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Grab our range of Traditional Walling in regular rectangular natural stone sizes at 500x250x30mm and 600x300x30mm laid in structured layers for a Rockface finish and Ashlar layout.
During the years, irregular stone walling picked up a reputation as the authentic and preferred choice and taking over the domain of coursed stone quietly.
Ashlar stones known as squared stone laid in proper rows was how people built with stone for most of recorded history. Cathedrals, city walls and the oldest stone buildings still standing all use it.
Traditional Walling gives you loose individual pieces cut to regular rectangles and squares and your installer lays them in structured layers. Same way stone walls have gone up for centuries. String lines, consistent joints where an irregular wall looks like it grew, this traditional wall looks like someone drew it first.
| Attributes | Stone Planet Traditional Walling |
|---|---|
| Supply format | Loose individual pieces |
| Geometry | Regular rectangles and squares |
| Sizes | 500 x 250 x 30 mm and 600 x 300 x 30 mm |
| Layout | Structured layering |
| Face | Rockface |
| Corners | Not available in this format |
| Wastage allowance | Around 15%, more for complex areas |
| Suitable for | Exterior and interior architectural walls |
People use these terms as if they’re interchangeable and they’re describing two completely different things.
Ashlar describes the masonry method and not the surface of the stone. It means squared, regular pieces laid in layers with consistent joints. Here the finish of the stone is not in consideration.
Rockface describes the surface of the piece, not its shape. A rockface piece keeps square-cut edges but carries a natural split finish that give rough three dimensional look while the piece itself stays regular underneath that texture.
Put the two together and you get what most people actually picture when they say “traditional stone wall” . Controlled geometry and uncontrolled texture is the best way to describe Rockface and Ashlar.
Both our Traditional sizes run 30 mm thick and hold the same 2:1 proportion.
At 500 x 250 x 30 mm, each piece covers 0.125 m². A square metre willhave 8 pieces before joints. At 600 x 300 x 30 mm, each piece covers 0.18 m². There will be 5.6 pieces per square metre before joints.
The smaller size gives you more lines and a busier wall. The larger size gives fewer, bigger units and a calmer wall. Put the 600 x 300 on a small courtyard wall and it can look oversized. Put the 500 x 250 across a big elevation and it can start to look fussy.
Every other walling format on Stone Planet is imported with a dedicated corner piece. Either a single L-shaped piece for loose irregular stone or a two-piece interlocking system for our panels. Traditional works differently and it’s genuinely the most authentic way to turn a corner in stone masonry.
Stonemasons have always resolved a coursed corner through quoining. Here long and short legs alternate up the corner and are cut from the standard pieces themselves rather than from a separate corner piece.
Quoined corners look deliberate precisely because the pattern distributes weight
Give this format more planning time than any other in our range because regular geometry exposes every shortcut a mason takes.
Work off a level datum line and never off the ground or the slab or an existing paved edge Do the vertical arithmetic before the first piece goes up. The wall height divided by course height and joint width included.
Set the openings out before the field pieces. Door heads, window sills and reveals all sit at fixed heights and a course line that lands cleanly on a sill reads as resolved architecture.
Plan the corners on paper too, in the alternating pattern from above, before anyone starts cutting on site.
Regular pieces still leave choices about how they go together and each one produces a different wall.
Stack bond lines every vertical joint straight up the wall in a grid. It is contemporary and precise and it demands precision to match because there’s a straight line for the eye to measure against. Beautiful when a patient installer gets it right.
Broken layering mixes both standard sizes, letting course heights alternate and vertical joints break unevenly. This is where the format meets the random ashlar idea.
Always get your installer to dry lay a run on the ground first.
Where a joint cracks, it opens a direct path for water and the wall makes that easier to spot than most. Check the wall once a year and check the joint lines specifically rather than just eyeballing the face for obvious damage. Repointing a few metres of failed joint is a small, straightforward job. A wall that’s been letting water in behind failed joints for a few years is a considerably bigger one.
Fresh mortar and adhesive residue during the build itself is a separate issue and it deserves proper care rather than a quick wipe with whatever’s on hand . You can read our guide on cleaning natural stone during installation at Free Form wall cladding category page.
Traditional Walling works well where a building already carries strong horizontal lines because the coursing picks those lines up and the whole façade tightens visually. Use the 600 x 300 size on a large elevation and the 500 x 250 on a smaller one or anywhere seen up close.
This is the format at its strongest. Quoined corners with alternating returns give a pier a genuinely built quality that no irregular format can reproduce.
A boundary wall reads as architecture rather than landscape and the capping matters more here than on any other format. Coordinate the coping dimension with your stone size at the drawing stage. For the whole boundary project decision rather than the walling format itself, that belongs on Boundary Walls.
Entry halls, stairwells and anywhere the stone sits alongside strong straight lines.
Sandstone carries the strongest Rockface character in terms of any natural stone. That is why it dominates traditional walling alongside granite and bluestone for a harder and denser architectural look.
Read more about Sandstone, Granite, Bluestone
Both formats supply loose individual pieces and both need a stonemason rather than a general tiler. It is the shape that changes the stone.
Choose Traditional when the wall should look designed. Choose Free Style Walling when it should look composed.
Panel formats suit some projects better than either loose option. Stacked Stone Walling gives you a layered texture in a lighter panel and Ledge Stone Walling gives you larger pieces in a heavier cement-backed panel. View Our Natural Stone Wall Cladding: What to Check Before You Buy any Formats.
Stone Planet is a wholesaler and importer of natural stones. Traditional walling is the format where architects and designers come to us directly rather than through a builder.
We’ll work through the course height calculation with you and tell you honestly which of our products carry corners and which rely on quoining.
We supply the material and leave the laying to your mason or builder and we’d always rather tell you that plainly than let a polished spec sheet suggest otherwise.
Rockface describes the face/front of the stone walling. It has a a natural split finish that projects out from a squared edge. Ashlar describes the masonry method where squared pieces arre laid in courses with consistent joints. A rockface ashlar wall carries both: regular, coursed geometry with a rugged, textured face.
They're cut to 500 x 250 x 30 mm and 600 x 300 x 30 mm. Natural stone carries real tolerances and a split rockface face can vary in colour but that is a variation in projection by nature.
Yes. Mix both standard sizes across the wall and you get varying course heights with vertical joints breaking unevenly using the random ashlar approach. The wall stays ordered because every piece is squared but it just loses the mechanical regularity of a single-size layout. For a wall with no squared geometry at all, Free Style Walling is the format to look at instead.
Match the module to the wall size and how close people stand to view it. The 600 x 300 mm size gives fewer, larger units and suits big elevations seen from a distance. The 500 x 250 mm gives more course lines and suits smaller walls and anything viewed close up.
Yes, they can be imported for a special project but the standard availability is the faces in traditional wall cladding.
8 pieces per square metre at 500 x 250 mm and around 5.6pieces for 600 x 300 mm sizes. Always consider wastage of around 10 to 15%. Coursed walls need more cutting than irregular formats.
Yes. Stone Planet can import custom dimensions where production is feasible. Minimum quantities, timing and exact feasibility depend on the stone and project.
