Natural Stone Tiling

NATURAL STONE TILING IN BATH, BRISTOL AND THE SURROUNDING AREAS

Westfield Housing Developments are experienced natural stone tilers, and have been working with natural stone in the Bath and Bristol area for the past 5 years.

Natural stone can make a naturally beautiful hard wearing surface in your home. From silvery white marbles, through the natural beige of travertine and limestone, to the greys of natural slate, there are many different types of stone available. We recommend that you read our information brochure (reproduced below) on using Natural Stone to tile in the home, in order to help you decide what would suit your needs.

MARBLE TILING IN BATH

Marble tends to be found in mountainous areas in the world although in the United Kingdom, marble is found in the Purbeck area of Dorset. The most highly prized marbles tend to be a pure white (e.g. Carrara Marble from Italy) and the other colours found in many marbles worldwide are due to mineral impurities present when the marble was metamorphosed.

TRAVERTINE AND LIMESTONE TILING IN BATH

The soft coloured tones of travertine and its marbled veins have led to a massive popularity in using this stone to decorate many buildings over the last 2 millennia.

Limestone and dolomite are variations of travertine. Limestone is very similar in property to travertine. Dolomite is denser, less absorbent, stronger and less susceptible to abrasion damage – making it more suitable to be installed in more commercial environments.

The Romans most famously used travertine extensively for construction of temples aqueducts, and coliseums. However the material is characteristically pitted with holes that are normally filled either using a resin (typically by stone processing plants preparing the stone for tiling) or with cement based grout.

Natural Stone Tiling in Bath and Bristol

SLATE TILING IN BATH

Slate occurs in a variety of colours, but is frequently found coloured grey. In the UK there are extensive deposits of slate which are in a wide variety of colours including yellow, green and purple.

Slate is extensively used in construction in the UK, not just for roof tiling, but as damp proof membranes in walls, shims to level floor joists, and in the case of some buildings in North Wales to construct the whole building. It is currently very popular as a floor tile, but efflorescence (a process of water loss that crystallises a salt onto the surface) can be a significant problem, and it is extremely slippery when wet.