Purchasing Flagstone From A Stone Supplier: How To Speak The Supplier's "Language"
Landscaping stone is an effective means for creating stone patios, decking around pools, and focal points for specific areas of your yard. Stone suppliers are key in helping you get the right kinds of stone and using it effectively and decoratively. If you have heard of flagstone before, and seen some of it in use at a friend's or family's house, you may be considering it for your own yard. If you choose to use flagstone, there are endless possibilities for this sedimentary landscaping rock, and it all requires being able to speak to the supplier in terms they know best. If you want to do these stone landscaping projects yourself and not hire a landscaper, here is how you can talk to the stone supplier to get what you need.
Where the Stone Was Quarried Matters
It should not surprise you, but most flagstone is sedimentary rock. It means that it was made from layers upon layers of sediment compacting and hardening together over time. Where your flagstone was quarried matters most, given that different colors and different patterns in the stone happened in different states. For example, bluestone was quarried in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and it has a bluish tint to it because of the minerals in the layers of sediment that built up over time in these states. Flagstone quarried in the Southwest tends to have reddish or orange-y hues because of the red dust and red clay found in these states.
The Supplier Will Want to Know What You Need in Terms of Pieces
What exactly are you looking for? Do you need slabs, pavers, treads, or ledgestone? Ledgestone are relatively flat pieces cut for stacking, as if you are going to make an elevated gardening area. Treads are used for making steps. Slabs are larger pieces of flagstone if you do not want to set smaller pieces in place and cut the smaller pieces to fit together to make a patio. Pavers are medium-sized slabs cut into rectangular or square shapes for easier layout designs. Knowing these words and what they mean will help the supplier order and ship exactly what you want.
The Texture and Edges Count Too
A few other flagstone words worth knowing include tumbled, milled, snapped veneer, and thin veneer. Tumbled means that your flagstone has had all of its edges softened, and sometimes the edges are rounded smooth, too. Milled means that at least one edge is perfectly cut straight and even in order to fit along the edge of a path or fit with other milled pieces. Snapped veneer is similar to milled stone in that it has smooth, flat edges, with snapped veneer being much thinner and perfectly flat on both the top and bottom surfaces. The thin veneer is a very thin piece of flagstone that is fixed and laid over the top of other stone to make it look like flagstone when it is not.