The limestone that we normally use for our stone fireplaces, is an outstandingly beautiful stone. It is a light buff/yellow colour, and has a nice open texture. Being a limestone it can sometimes contain beautiful sedimentary lines; patterns or veins. It can even contain indentations where sea shells once lay, and in some cases even the sea shell can still be there.

A stone fireplace made from this stone is a truly beautiful thing. Natural materials are always the best. We do use other stones for our stone fireplaces, and if you have a particular stone that you want to use, and it is still obtainable, then we can use it. Sometimes different stones are needed for different jobs: A stone staircase for example would need a slightly harder stone to withand the thousands of feet that will trudge up it over the years.

Limestone fireplaces are something that will add great beauty to your building project.

We’ve just made a stone fireplace for a castle in Scotland. It’s in a dark red sandstone the blocks for which were supplied from a quarry on the Castle owner’s estate. The fireplace was a copy of one they had a picture of that was in some now-demolished part of the castle.

It’s a really big fireplace: Pillars about 4 feet high, and the opening width is about 8 feet. The head is made from segmented, keystones, and it will house a massive open fire. A lot of skill is needed to install stone fireplaces of this size and weight. The segmented arch has to be fully supported throughout construction, as it will not support its own weight until the final stone is fixed in position.

Once in positon though, this form of head is immensely strong, and is ideally suited to the construction of a stone fireplace where the size is such that a one piece head would just be too heavy to handle. We will post pictures on here once the installation is complete.

The castle has a great deal of restoration work to follow and no doubt there will be other fireplaces and stone works to complete.

There was a very interesting programme on over the weekend about limestone deposits in the uk. There are great ‘beds’ of limestone that were originally (in the ice age) underneath the glaciers that were over the most of the uk (not that it was the ‘uk’ then!)  These vast beds of stone were rubbed completely smooth by the gradual sliding, abrasive action of the ice flows.

Once the ice receded after the ice age, then the limestone was exposed to the elements. The rain, some of it acid rain, then gradually eroded the limestone with the help of wind and frost. And what we have left now is fields of what look like stone paving blocks.

None of this is used for stuff like stone fireplaces or stone staircases though. In fact these areas are geologically very important, and are thus protected. Though the presenter on the programme, says they still get a few slabs ‘going missing’ from time to time…. in the backs of peoples’ cars!

On the programme there were also shown, great walls and gorges of beautiful limestone. Virtually natural ’stone stairs’ in a sense. (needless to say, there weren’t any natural stone fireplaces!)

You’re stone fireplace need not be entirely new. Sometimes a customer will bring the remains of an old stone fireplace that they’ve discovered in their building project and they want us to complete the ‘jigsaw’ by making the missing pieces. If we can find the same stone as the original then we will, but if not we’ll hopefully get something close.

All stone ages though, so for some time anyway, it will apparent that part is old and part is new. This quite often happens will wall cappings and parapets and castellations on the exterior of houses. Parts have gone missing, maybe fallen off or been stolen, and we make new stone copings to match the remaining ones. It is actually quite interesting to see how the new stone gradually weathers until it is hard to tell which is which.

We’ve had to replace worn steps in grand stone staircases too. Some because they’ve been worn away, but thousands of weary feet, others because they’ve been damaged by alterations or even partial collapse of the buildings. In the end there is nothing that we can’t replicate. If it was made in stone originally, then it can be made in stone again!

So don’t be put off. If you find an old stone fireplace or some old stone stairs and there are a few pieces missing don’t give up…. just give us a call, and we’ll help you fill in the missing pieces!!

Stone fireplaces have been around for hundreds of years, thousands even. The Romans had elaborate stone surrounds to the fireplaces in their villas throughout the roman empire, though one suspects they were used more in the outposts of England, Scotland, and other far flung places than they were nearer to Rome.

A stone fireplace is as tradtional a feature as any that you can incorporate into your home. It combines the beauty of the stone fireplace itself with the appeal of something made from  natural material. It is long lasting, and in fact improves with age and useage.

That’s the great beauty of using stone in your buildings. Where ever you use it, whether it be in stone fireplaces; a stone staircase; stone mullions; or stone external features. These items will just get better with age. How many things can you say that about? It doesn’t matter what you have; a new kitchen; new bathroom; new windows: They will all wear out in the end and your stone fixtures will outlive them all. That’s what makes stone so historically popular in construction: Its strength and longevity.

It may sometimes be a little more expensive than alternative materials, but in the end it’ll be far more cost effective.

And for beauty and impact…. You can’t beat stone!