An Autumn Brown Indian sandstone patio for a home in Maidstone, laid outside a single-storey rear extension where two sets of glazed doors meet at a corner. The stone replaced a cracked concrete strip and a patch of rough lawn, and now runs from both door thresholds out to the boundary fence.
Before: Bi-Folds Opening Onto Broken Concrete
The extension and its glazing were already in when we arrived, but the garden hadn’t caught up. Outside the main bi-folds there was a narrow, broken concrete strip, and beyond it uneven grass with bare, worn patches. The side wall of the extension has its own glazed doors as well, so two openings looked out onto ground you couldn’t comfortably step out onto, let alone put a table and chairs on.
Sandstone Laid Into the Corner Between Both Sets of Doors
The patio fills the L-shaped corner where the extension meets the back of the house. The paving runs right up to the foot of both door frames, so either set of doors opens straight onto stone, and it carries across to the boundary fence on the right with no strip of grass left to mow along the edge. The slabs are laid in a mixed-size random pattern of large squares and rectangles, and pointed in a pale mortar that reads clearly against the darker stone.
The photo shows the clean-down after pointing, with the jet-wash lifting the haze left on the surface. It also shows Autumn Brown at its darkest: wet, the stone turns deep plum, rust and slate grey, and as it dries it lightens to softer browns and lilacs. The warmer slabs pick up the buff brick of the extension, while the greyer ones sit alongside the anthracite door frames.
Works Completed
- Cracked concrete strip outside the bi-folds broken out and removed
- Ground excavated and a new compacted sub-base laid
- Autumn Brown Indian sandstone laid in a mixed-size random pattern
- Paving taken up to both sets of doors and across to the boundary fence
- Joints pointed throughout
- Patio jet-washed after pointing
Natural Stone Patios in Maidstone
Most of the patios we’ve laid in Maidstone recently have been porcelain, including the anthracite porcelain patio and paths we finished earlier this year. This one is natural stone, and it will change over time: sandstone weathers and mellows in a way porcelain doesn’t, and no two slabs are quite the same colour. If you’re weighing up Indian sandstone patios in Maidstone against porcelain, we lay both across Maidstone, Bearsted, Detling, Coxheath, Loose, East Farleigh and Barming. See our natural stone and porcelain patios or get in touch to book a free survey.
