How Bespoke Hexagonal Paving Is Made

Have you ever wondered how stuff – like garden paving – is actually made? Yes? Then you are going to love this post! I was sent behind-the-scenes photos of my hexagonal garden paving being made by CED Natural Stone. I found it so satisfying to see how my bespoke paving was transformed ready for my garden, that I just had to geek out on you and share the photos.

How Bespoke Hexagonal Paving Is Made

My garden makeover is slowly taking shape (we’ve had a few bumps in the road but we are getting there). You can see my garden design ideas over in this post.
One huge element of my garden design is my custom-made hexagonal paving. When the team at CED Natural Stone sent over step-by-step photos I had to share them with you as it is so cool to see how these things are made from scratch.

Before

I had searched the net far and wide for hexagonal paving and I struggled to find any that were the right colours, not slippy and a generous size. That’s how I found CED Natural Stone – who as well as selling a large range of paving and landscaping stones – will also make any paving shape custom to your design.
This is how the stone arrives into the UK in 600mm x 600mm slabs. This is just one part of the stone I’ve ordered in.

They have 40 years experience supplying stone products from domestic gardens and public parks, to high end buildings and commercial streetscapes. In fact, they actually made bespoke hexagonal paving for Kate Gould and her City Living Garden at RHS Chelsea this year which won Gold this year! They used a similar template but mine was much bigger in size at 50cm wide.
I’ve picked two shade of granite for my garden – Blue Grey Granite and Silver Grey Granite (you can see the latter above ready to be cut).

The design

After to chatting to the team at CED Natural Stone, I discovered they can make almost any custom shape for your garden. They make a template for your in CAD (a type of designer software). This file is then sent over to a company that specialises in water jet cutting, which they then programme it high tech computers ready for cutting.


The machines use powerful water pressure to cut the exact shape that the computer dictates (it’s accurate to the 1mm). The machines are huge in real-life, and can cut two slabs at once.
It’s crazy to think this huge factory was making paving just for me, and all based on a design I came up with!

The photo above shows the before and after of the cutting process. The larger the size paving the less waste you produce.

After

Every piece of paving is checked and double checked to make sure it slots together and that there will be no gaps in laying. This way they can be confident that the water jet cuts are accurate, and everything fits together nicely.

I was surprised to learn it took a week to cut the 28sm meters I needed for my garden makeover. They take a lot of time to make sure each paving slab is picture perfect, ready for my garden.

Look how beautiful they are! This little lot are now currently winging their way to me and will be delivered in the next week.
If you have paving project in mind that you want custom made, get in touch with CED Natural Stone . I found them so helpful and easy to work with, and my paving was turned around in a matter of weeks.
Did you love this mini geek out post? I find it fascinating to see the work and effort that goes into making things for our home.  Who wold think all this tech goes behind garden paving?
I’m so excited to see them be laid in the next week or so (weather permitting). I can’t wait to show you.
***Disclaimer. This was a collaborative post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.