The reports by NSS columnists Alan Gayle and Barry Hunt decrying the use of the terms ‘natural’ and ‘stone’ by the manufacturers of concrete products have stimulated quite a debate in the industry.

As well as emails sent to NSS by readers following the reports in the February issue of this magazine, there has been a discussion on the LinkedIn professional networking site.

Steve Turner from Amarestone kicked it off. He writes: “I enjoyed reading Barry Hunt’s excellent article on the confusing definitions of manufactured ‘stone’ in the Natural Stone Specialist magazine recently. The major constituent in cement might well be crushed limestone but that doesn’t mean that we should call it stone because it then gives a misleading impression to potential customers.

“On a similar tack, at the recent Ecobuild at ExCeL and the Homebuilding show at the NEC we saw several examples of budget travertines and limestones being given names to imply that the stone was quarried in France or Italy.

“Is it just me or does anyone else think that we should be more honest and open when labelling stone products?”

It clearly was not just Steve. Michael Poultney from Albion Stone says he agrees and adds: “This is a major problem and exacerbated by the lack of response from the stone industry, both nationally and internationally. I think we need to draw a line between legitimate selling of a product that desires to look similar to natural stone, to a product that pretends to be natural stone. I think we need to take issue when

• the word ‘natural’ is used,

• a description or ‘colour’ is the same or similar to a natural stone – eg Portland and Bath are not colours.

Alastair Niddrie from Silex UK says some of this practice must be unethical and may even be a breach of the law.

“If an artificial, engineered product is sold as a quarried natural stone and then performs poorly, in terms of installation (chemical reaction with cements and resins), wear and maintenance issues, then surely this would constitute a breach of the Construction Law under ‘deception’? Similarly, if a natural stone type is sold as a different stone type and performs badly, then this would be the same.”

There is some discussion about imported stones being given the names of British stones such as Portland, Bath and York, about which Alastair Niddrie responds: “Yorkstone is from India, Welsh Slate is from China - everyone knows that!!!!!”

Nick Bristow from Glebe Stone suggests that perhaps it's time for the UK stone industry to use UK stone.

Take part in the debate on LinkedIn by joining the Stone Federation or Natural Stone Specialist Groups. Click here to go to the Natural Stone Specialist Group.