Stone makes a home

Is there any other material quite like stone?

Stone is an investment with both immediate and long term returns. Stone instantly improves the look of your home, providing you with increased enjoyment as a place to live. For the future, you can be confident that stone will improve the value and marketability of your property.

Ca' Pietra is a collection of classic stones designed specifically to provide something to suit any interior project and any budget. Whether you are looking for a flourish of Italian style, or the more restrained look of an English country house, Ca' Pietra has the stone for you.

Knowing Stone

There is a great deal of myth surrounding stone – it is sometimes unfairly labelled as tricky to install and difficult to maintain.

The fact is that stone is not a complicated material – but it shouldn't be compared to mass-produced alternatives.

Stone is a natural material – every single piece is totally unique and its individuality, character and charm evolve and increase as the years pass. These qualities can never be claimed for man-made products churned out on a production line.

Funnily enough, the synthetic products that most closely resemble stone can actually be more expensive than real stone. Why pay extra for a material that is striving to be something else!

Designing with stone

Many design professionals regard the floor as the most important part of the whole interior. A really good quality floor will lift everything. Stone is not a complicated product, but proper consideration of the possibilities at the earliest stage will ensure that you select a material that is appropriate for your project, your property and your lifestyle.

First things first

The most important thing to establish is if stone can be used in the intended location.The surface you intend to fix the tiles to is called the substrate. Not all substrates are suitable to receive stone.

A wooden floor will require special preparation and most substrates will need some form of general preparation.

Overall look

The overall design feel that you are seeking will be determined mainly by your personal taste but the style of property will probably also have an influence on your choice.

If you want an informal feel and maybe an antique look, then you may wish to consider a pattern made up of random sized stones with perhaps one of our aged finishes. If you want to achieve a smarter look then you will probably consider a more geometric pattern with all of the stones the same size and in a flat, honed finish.

The stone finish that you select is a really important decision, as it has a big impact on the final look of your floor or surface. Take a look at different samples to see which you like best.

Remember that stone looks quite different in different lights – be sure to view the stone in the intended setting before making a final choice.

Whatever you are looking to achieve, Ca' Pietra provides lots of options.

Practicality and maintenance

Another consideration is how practical the stone will be in the intended application. Really – almost all of our stones work equally well in most situations, but some are more suited to particularly demanding rooms such as a busy kitchen for instance. Also, remember some finishes can make your floor more slippery.

We will be able to advise which stones are most appropriate for different uses.

All stone, by its nature, is hardwearing. As long as you look after it properly, it will last virtually forever. Day to day maintenance is really quite simple – the key things to remember are to regularly vacuum the stone to keep it free from dust and grit, and only to use proprietary stonecare products for cleaning.

Your fitter will seal the stone when it is first fixed and we recommend giving the stone a wipe over with the sealer once a year or so – just to help maintain the protection against staining.

Pricing and patterns

Please note that when you buy stone in one of our patterns (French, English, Moroccan, Irish and Greek) you must buy at least one 'repeat' – these vary between 1.28 sq m and 3.2 sq m. The prices in this brochure are per square metre of stone. Therefore a 'repeat' will cost more than one square metre.