Project:
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
 
Overview:
The John Anderson Building, Rottenrow East, Strathclyde University. Features Grey Basalt Planc stone cladding linear strips applied to exterior façade.
 
Installed almost 10 years ago, the Grey Basalt Planc™ is an innovative product still unique to this day, given its dense, polished basalt finish and its precision machine cut edgings. Strong and yet relatively lightweight with 12mm thickness, it consists of sets sizing 800mm in length and heights of 140/80/60mm wide. The uniform and consistent colour of the grey basalt material delivers a timeless look that is modern, smooth and low maintenance.
 
Choosing a quality Norstone® cladding solution ensures that a building’s façade appearance will remain clean and impressive for years to come. Planc™ - it stands the test of time.
 
Don’t accept cheap, inferior substitutes, if it matters, choose Norstone® stone cladding.

About the Client/Project:
https://www.strath.ac.uk/
 
Strathclyde is a multi-award-winning university in the heart of the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as 'A Place of Useful Learning', Strathclyde is a leading technological University with around 30,000 students from more than 140 nations.
 
Benefiting from a £12 million refurbishment project to develop cutting-edge facilities for advanced laser and plasma physics research, the John Anderson Building is the home of the Department of Physics. The facility boasts a series of specialist bunkers – which have seven tonne, 1-metre-thick doors. They house some of the UK’s most powerful lasers which help university scientists undertake ground-breaking research.

These pictures show the increased demand for high quality, precision cut Norstone stone products. This consignment shown in the photos is the supply to one of our new customers in Southern Ireland.

As the UK's market leading natural stone cladding company, our reputation means we are often recommended by architects and designers, and many of our Rock Panel™, Lynia™, Aksent™, Rustik™ ranges also feature in prominent locations which leads to even more brand recognition.

As a company renowned for superior product construction, high precision installation guidelines back with long warranties, we are the natural choice for discerning clientele.

As a result, Norstone UK Ltd supplies not only the UK market for both Commercial and Retail, but all of Europe.

By having our warehousing in Essex, we can dispatch quickly and efficiently to our customers, wherever they be.

If you are considering a project that will need some faultless stone cladding, then consider contacting us to discuss your requirements - you will not regret it!

Do you want to see how to prepare and install Norstone’s incredible natural stone cladding in real-life projects?

Our American division has partnered with popular Youtuber HandyDadTV to create a video that showcases the amazing Planc™ Platinum Lava Stone cladding system. In this video, created in conjunction with Norstone USA, HandyDad looks at various ranges of Norstone stone cladding and explains why he choose a modern tiled cladding effect over a more traditional stacked stone style.

In this clear and instructive video, he guides the viewer through the process of installing Planc™ Platinum  stone cladding tiles onto a fireplace surround with a range of top DIY tips and guidance for best tools and gear to get the job done! Whilst the video is created with a US audience in mind, the technique and process is exactly the same for installing Norstone over here in the UK too. If you choose Norstone cladding, we would recommend suitable mounting materials and adhesive/sealants options that you can source within the UK which match up to those shown in the video.

For more guidance and any questions on the installation, please contact us; we'd be happy to help!

More awesome HandyDadTV videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/smalltal...
HandyDadTV website: https://handydad.tv/
Follow HandyDad on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter: @HandyDadTV

Norstone's stunning Charcoal XLS stone cladding system has recently been used to great effect at Instinct House, the home of design consultancy firm Instinct Laboratory. Check out the gallery showcasing the striking building and the superb juxtaposition of natural stone cladding and futuristic panelling.

George from Instinct Laboratory comments:

"instinct laboratory is a world leading behavioural design consultancy. With clients ranging from global brands to governments to medical centres to elite performance sports teams, we need an extraordinary place to work that reflects our research and thinking.  

We wanted to create an environment that inspires, energises and promotes effectiveness. Craftsmanship and quality were a priority throughout the build and this is why we chose Norstone for the striking exterior. With the entire place built on feelings and emotions, Norstone Charcoal  XLS was chosen specifically to reflect the ever-changing experience of our business."

Visit their website to see and find out more about Instinct Laboratory.

Natural Stone Corners
The world’s only interlocking stone cladding finger joint corner system

Uniquely handmade to fit every corner, the inter-woven fingers deliver the most seamless natural stone look possible to create a very distinctive and natural corner.

Interlocking Stone Panels,
Seamless and joint free stone veneer
Our carefully calibrated interlocking stone panels align accurately to allow for rapid installation and minimise vertical seams, creating a seamless look. 

• The stepped ends on the interlocking stone panels create a seamless look because the vertical stone joints are virtually eliminated.
  
• The skills required to create a seamless look of traditional stacked stone cladding, plus on site labour costs, are significantly reduced with our exclusive interlocking rock panels.
  
• The modular format of our unique integrated finger joint corners guarantees a simple and effective stone cladding installation

Precision Calibration
Norstone's precise calibration is the process of ensuring that our stone cladding panels and corners are cut and manufactured to fit seamlessly and accurately every single time on site. Norstone prides itself on producing carefully calibrated natural stone products that will avoid frustration and save time during installation.

As with all natural stone products the colours of natural stone cladding and stone veneers may vary from piece to piece.  It's important to know that the colour of the natural stone cladding and stone veneer may also appear to be different as a result of the natural and artificial lighting conditions and depending on where the stone is installed.

Those lovely people at Garden Spaces will be exhibiting their incredibly stylish wares again at this year’s Southampton Boat Show on stand A106 (Sept 12th - 19th).

We are flattered that they’ve again chosen our new Charcoal XLV rock panels as the finish for their exhibit for this prestigious show. Their previous showing of a Norstone finish at this year’s Grand Designs London show proved to be a great success and a major talking point.  Our Ochre Blend and Charcoal rock panels (both XLV and XLS) are widely used in gardens, landscaping and water features and are by far our biggest sellers in this market.

However, one leading garden designer has planned to use our Ivory and Sahara panels in her future designs so we're waiting with bated breath to see the results. We will, of course, add them to our website for all to see as soon as we get the photographs. 

Owing to popular demand, we have now added Sahara, Ivory and White to the previous XLV range of Charcoal and Ochre Blend. These are identical to the standard XLS panels apart from featuring fewer pieces per panel which gives bolder, chunkier look highly suitable for grand scale projects.

We've seen Norstone used in some pretty unusual places and the versatile uses clients come up with never ceases to amaze us, although we've yet to see it used on a boat - please let us know if you see one!

However, you don't need to be a sailor or boat-owner to go to the show and if you're thinking of utilising your garden to add another much-needed room to your house then we strongly recommend talking the experts at Garden Spaces and seeing (and touching - it’s ok, everyone does!) Norstone at first hand on a real installation.


Tell them we sent you! 

Going for gold - RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Following a last minute S.O.S. from multi award-winning garden designers Bartholomew Landscaping, our crack team of installers 
were dispatched to Chelsea with indecent haste to solve what appeared to be an impossible problem. A truckload of our Ochre Blend natural stone cladding was loaded up at the warehouse and sent in a westerly direction to brave the M25 with instructions not to spare  the horses.

Stoke -On-Trent’s Mandate For Change garden at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show featured some intricate wall designs which proved to be far too time-consuming to be completed using traditional construction methods by the strict deadline. Our intrepid installers quickly got to work in a race against the clock...

Norstone’s stacked stone panels can be cut to accommodate any curvature, even tricky concave sections and, better still, this is achieved without splitting or cracking the stone, saving valuable time and money. The panels were quickly cut in three sections using nothing more hi-tech than a wet saw, and rapidly fixed using a revolutionary new stone adhesive from Laticrete. There was an almost audible sigh of relief as the complex design started to come to life. When we say we can install fifteen square metres a day, we mean it! No time-consuming grouting or pointing was needed, meaning that the job was finished in days rather than weeks. The finished wall was a thing of beauty and still gave the designers time to work their horticultural magic on our stone tapestry.

We were pretty pleased with our efforts and it seems we weren't the only ones...

Designer Mathew Unwin of Bartholomew Landscaping:

"Thank you so much for working with us at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2013.
I was immensely impressed with the Norstone walling.  The finished garden was something to be truly proud of – the stone wall was beautiful and it was a real achievement that your team supplied and installed a fantastic product so quickly – especially under the tight ‘Chelsea’ time scales!!

The RHS may have awarded the garden a Silver, but the judges feedback was that the wall was fantastic and if judged on its own it would have been a GOLD medal. The feedback from the public and fellow Chelsea professionals was also highly complementary.

Very well done to your team, we would love to work with Norstone again at Chelsea Flower Show and will look to specify your product in other suitable projects in the future."

Ground Force? Pffft! Alan Titchmarsh eat your heart out!

Having encountered a problem with another supplier for our Centenary Chelsea Flower Show Garden 2013, we approached Jack Jago (Norstone) for his help and advice, who in turn was very professional and super efficient when it came to solving our immediate problem which threatened the completion of our garden. 


Jack also kindly offered to take over the sponsorship and had his team of highly skilled operatives and materials on site within 2 days, with all the works completed to the highest possible standard and within tight time-frame and constraints that one faces at a show such as Chelsea.


Lastly, it was an absolute pleasure to have worked with Norstone who ultimately delivered beyond all our expectations.

Barry Burrows
Managing Director
Bartholomew Landscaping