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Flexible Stone Series · MBLMS
Flexible Limestone Panel
Limestone with nothing done to it: no banding, no veining, no fossil the size of a coin. Just the flat, slightly gritty bed that makes a white wall look built rather than painted.
Technical data sheet, MBLMS (PDF, 0.9 MB)·Colour card, 106 surfaces in four series (PDF, 10.4 MB)
The face is a fine oolitic limestone, the kind that goes into a Portland-style facade. Up close there is a scatter of shell grit and a few hairline cracks; from a metre away it is an even, matte grey-cream that takes light without reflecting it.
At 4 mm and 6 kg it is the lightest sheet in the range after the travertine, and the plainest. That plainness is the selling point: it is the only product here that will sit next to a polished concrete floor and a black steel frame without either of them looking staged. Most orders are for a limestone veneer on a white interior wall where a tiler would otherwise be quoting for 600 mm tiles.
Plain is hard to fake
A plain stone is the easiest thing to print badly. What saves this one is the grit: at 1:1 the surface is a scatter of pale specks at different depths, not a uniform noise, and the mould has kept the small pitting that a real bed has where a shell dissolved out.
Two very different jobs
The stair core is a full-height sheet with a shadow gap at the slab and no skirting, which is the detail that makes a cheap stair look expensive. The shopfront is the same sheet outside, fixed on a drained frame, two winters in and no change of colour.
Installed, lime stone
Good for
- Stair cores and lift lobbies in commercial buildings
- Shopfronts and entrance reveals, on a drained frame
- Walls that need to sit next to concrete, steel or oak without a colour clash
- Large flat runs where a veined stone would be too busy
Not for
- Anywhere a fossil or a vein is expected; this stone has neither
- Wet areas below the splash line
- Curved work tighter than a 400 mm radius
It bends further than it looks
Limestone reads as a rigid material, so the surprise is that a 4 mm sheet will take a 400 mm radius cold. The bend shot is the same sheet as the stair core, curled by hand on the factory floor.
Bent by hand, no heat
Grey, cream, and one sand
Four colours: a chalk white, this grey, a warm cream and a sand. The grey is the one that gets specified for commercial work because it hides scuffs, and the chalk is the one that gets specified for galleries, which is a different kind of cleaning problem.
Specification
Everything below applies to the Lime Stone as supplied. The PDF above is the same sheet we send out with a quote; ask for a printed copy and it travels with the sample.
| Sheet size | 1200 × 2800 and 1200 × 3000 mm |
|---|---|
| Thickness | 4 mm ± 0.5 mm |
| Weight | 6 kg/m² ± 0.5 |
| Item code | MBLMS |
| Substrate | Mineral powder, sand and fibreglass, pressed in a steel mould |
| Fire | EN 13501-1 A2-s1,d0, on a non-combustible substrate |
| Fixing | Polymer adhesive, or mechanical fixings on a ventilated frame |
| MOQ | Stocked colours ship from stock, no minimum |
| Lead time | 3–5 days for stock, 20–25 days for production |
Fitting it
Four steps, and the third one is the one that goes wrong.
Questions we get asked
Is it convincing next to real limestone?
At a metre, yes. At 100 mm, a mason will spot it, because the edge is 4 mm and the grit is cast rather than sawn. Nobody stands 100 mm from a wall.
Does it stain?
Less than real limestone, which is porous and wants sealing. This face is closed, so coffee and red wine wipe off if you get to them the same day.
Can it be used externally?
Yes, on a ventilated or drained substrate, with the exterior grade face. Ask for it when you order; the standard face is interior.
How many sheets for a 4 by 3 metre wall?
Four, in 1200 × 3000, with about 8 per cent waste for the cuts.
Sample of Lime Stone
A4 offcut, posted from Ningbo, free. Ask for the colour card too — it covers all thirty-seven surfaces in the series.
Same series