How to choose the right paving materials for public spaces

Kilkenny Limestone, a Brachot Family Member, has its own quarries specialising in extracting and processing the world-renowned Irish Blue Limestone (also called Kilkenny Limestone). The company combines state-of-the-art technology in its quarries with a consistent approach to quality, ensuring its products meet the highest of standards. The Irish natural stone has valuable, authentic and durable properties. The simple blue-grey natural stone with its characteristic fossils can be processed with numerous options, shapes and finishes to suit all kinds of styles.

Kilkenny Limestone has ultra-modern production sites and can work on a highly project-specific basis. Using its own quarries immediately widens the range of options for finished products: think cobblestones, kerbstones, street furniture, outdoor flagstones, tactile paving, edging for platforms and pavements, traffic management features, profiled drainage channels, doorsteps, and more – custom finished for every project. Kerbstones are produced in variable lengths between 80 and 160 centimetres, to make the best possible use of the natural reserves.

Granitarn takes you straight to the source. This Brachot Family Member subscribes to a sustainable vision for high-quality French and European natural stone. Granitarn has centralised every step of the value chain on its site in Burlats in the south of France for paving and landscaping materials. Every stage of the process is covered, from quarrying to cutting and finishing to distribution. The typical local tarn granite is extracted sustainably and responsibly from the company’s own quarries and the blocks are then processed into slabs, flagstones, kerbstones, cobblestones – and more.

The company has a collection of highly modern machinery to give the different types of tarn a wide variety of finishes. Standard surface finishes such as flaming, bush hammering or sandblasting yield an anti-slip stone with a rough look and a robust feel. If you prefer the purity of a stone hewn directly from a block, the cut finish is the perfect choice. Bespoke in-house developed finishes are also available for any project.

Rose de la Clarté is a French granite and is quarried at our own quarry in Perros-Guirrec. This granite stands out for its dominant pink colour and is a very hard and strong material. It is used for both indoor and outdoor applications, such as for paving stones, kerbs, etc.

The granite Blue Antique® is quarried at our Norwegian quarry of Family Member Larvik Granite. This Norwegian granite is slightly different to our other granite stones, with its unique warm brown colour, and blue and turquoise crystals. Blue Antique® can be cut in any direction, as crystals and colouring are strong and evenly spread, meaning that first choice materials can be sourced from second and third choice blocks.

At the Larvik Granite quarries, the company extracts rough-hewn blocks of world-famous Labrador granite in a variety of colours: Labrador Blue Pearl, Labrador Vert/Emerald Pearl, Labrador Blue Antique, Silver Pearl and Nordlys. These blocks can then be cut into surfacing products by other Brachot Family Members.

We have the Indian sandstone kandla in our range. This sandstone is quarried in areas where child labour is sometimes still present. That is why Brachot was involved in the foundation of the International Responsible Business Conduct TruStone Initiative and signed the Trustone convenant for responsible sourcing of natural stone. Working with other Family Members, the initiative strives for fair, sustainable extraction and handling of natural stone across the world, with respect for labour conditions, the environment, safety and human rights. Every Family Member is committed to transparency throughout the value chain from quarrying to distribution, so that problems can be traced to their root cause and tackled appropriately.

Besides granite from our own quarries, we also offer granite from all corners of the world: Chinese, Portuguese, etc. Our team of experts always looks for the granite that best suits your needs and requirements for your specific project. For this purpose, we rely on our team of geologists, among others, who make an expert selection of materials on site.