A lot of gardens quite often incorporate Granite chippings into their landscaping. Popular colours of gravel in gardens is grey stone chippings, mixed gravel, brown and blue toned ornamental gravels.
You can buy gravel dumpy bags, also known as jumbo bags of gravel, or you can get the decorative gravel loose by the ton.
Granite gravel chippings are a hard wearing stone chipping and can make any old garden look and feel more modern.
Granite is an Igneous rocks formed by the cooling and solidification of magma or lava.
This rock material has been used for centuries in the building and landscaping industries and can be found in a select few locations throughout the UK.
Some areas of the UK in the northern regions use sandstone or slate as the main building material, as granite can mostly only be found in the southern regions of the country as this is where the location of the main quarries are.
Granite paving slabs are commonly found on the exterior of domestic gardens & modern contemporary style buildings. The silver flamed nature of these slabs provide a natural feel and with it being such a strong igneous rock, it is very hard in nature and will last a long time, even when exposed to the elements.
Throughout the south of the UK, granite is used as an aggregate throughout the groundworks industry as well as the landscaping and building industries, this strong material can be mixed with sand & cement to create a high strength concrete, used as a sub base for under roads & other infrastructure projects.
The geology of Cornwall is dominated by its Granite backbone. Most of the rest of the county is made up of slates.
Granite is considered as a secondary aggregate within Cornwall. The clay mining industry removes the granite material to expose the clay beneath it. Clay is actually decomposed granite rocks mixed with other natural materials in the ground around it.
People in Cornwall are known to use this secondary aggregate and create gravel dumpy bags. They also use it as a granite shingle and even as a decorative gravel for driveways, paths and for other landscaping projects.
Granite is one of the most used materials in the Cornish building, groundworks and landscaping trades. Most builders wouldn’t know what to do without it!
Slate is another type of stone found in abundance across the county of Cornwall, most commonly known ones are Delabole slate, mainly used as roofing tiles and Cornish stone which is used for dry stone walling and crushed to make chippings.
Slate isn’t the best material to use for heavy weight areas as it breaks down very easily under pressure.
This is why Granite is the main material used in many different applications across the county and across the whole country of the United Kingdom.
The cost for Granite vary across the United Kingdom. It will be cheaper in Cornwall as that’s where it is mined, but if you go further up the country you’ll see the price sky rocket due to haulage and carrier fees.
If you’re looking to buy any type of Granite, your best bet is to call a Cornish company first, as more often than not, they will have it and be able to send it to you cheaper than buying it locally to you.