Outdoor limestone patio floor

Dear Lisa:

The reason why I recommend people who inquire with me not to use limestone is because by saying limestone you're saying very little – if anything at all. There are many different (and I do mean different) kinds of limestone that span from dense and (almost) acceptable rocks, to limestone that will actually fall apart under running water, and everything in between. Unfortunately, it is everybody's experience that the vast majority of stone dealers know about stone just as much as their customers! Consequently, since nobody is there to tell the final end-user if the particular limestone they have in mind is suitable for the project, I can't certainly be the one, from here, to tell.

That being said, certain limestones (very few indeed) could be acceptable for outdoors installation. I.e. Indiana Limestone (but who likes that one, all gray and boring ?... :-)). However, the real problem is the fact that American consumers just don't seem to be able to drive themselves to enjoy their stones !... They're literally slave of them, in the sense that they would like them to look like brand-new all the time; and every little thing and natural change that happen to them is regarded like a damage that must be rectified.

Well, when you install stone outdoors, it ain't gonna happen, no matter what stone it is, and how much you seal it – which is not a good idea anyway for outdoors installations! :-(

Now, in your mom's particular case, maybe her limestone is beyond what could be considered as acceptable even by most open-minded consumers; but if that's the case, there's no “miracle-in-a-bottle” that could ever solve the problem of the wrong stone for the application.