Natural Stone Finishes:
Honed: A factory finish using various grades of abrasives. The surface of the stone has a smooth matt finish with a minimal reflection. This finish is most often recommended for domestic internal floors, in particular where water may be present.
Polished: A continuation of the honing process using finer abrasives. The surface of the stone has a high gloss reflective finish. The natural colours and character of the stone are highlighted in the polishing process and the natural beauty of the stone is highlighted. Only stone with a high mineral content and a tight internal structure can be polished. This finish is normally recommended for internal walls though studies have shown that polished stone is actually less slippery when wet than a honed or coarser finished stone.
Hand Polished Slate: Brazillian riven slate polished using abrasives and hand tools. This process leaves the stone smooth but doesn't strip it of all the contours found on a cleft tile. The surface of the stone is satin polished, feels like leather and is a stunning finish. More prone to scratching it is a perfect tile to use in a bathroom where a polished finish is too slippery and honed not reflective enough.
Bush Hammered: The surface of the stone is hammered (not hard enough to cause any structural damage) with a pronged hammer causing numerous tiny pits spread evenly across the surface of the tile.
Tumbled: The tiles are honed prior to being tumbled with sand/roll washed to distress the edges. The surface of the tile remains smooth. This finish gives the impression of years of wear and gives the stone a patina that looks 100 years old from the outset.
Brushed: Honed then brushed to give a relatively antislip surface which is more scratch resistant than a polished finish.
Maintenance and Stain Guide:
Stain Correction
Coffee/Tea Diluted Hydrogen Peroxide
Wine Diluted Bleach
Oil/Grease Petrol on a natural cotton cloth
Ink/Biro/pencil Diluted Hydrogen Peroxide or disinfectant
Blood/Grass Ammonia/Hydrogen peroxide
Dyes Bleach
Oil based Paint Trichlorethylene
Hair lacquer Acetone
Fruit/Jam Diluted Hydrogen Peroxide/Acetone
FAQ's
Q. Why choose natural stone?
A. Natural stone flooring is a beautiful varied material which improves with age as it's patina deepens. It is hard wearing, practical and adds value to your home.
Q. Can I use natural stone in both contemporary and traditional rooms?
A. Natural Stone comes in many styles and colours and is equally suited to clean minimal contemporary rooms as to the more traditional aged and tumbled stones.
Q. Is stone suitable for use in any room or can it feel a bit "cold" for use in living rooms and bedrooms?
A. Not only is stone a beautiful, luxury material which adds value to your home but when combined with underfloor heating it becomes a very efficient heat source and keeps your rooms cosy whilst also looking truly stunning and unique.
Q. What types of stone are available?
A. There are lots of different stones available generally they are travertine, limestone, marble, slate, granite and basalt. These are available in various finishes: Honed, Polished, Tumbled, Brushed, Antiqued, Flamed, Riven, and Etched.
Q. Are the tiles you send me going to be exactly the same as the sample of a natural stone you sent me?
A. We do our best to send samples from our current stock batch; this minimises the chance of colour variation and batch differences. However, stone is a natural material and there will be small differences in terms of character and colour between each tile. Our tiles are all carefully quality controlled to ensure that the tiles are as close as possible to the described colour band, if a variation is outside tolerance we will replace the tiles free of charge.
Q. I want a natural stone but with no variations in colour or texture, is this possible?
A. There are a number of stone tiles which have minimal colour and character variations ranging in colour from white Thassos marble to honed black slate.Otherwise we stock several ranges of full bodied porcelain; plain colours to those which mimic travertine, limestone, marbles etc and do it very well. They are available in large formats and have many benefits. low maintenance, uniformity, hard wearing etc. Inside and out Porcelain offers something for everyone.
Q. I have seen Travertine for much less than you charge. Is there really a difference in quality?
A. In a word: Yes. The market is being flooded with stone of indeterminate quality and origin.
There are several things you need to be careful of:
Stone is a natural material and some parts of the world produce better wearing more consistent colours and character than others. DirectStone uses Iranian travertine, which is acknowledged as the best.
Often a cheaper stone is filled with resins which aren't colour matched, nor are they as hard wearing as the better resins.
We only supply tiles that we would be happy with in our own homes. This means that our tiles are more expensive, but the quality is as good as we can find....it also means that we know you will be 100% happy with yor new floor which is the most important factor of all....your satisfaction. We are so confident in all the products that we Fully Guarantee them. If the tiles aren't what we have promised you we will replace them.
You always pay for what you get...tiles are certainly no exception.