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Indiana Limestone Versus
Concrete Smackdown
Slippery rock Gazette
walls, caps, coping and edging is its ability to be easily manipulated on site. Limestone can be snapped easily to any length needed and quickly touched up using a brick hammer to restore a nice, chiseled face or sandpapered to a smooth, flat edge.
Contractors using natural stone get a lot more flexibility to cut to size on a job site. No matter how it’s cut the grain is the same. Cross-cut a piece of concrete and you see raw, gnarly bits of aggre- gate. It’s like cutting a ceramic tile from a standard stock size to fit an installation and seeing the exposed, orange edge. That raw edge sticks out. With Indiana Limestone if you have to finish off a cut edge, it’s going to look the same as all the other pieces.
Looking for Some Muscle? Indiana Limestone Brings it Every Time!
Concrete products are sup- posed to be 8,000 PSI for paving. Indiana limestone clocks in at 4,000 PSI or better, according to the Indiana Limestone Institute. Does that lower PSI mean any- thing for hardscapes? Only if you’re building a California free- way (or an airport runway). 4,000 PSI is more than adequate for any residential application. Don’t let the concrete industry let you think that Indiana Limestone isn’t up for any outdoor project.
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Easy to work with, lime- stone wall caps and cop- ing can be easily snapped to size on site.
IN
crete or Indiana Limestone for a hardscape project, the winner just might surprise you (we’re looking at you, limestone).
Let’s get ready to rumble!
Despite the common perception that concrete products offer su- perior durability and that Indiana Limestone is just too weak for many outdoor jobs, the truth of the matter is that this type of nat- ural stone checks all the marks for holding up over time, and will still look good long after concrete has begun to fade and deteriorate.
So, why should Indiana Limestone be a solid contender for your next landscape job? Let’s go a few rounds and find out:
Natural Stone Looks the Same for Decades
A major difference between concrete and natural stone is that stone is the same composition throughout - what you see on the surface is the same as what’s on the inside, not a superficial layer added on to a base material. When a concrete paver wears with time and weather, the aggregate is exposed, revealing a rough, chunky surface that loses its
Steven Schrenk
Polycor
original engineered color and tex- ture. Natural stone wears evenly over decades and maintains the same texture and tone.
Concrete is durable, for sure, but its appearance becomes less-than-acceptable over time. Even after a couple of winters, concrete paver surfaces will start breaking down — salting will ex- pose the aggregate and the nice, finished top that mimicked natu- ral stone will be gone. What cus- tomer would want to look at that?
You’ve heard the banter be- tween concrete competitors - who has the latest technology to render the best concrete color retention? You can do away with the prob- lem all together and use natural stone. It doesn’t have any colo- rants added to it so it won’t fade. No matter what, natural stone is just going to look better as it ages. Concrete will only deteriorate with time and weather.
Indiana Limestone is a Team Player
When it comes to ease of working with a product, Indiana
the battle between
whether to choose con-
Solid limestone steps: beautiful AND durable.
These pavers in a three piece pattern will look this good for generations to come. As they wear they’ll stay the same tone and texture.
limestone is the clear champ. To get down and dirty, the way Indiana Limestone is produced creates superior tolerances to any- thing concrete manufacturers can achieve. What does that mean? Contractors aren’t going to have to mess around on site as much or worry about something lining up, making the installation that much quicker.
Concrete products can vary by up to 1/16 of an inch which can result in lippage between pav- ers, creating trip hazards. That’s the nature of a poured product that undergoes a curing process. Because natural stone products aren’t poured into molds but are sawn and gauged instead, the products hold to a tighter toler- ance. Thanks to the best technol- ogy and equipment, Polycor can tune its line to hold to dimensions within a 1/16 of an inch.
One of the advantages of using Indiana Limestone for landscape
Pavers, garden wall and wall caps in Indiana Limestone-Full Color BlendTM.