Difference Between Blue Engineering Bricks and Black Limestone Slabs

 

Blue Engineering Bricks and Black Limestone Slabs are very different materials. Blue Engineering Bricks are bricks that have been fired at ultra-high temperatures in a very low oxygen environment. This process makes them very strong, very hard, and gives them their distinctively smooth blue/black appearance. They are a decidedly industrial product and are generally used in foundations, meaning that they are not generally on display.

Our Kotah Black limestone paving on the other hand is completely natural. Quarried from the living rock and then simply cut to shape. Its dark colour, with shades of grey and silver running through the surface is entirely natural, there are no dyes, chemicals or industrial processes involved at any point in the production of our black limestone paving.

However, while these two building products are very different, they do have many features which complement each other. The dark colouring of blue Engineering Bricks and our Black Limestone lends them a sleek, urban look which can provide a wonderful contrast with the lush greens of garden shrubs and an interesting alternative to the more traditional grey limestones that have been the default for garden paving for so long.

The two materials are also extremely durable. This durability is literally baked in to blue engineering bricks – they are designed for the construction of building foundations and so have been created to have incredible strength, especially when being compressed. No such engineering goes into black limestone slabs, which are just naturally strong. Limestone is one of the softer rocks – much less hard and dense than stones like granite, for example – but it is still a rock. When you lay down patios or pathways using black limestone slabs you can be sure that they will be able to take whatever punishment the British weather choose to throw at them.

Black limestone and blue engineering bricks are also extremely easy to maintain. In the case of engineering bricks, you are unlikely to have to undertake any maintenance at all – their hard, smooth surface does not generally suffer the weathering or algae growth that can sometimes mar the appearance of regular clay bricks. Black limestone can sometimes be affected by moss or algae, which left unchecked can be unsightly, but all you ever need to do is give the affected area a brief blast from a pressure washer to bring it back to pristine condition.

The durability which is inherent to both materials also make them extremely reusable. When structures that have been constructed from blue engineering bricks or black limestone are eventually removed, the building materials can be salvaged, reclaimed and reused. This makes them incredibly environmentally friendly materials because such reuse completely cuts out the energy needed to make new bricks or cut more stone.

So yes, the two building materials are very different. One is a manufactured industrial product, one is a natural product that has literally been formed in the earth over millennia. But they work incredibly well together to create practical, functional outdoor spaces that look great, are easy to maintain and will last for decades. A clear case of opposites attracting, we would say.