I lay a lot of Indian sandstone paving, in fact I lay more natural stone than any other type of paving slabs by a long shot. More recently I have started laying more mint fossil sandstone patios in particular than any other natural stone and it’s easy to see why.

Like other natural Indian sandstone paving there are a number of pack options available with project packs seeming to be the most desirable. These mixed size patio packs come with 4 different sizes, which include 900x600mm, 600x600mm, 290×600 and 290x290mm and work best for larger areas.

You can also purchase these mint fossil packs in pallets of single sizes such as 600x900mm (large rectangles), 600x600mm (large squares) or the smaller rectangular 290x600mm.

Being hand split it has natural, uneven edges which works perfectly being natural stone. If you want a machine cut edge then I believe you have to opt for mint yellow sandstone instead of mint fossil. Although to me there doesn’t seem to be much difference in colours between the two.

Is the mint fossil Indian sandstone good value for money?

There are many different brands of natural sandstone paving and I’m sure I must have gone through them all as a landscape gardener. What I do know is that the brands can vary in price quite dramatically and a lot of the time the paving looks the same, almost as if they have just been rebranded with a different price tag.

For example, we often lay a natural sandstone paving called Raj Green which I believe is imported and sold by a wide range paving suppliers as (for lack of a better word) budget paving. There doesn’t seem to be an official importer or manufacture advertising themselves as the main face of the Raj Green paving like you see from Marshall’s or Bradstone.

On this particular job we were just short on this Raj Green natural stone paving and couldn’t find a supplier online with stock, and those that did didn’t have a good enough delivery time. Out of panic, we started to call around where a local supplier said that they had Bradstone Imperial Green sandstone paving in stock and that it looked the same, but came with a higher price tag.

Anyway, in short (I can see myself rambling on now), we purchased the Bradstone Imperial Green, layed the slabs against the Raj Geen and guess what? They looked exactly the same!

Mint Fossil, the natural sandstone I was actually reviewing before getting carried away on a hole different colour entirely is imported by the same company as the Raj Green and therefore excellent value for money.

To give you an idea, if you shop around then you should be able to get the Mint Fossil paving slabs from as little as £380 for a pallet of 18.5sm, equivalent to around £20 per squared meter. Not bad when it can be easy to pay double this for rebranded alternatives!

How easy are the mint fossil natural sandstone paving slabs to lay?

I would recommend purchasing calibrated paving slabs with the mint fossil sandstone coming with this option as a 22mm thickness since this will make your life easier when laying, but then I would recommend this with all natural paving.

What I would say is that if you do purchase the uncalibrated 15-22mm slabs then these are going to be noticeably thinner and in theory, will be easier to break when tapping down with a mallet. This being said, the mint fossil sandstone seems to be a strong natural stone as despite using uncalibrated slabs on some jobs, I’ve never cracked one!

The surface is obviously riven due to being natural stone, but apart from the odd one here and there, they tend to have a fairly smooth surface despite the rivens making the laying of the mint fossil easy to lay, being able to join all corners with no noticable lips. Overall the mint fossil sandstone seem to be an easy to lay, strong natural stone.

What do I think about the appearance of the mint fossil natural sandstone patios?

It’s very hit and miss with what colour patio slabs you will receive as they are natural stone after all, but more so with these mint fossil stones. We have opened and layed a full pallet of slabs full of bright yellow and cream colours, only to open the second pallet of slabs full of dark yellows and light browns. Of course you can still see it’s the same natural stone, but if you will be working your way through more than one patio pack then my advice would be to open all of the packs and mix them all up as you go.

Not only can the colours change but the fossil highlights on the mint fossil paving can change too. In some packs you might have slabs absolutely full of crazy fossils and the next you may have more of a 2 tone affect with amazing colour contrasts as opposed to fossil highlights. Either way, no matter the slabs you get, they will look absolutely stunning!

My overall thoughts on the Mint Fossil natural sandstone paving…

If I’m being totally honest…I absolutely love the mint fossil natural stone! So much so that I will be laying them in my very own garden this year. I’ll have to update pictures below once done!

They are a strong natural stone with truly amazing colour contrasts and fossil highlights. Some fossils even look like trees! Once layed, you will have a bright sandy coloured patio with a mixture of creams, yellows and light browns which all go together perfectly.

For the price you pay, they certainly don’t look or feel cheap and this is coming from a professional landscape gardener where paving is the bread and butter of my business. Just be sure to properly maintain them by sealing and jetwashing your natural stone at least once every 2 years and they will give you a lifetime of joy. Your garden will be the envy of all your neighbours!