While the middle ground kitchen and bathroom market continues to suffer, those stone companies that have successfully positioned themselves at the top of the market are finding the wealthiest people still have money to spend.

Life has undoubtedly been hard at the granite worktop and travertine flooring end of the interiors market since 2008. But those stone companies that have managed to establish themselves a niche at the top end of the market are not doing so badly.

Much of the top end is in London, of course, where not only a large proportion of the UK’s richest quintile live but the whole world’s. And many a foreign millionaire who doesn’t live there aspires to do so (or at least own a home there), which is keeping property prices rising while in the rest of the country they fall.

Even at the bottom end of the top end of the market, when you are paying £3-5million for a one-bedroom apartment (as they are in some parts of London) you tend to expect some degree of comfort. Marble floors, walls and vanity tops in bathrooms are simply de rigueur.

Further up the market, finely masoned stone for interior door surrounds and intricate staircases are much in demand and at the very top come stories of billionaires who pay for spectacular sculptured marble fountains for their interior courtyards but never collect them because by the time they are finished some other whim has taken their fancy.

According to those supplying this end of the market, clients are often looking for exclusive (and therefore expensive) products, a proposition that would seem to be supported by figures from HM Revenue & Customs that show the price of stone imports (excluding landscaping and slate) rose by almost 60% between 2008 and 2011 while the volume fell by 48%.

One company that is doing quite nicely at the higher end of the market is Chesney’s.

Famed for its fireplaces – it is currently selling about 5,000 a year – Chesney’s has moved out into a broader sphere of stonemasonry, a few examples of which are pictured on these pages.

Staircases have been particularly successful, especially curving cantilevered staircases.

Inspired by Palladio’s designs in Italy in the 16th century and introduced to English architecture by Inigo Jones, the cantilevered staircase was widely used in top architectural design for more than 200 years. Then it went out of fashion and was hardly seen in new buildings for a century before reappearing from time to time. It is now enjoying a revival in modern mansions.

The exquisitely fine lines of a curving cantilevered staircase can appear to defy engineering laws – indeed, engineers over the years struggled to explained the transfer of loads to the ground.

It was seven years ago that Chesney’s produced its first cantilevered staircase in response to a request from a client.

“The challenge to us,” says Chesney’s Director Mark Burns, “was finding someone who could create the design. Luckily we met Gareth Hughes.”

Gareth Hughes is a craftsman stonemason who was familiar with cantilevered staircases and was able to design what the client wanted – and is still working for Chesney’s (among others) on such projects. At Chesney’s, he works in conjunction with engineer Sean Daily to produce the masterpieces.

Since that first staircase, Chesney’s have produced 14 more, seven of them in the past year with more still in production, which Mark Burns attributes squarely to taking a stand at the Natural Stone Show at ExCeL London last year. Chesney’s will be back at ExCeL for the next Stone Show from 30 April to 2 May next year.

Chesney’s works the stone itself, but not in the UK. It has two factories. The main one is in China employing 135 people, more than 40 of them carvers who Chesney’s have had trained in the classical styles of English masonry.

And Chesney’s is convinced it is the classical styles that represent the greatest opportunity. “It’s very easy to employ surveyors and draughtsmen on a project,” says Mark. “The hard part is to find people who are classically trained to produce the carving work.

“A lot of people have dismissed having solid stone because they think it’s unaffordable, although I think that attitude is changing.

“We’re still very much on the first and second rung of where we can go architecturally.”

The Chinese factory produces 85% of Chesney’s fireplaces and masonry. Its other factory is in Portugal, which enables it to respond when lead times are too short for the stone to be shipped from China.

Chesney’s started trading in 1983, selling antique fireplaces. But the supply of antiques could not meet demand, so the company turned to sourcing new fireplaces in the styles of Georgian, Regency, Victorian and other classics. It still sells antiques, but they account for only about 1% of turnover.

As early as the mid-1990s Chesney’s was sourcing the fireplaces from China and opened its own factory there in 2004 to give it greater security of supply after a major Chinese supplier shut down.

Most of Chesney’s work to date has been in the UK and USA, but classical English styles are also popular in the Far East and the factory in China gives the company an ideal base to supply Asia. Since March this year Chesney’s has had an agent in China selling to architects and designers. Chesney’s believes this is where its next main spurt of growth will come from.

Another company successfully gaining work at the top end of the market is stoneCIRCLE. “Twelve months ago we refocused away from kitchen worktops,” says Director Steve Vanhinsbergh. “There were too many people turning up with their angle grinders, so we have gone back to traditional masonry.”

He complains about the price cutting taking place among companies competing for mainstream interior stone work. “If you walk into Travis Perkins wanting copper pipe they will tell the price has gone up. The same isn’t true of stone. Cutting prices is just stupid. It’s like sawing away at your throat with a sharp knife.”

The stoneCircle business has been around since 1968 and currently employs 42 people working two shifts in its Basingstoke factory. Steve is hoping to be able to add another 2,000m2 to the factory next year to accommodate extra saws and a waterjet cutter, as well as adding another 4,000m2 of extra storage space. “We need to secure the next 15 years and we can only do that by building,” he says.

Steve says stoneCIRCLE is still busy because it maintains a mix between large and small customers and between working for clients and processing for the trade. He also thinks it has been an advantage not to have expanded radically during the good times.

“This business has grown like rock being formed – slowly. You’re better off having a steady business over a long period of time than fluctuating with boom and bust. If you treat every job as a potential recommendation for the next, you don’t go far wrong.”

Looking for the top of the market has meant refocussing on London, having previously decided there was enough work locally not to have to bother with the difficult journey into the capital for projects. “We are back there and looking after some old clients,” says Steve.

Since making the decision to move up-market the company has made four staircases, including one from 180tonnes of Greek Corinthian Beige marble for the Burberry fashion store.

It was produced in stoneCIRCLE’S factory from 130mm thick slabs of the stone, each weighing 1.5tonnes.

But not all the company’s work is in London and other projects lately have included the refit of bathrooms and public washrooms at the upmarket Forbury Hotel in Reading.

The stone company worked directly with the hotel’s own project manager to establish the specification. The material chosen was Italian marble composite Trevisan in a creamy off-white. Trevisan offered the designers the consistency they wanted throughout the project.

Each of the 37 rooms was a different size and shape, which meant they all had to be templated and the stones cut individually from 20mm thick slab.

Some of the finished pieces were as large as 2100mm x 500mm. On the walls, the cladding was rebated to enable strips of rectangular glass mosaics in shades of beige to be fixed in between each slab.

Trevisan was also used for the floors and vanity tops, bath surrounds and shower trays, all made to size in the stoneCIRCLE factory.

Trevisan was also used in the public washrooms of the hotel, where the basins were cut from 150mm thick slabs of the material. Again, the floors were tiled in Trevisan.

Another project outside London was the Donnington Valley Hotel in Newbury, where stoneCIRCLE refitted the reception and bar areas.

The company provided textured Beaumont Beige limestone tiles for the reception area floor and manufactured the bar tops and fireplace in brushed Nero Assoluto granite for the bar area. The result is a traditional bar with an upmarket feel.

When it comes to the refurbishment of historical properties there is always the debate about how much of the original material to retain and how much to replace. At Wrest Park in Luton, Bedforshire, conservation specialist Fred Metcalf, working with stone company Chiltern Marble, achieved the best of both worlds by retaining all the original material and still laying a competely new floor.

The floor is in the Old Dairy, which has now been converted into a sculpture gallery at this English Heritage property.

“It was like Time Team,” says Chiltern Marble Director Paul Mullee. The original floor was taken up then relaid on a lime mortar and a new floor that was replica of the original was laid over it.

The new floor comprises a chequered area of Carrara marble and Pooil Vaaish limestone, an edging around the chequered area in a purple Welsh slate from Penrhyn, and larger slabs of Carrara taking the floor to the walls. The new floor was sealed with a DryTreat product to protect it, Chiltern Marble being approved DryTreat applicators.

In complete contrast, Chiltern Marble has also completed the interiors of 75 apartments and two houses in one of London’s highly desirable residences – The Lancasters at Hyde Park.

Set against the contrasting backdrops of Hyde Park and city streets, The Lancasters was originally 15 stucco-fronted Grade II listed houses dating from the mid-19th century. Each of the 77 homes has been designed around the grandeur of the original architecture and interior features of the building. Prices start at £2million for a studio.

Chiltern Marble’s contribution was more than 200 bathrooms (there are up to six in each individual dwelling). And having just completed the work in order to sell the apartments, some of it was immediately replaced by clients who wanted different (and always more expensive) marbles in their bathrooms.

Chiltern Marble sourced, processed at its 2,000m2 factory in Bedfordshire and installed a total of 3,200m2 of stone for both its own contracted areas and also for other contractors. It included 206 vanity tops, 46 bath surrounds, and six book-matched Calacatta Oro wall features for master bathrooms.

The company also manufactured from selected 20mm thick Sahara Noir slabs, 1200 x 610mm floor tiles to the master bathrooms. They were manufactured in the UK as the floors where to be laid to vein match.

En-suite bathrooms and WCs (walls and floors with matching vanities and bath surrounds) used Dark Emperador, Light Emperador, Crema Marfil, Bianco Statuario and Bianco Supreme

Bathrooms and master ensuites (walls and floors with matching vanities and bath surrounds) used 1200 x 610 x 20mm Bianco Statuario and Sahara Noir, as well as the book-matched Calacatta Oro.

Pietra Serena was manufactured, supplied and installed to the spa and concierge areas to floors, staircases and for a bridge over a water feature and Chiltern Marble made Statuario treads and risers to the duplex apartment staircases.

And while The Lancasters was the biggest project Chiltern marble have been involved in, it does not have the most expensive apartments. Chiltern Marble has just finished 13 houses in Mayfair, the least expensive of which is £13million.

But maybe cuts are even being made at the top end as Statuario proposed for some of the houses was substituted for Estremoz at about 40% of the price.

Chris Ryan, at Chiltern Marble’s London office in Golders Green, says most of the company’s work is now coming from London while other parts of the country have “sort of died a death”.

Like most stone companies, Chiltern Marble strongly recommend architects and designers to talk to a stone contractor at the design stage of a project because considering alternative stones and alternative ways of using stone can considerably reduce the cost and the risk. “We have an interest in making sure the job is right because it’s our name that goes on it,” says Chris.

Probably the UK’s largest retailers specialising exclusively in stone and stone related products is Mandarin, which has expanded incrementally over the years. These days it sells well over 100 different stone products and has expanded north and east from its base in Monmouth. It now has nine shops and another is planned for Cambridge next year.

Until now, Mandarin has always been content to supply a product and leave others to work the stone and install it. Now, though, Mandarin has opened its own stone processing factory in Monmouth.

It occupies 300m2 of what was previously warehouse space. It is being run by Joe Smith, who previously ran his own business with teams of worktop installers. He had entered the stone industry when he left school with Marble Mosaics, which specialises these days in precast panels but in those days had a marble working department.

With his own business, Prima Marble, he organised work for nine teams of self-employed templaters and fitters. He says they could earn £1,000 a week in the good days, but now “the bubble’s burst”.

His company used to cut stone for Mandarin and he had known Alma Small for many years. “We got chatting and decided to set up a workshop for Mandarin because Alma had no control over the work when other people were doing it. It rounds off the company so it can offer the complete service. We still supply stone to other fabricators – I don’t think its affected Mandarin’s trade.”

Joe has chosen used Kolb machinery for the workshop, installing a KT bridge saw and Genius 3000 workcentre. He plans to add a jenny lind shortly in order to add different finishes to worktops and to “liven up stone that has become a bit tired”, as he puts it.

Mandarin decided to open its own workshop so it could supply finished masonry to customers because they wanted that service. It will produce vanity units, stairs and other sawn stone but is not intending to compete on granite worktops.

And Joe says the level of work going through the factory has certainly justified it. One job at the moment is making tables for the restaurant at the Harrods store in London. Mandarin is making the tables for a contractor in Penge, South London, that is working for Harrods. They are in Fume Emperador marble. Another is making serpentine steps in Jerusalem Gold.

There are three people, including Joe, in the workshop and also going out templating and fixing. There is one other team out templating and fixing. Certainly small scale. But then so was Mandarin when Alma first started selling slate floor tiles in 1989.

CONSIDER THE

SCREED

Screeding is a vital component of a hard wearing floor. Steve Foster, Flooring Category Director at CCF, distributors of interior building products including Knopp screeding, discusses how Knopp answered all the questions at Dublin Airport.

Overcoming the obstacles of demanding specifications, tight deadlines and restricted budgets requires a screeding solution that is both fast drying and durable. A flexible and hard-wearing solution is especially important in areas that are going to be consistently busy. A good example is the work completed by High Wycombe-based CSC Screeding, which came to CCF during the construction of Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport.

The original specification required a lightweight concrete with a strength of 35N. Cost efficiency was key and CSC was eager to provide a fail proof solution for the high profile project. CSC decided it needed a credible alternative to the specified product.

CCF recommended Knopp’s Duremit 50, which is widely used in the rest of Europe but is not as well known in the UK. So CCF’s specialist flooring solutions division flew representatives from CSC and its client, P J Hegarty, to Luxembourg to meet Knopp directly. The team visited a live site and conducted a number of tests on the screed at various stages of hardening.

The integrity of screeding can be compromised by the level of compaction in the mix, the binder content, the aggregate grading, water content and curing. Get them wrong and the floor can need repairs or maintenance sooner than expected. Independent tests are essential to ensure the final product will perform as planned.

Core samples were taken and drop hammer tests carried out. Examining a core enables compaction, density, permeability and cracking to be assessed. Closer examination through a microscope can provide details on carbonation depth, micro cracking or other deterioration of the aggregate if necessary.

Duremit 50 achieved a strength of up to 55N and successfully passed all the tests. CSC was chosen to screed around 56,000m2 of the 90,000m2 terminal area. The project also helped sustainability targets, as using Duremit reduced CO2 emissions by approximately 1,000tonnes.

The Dublin Airport project is an ideal example of how a screed should take more than the original specification into account.

To make your service stand out from the crowd, you need to recommend solutions that will bring long term savings. If they also bring environmental benefits that is an added plus.

Floors need maintenance so you don’t slip up over slip resistance

What has most startled Paul Robson since he took over as CEO of Sunderland-based floor maintenance company 4Earth Solutions Ltd earlier this year, is that lack of knowledge about the need to maintain floors so they will retain their slip resistance.

Reporting on his first six months in the job, he says: “I am not saying that many commercial properties do not indeed have the public’s safety in mind – many, in fact, do. Although I could also tell you about the number of organisations that turn a blind eye to knowing whether their floors are dangerous. They prefer the ‘if I don't know about it, I don't need to do anything about it’ defence. Sadly, this is no defence at all.

“If a floor is below the required Health & Safety executive guidelines and someone has a slip accident on it then the owner stands a very high probability of ‘falling’ victim to a slip and trip compensation claim.

“The average pay out in 2010 (2011 not yet available – probably still counting the cost!) was £15,000.

“British insurers tell us that slip accidents cost British businesses over £1billion a year as more and more people discover how effective our legal profession now is at chasing big pay outs! (Just type ‘Slips and trips claims’ into Google).

“What I have also found disturbing is the number of people working for large – and small – businesses who do not know the very basics. Take, for example, the number of people who think that a ‘CAUTION – wet floor’ sign covers them in the unfortunate case that someone has a slip accident in their shop.

“In my short time in my role I personally have heard this stated on a number of occasions and in one instance by a Manager of a branch of a well known national chain.

“How about the restaurant my family and I recently visited. I could hardly keep to my feet in the rest room. The owner said: “I am perfectly happy with things as they are!”

Of course he is… until his is the next restaurant to make a pay out. One recently paid out £75,000 in compensation. Who is advising these business owners – or, as the case may be, not advising!

“I assure you that the cost of anti-slipping a floor pales into insignificance when you see for yourself the devastating effect of many of the 10,623 major injuries and 24,014 cases that resulted in over 3-day injuries in 2010.

“Now that the UK Anti Slip Insurance Solution has been developed and launched by Cobra Insurance Brokers in London and 4Earth Solutions in conjunction with three major insurance companies there is no reason not to have this potential problem mitigated.

“You can, of course, choose to do nothing or hide behind the belief that anti slipping makes the floor more difficult to keep clean – not at all true. 4Earth Solutions’ products actually make it easier.

“Owners need to take charge of their floor safety before the weather takes it out of their hands.

“As a Health & Safety Executive presenter recently stated: Either you can make that call or a judge can!”

4Earth Solutions is a developer and distributor of ecologically friendly surface treatments including anti slip and chewing gum repellents. It has partnership arrangements in various countries, including Ireland.