Our Materials & Methods
How every piece is designed, cast, and finished — on one site, start to finish
We are a team of skilled men and women with many years’ experience producing high quality garden ornaments. Everything is done by us, on one site — giving us complete control at every step, and letting us hold everything to the highest of standards.
Step one
Design & creation
We work closely with a local sculptor, drawing on years of experience and direct feedback from our customers to create new and exciting pieces. Great care goes into making sure each item doesn’t just look beautiful — it has to work properly too. We’ve seen too many fountains elsewhere that simply don’t run water well.
Once a design is finalised, we manufacture a mould using industry-leading techniques: silicone for the fine detail — it doesn’t shrink or deform, giving a crisp, sharp reproduction of the original — with a glass fibre case built around it for structure and support throughout manufacturing.
Step two
Materials we use
Our items are cast in reconstituted stone, sourced from quarries here in the UK — limestone (white or grey) or sandstone, milled from 6mm down to dust and bulked out with coarse chippings for strength.
As with any natural stone, there can be slight tonal differences between one load and the next as quarries dig deeper — please be confident that your own order is always produced together, so everything you receive matches, even if it differs very slightly from the exact shade shown in a product photo.
We mix the milled stone with additives developed alongside Armcon, and finish with Lafarge cement — a company with years of experience producing high quality, sustainable cement for precast use.
- Improved strength gain at all ages
- Improved durability — more dense, less permeable
- Reduces segregation and bleed water effects while improving cohesion
- Improved surface finish and workability retention
- Reduced water penetration and improved frost resistance
- Reduced efflorescence, with better colour retention in pigmented mixes
We also add fibre reinforcement strand to our bowls and urns — it disperses through the mix during casting, creating additional bonds throughout the piece for extra strength.
Step three
Our method
We use a wet cast method, which allows for greater detail in the finished piece and real consistency between one item and the next.
The materials are mixed to our own specification, then poured into the mould. Vibrating tables and sticks compact the mix and disperse it evenly through every detailed area of the mould.
Each mould then cures in our drying room for 24 hours. Once cured, we carefully release the item and store it in our warehouse to dry out fully before dispatch — then it’s hand-finished to a high standard and wrapped onto a pallet ready for shipping.
Please read
Winter care
Our products are frost proof and suitable to be left in the garden year-round — but we can’t protect against, or cover, ice damage. When water freezes in a bowl or basin, the ice expands and can crack the stone — the same way it would a water pipe or a car engine left unprotected in a hard frost.
In the coldest months, we recommend:
- Draining any bowls or basins of standing water
- Covering the fountain with something insulating, to stop rainwater refilling it
We’re not able to cover ice-damaged fountains under warranty — a little care in the depths of winter goes a long way.
Choosing a finish
Every one of our products can be finished in a range of stone colours and paint effects — from natural Classic Limestone through to an aged Antique Stone or Bronze paint finish.
See all our colour options