The vintage grey.

About the Stone

Grey Sandstone Cobbles — cut from the same Kandla Grey that made Indian sandstone a household name across Britain — are gorgeous, multi-purpose stone cobbles ideal for a variety of uses. They give a vintage look and are well known for their colour, which is why they remain our best selling cobble in the USA, UK and Canada.

Among sandstones, Kandla Grey reigns preeminent: it adorns the market with a consistent and resplendent hue that few natural stones can match. Colour consistency matters more in cobbles than almost any other format — a driveway is hundreds of individual units seen all at once, and a stone that varies wildly slab-to-slab reads as chaos rather than character.

Their might and endurance are legendary, and they are oft employed in the paving of entire driveways, or as the borders of patios. The dense, quartz-rich structure that makes Kandla Grey paving frost-proof in British winters does exactly the same job at cobble scale — with the added benefit that small units flex around curves without a single cut.

The base is everything. Cobbles are rigid units — unlike gravel or block paving they cannot shift and settle gracefully. Once a cobble surface sinks or heaves, the whole thing looks wrong and the only real fix is lifting it and starting again. For a footpath, excavate to roughly 200mm and lay 100mm of compacted MOT Type 1. For a driveway, excavate 250–300mm and lay a minimum 200mm sub-base — 250mm on clay soil. Compact in layers of no more than 100mm at a time.

Full mortar bed — never spot-bed a driveway. Every cobble must sit on a full semi-dry mortar bed of 30–40mm, mixed around 4:1 sharp sand to cement. Spot-bedding on five dabs is the single most common cause of failed cobble driveways in the UK. Set each unit by hand and tap down with a rubber mallet.

Leave a finger-width joint. Natural split cobbles vary in size by their nature — they are not sawn to identical dimensions like concrete block paving. Trying to butt them tight is next to impossible and looks worse, not better. A finger-width joint (roughly 8–10mm on a driveway, 5–8mm on a border) is the trade guide. Stagger the perpendicular joints.

Point them properly. A brush-in resin jointing compound gives the most durable, weed-resistant result and leaves the stone face clean. Traditional sand-cement pointing is cheaper in materials but far slower, and if the mix is too wet it will stain the stone permanently. Whichever you choose, keep the surface swept clean as you go.

Order 10% extra. Standard for any natural stone — covers cuts, breakage and future repairs. Keep the offcuts.

Care & Maintenance

Once laid and cured, Grey Cobbles need almost nothing from you. An annual jet wash keeps them looking fresh — but keep the pressure low, under about 1500 PSI, or you will blast the jointing straight out and create the very problem you were trying to avoid.

Sweep with a soft broom and wash with a mild, pH-neutral detergent. Spot-clean spills rather than letting them sit. Avoid acidic cleaners: they can etch natural stone, and on limestone-based cobbles the damage is permanent. If a joint washes out over the years, top it up rather than leaving it — open joints let water under the bed and that is how movement starts.