Stonepanel is a new product from Black Mountain Quarries, who have their own quarries in Herefordshire as well as selling imported stone. Stonepanel uses natural stone prefabricated into a ‘Z’ shape to make it easy to construct what look like dry stone walls without the panels being apparent. It can be used inside or out.
The panels are made in China from natural stone (quartzite, gneiss, limestone, sandstone and slate) mounted on a cement base reinforced with a lightweight metal grill. Each piece is made in a ‘Z’ shape to avoid visible joins. It is simple to fit together and no special techniques are necessary.
Adrian Phillips, MD of Black Mountain Quarries, says he has known people lay 40m2 of this walling a day and reckons most people could lay about 30m2 – 10 times more than could normally be laid using individual pieces of stone.
The product is supplied as 610x150mm panels between 50 and 65cm thick. The stone is random and one panel might contain 10 pieces of stone and another five, for example.
The panels are applied to the blockwork of the building like tiles. Adrian recommends using swimming pool quality Ardex for the job.
He says when he supplies loose stone he is responsible for about 60% of the look of the finished work and the person laying it the other 40%. With Stonepanels an architect can know before building starts to a much greater degree what the finished wall is going to look like. “I’ve looked and looked for ever for a product like this,” he told NSS.
He says there has already been a lot of interest in it and it has already been specified for some domestic projects. Black Mountain are currently working on getting British Board of Agrement certification for it.