Question 1

A granite garden bench price covers how many pieces?

Accepted Answer

A granite garden bench price comes down to the unit before it comes down to money: the gaps are rarely about who is expensive — they come from counting a different number of pieces. The common build is three pieces: one seat slab laid across two stone bases and held by its own weight; the slab is priced per piece and each base per piece, so one bench is one slab plus two bases. A second build hollows a single block from underneath to leave two feet — one piece, nothing to assemble, but far more waste, a shorter maximum length, and a forklift on site. A third uses two full-length bars as legs, four pieces in total and clearly heavier. Priced against the same word, the three numbers cannot be compared. Write it into the order: how many pieces make one bench, the length, width and thickness of each, and whether the slab merely sits on the bases or is located by pins or a shallow groove.

Question 2

How heavy is one bench, and what is the net-weight ceiling per 20ft container?

Accepted Answer

Weight starts with the slab: length × width × thickness × 2.7 t/m³. A 1500×400×80 slab is 1.5×0.4×0.08 = 0.048 m³, times 2.7 gives 129.6 kg. Bases at 300 wide × 300 deep × 400 high are 0.036 m³ and 97.2 kg each, 194.4 kg for the pair, so one bench totals 324 kg. That number settles three things: two people cannot lift it, so a forklift or tripod goes on site; a 20ft container is referenced at 346 m² of 30mm slab, about 28 t of net stone, and that figure is only a ruler — 28 t divided by 324 kg is about 86 benches, a net-weight ceiling; benches are shaped pieces, and crate voids, crates and dunnage all consume weight, so the bookable count is always lower. Bases stay the same size across the three lengths, but their position changes: on a 1200 bench set them 1000 outer-to-outer with 100 of overhang at each end, a 400 clear span; at 1500, 1300 outer with 100 of overhang, a 700 span; at 1800, 1300 outer with 250 of overhang, still a 700 span.

Question 3

Will it tip when someone sits on the end?

Accepted Answer

Tipping is about two measurements: how wide the support footprint is, and how far the slab overhangs it. The footprint is the rectangle bounded by the outer bottom edges of the two bases — its length is the distance between those outer edges, its depth is the base depth — 300 here, against a 400-wide slab, so 50 of overhang each side, too little to matter. Sitting at the very end puts the body's centre of gravity almost at the slab edge; the longer the overhang, the more likely that centre falls outside the footprint, and then only the bench's own weight holds it down. On a 1500 bench with bases set to 1300 outer-to-outer and 100 of overhang at each end, 324 kg sits inside the footprint and an adult at the end cannot move it. Pull the bases in to 900 with 300 of overhang, and at the end only self-weight is left: soft ground or a settling bedding layer and the seat pitches forward. Keep bases near the ends, never bunched in the middle. Three cases do tip: a single-base round stool, where the footprint is only the base ring and a person on the rim falls outside it; bases standing on loose soil or a sand bed that compresses; and a slab with no location detail, which slides off as soon as someone shifts their weight. The third is the cheapest to fix — two locating pins or one shallow groove costs less than redoing the bedding.

Question 4

Which surface finish keeps the seat from being slippery or rough?

Accepted Answer

Only two and a half finishes can be sat on: flamed, bush-hammered, and natural split for the sides only. The sequence is one line: block cut, thickness calibrated, surface worked, edges chamfered, dry assembly, packing. The money is not in the stone but in the surface work and the edge work. Polished cannot be a seat — slicker than ice after rain and glaring in sun — so it belongs on sides or indoors. Bush-hammered drives hammer points into the grain: coarsest grip, still biting when wet, but rough to sit on, most noticeable in thin trousers in summer. Flamed bursts the surface grain with a flame: finer texture, softer under hand, which is why parks and plazas use it. The real bottleneck is the order of the two steps. Chamfer first and the hammer or flame breaks the end arris; work the face first and the fresh chamfer cuts across the grain, so a hand polish has to be added — one more operation. A quote that drops that hand polish delivers a white line at every end.

Question 5

Is Sesame Grey G602 a good choice for benches?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it is the grade we usually recommend for garden pieces. Sesame Grey has a mid-grey base with fine grain, so colour variation within one batch is small and a row of benches will not look patchy; granite takes up little water, so rain and sun do not swell or warp it, and a flamed or bush-hammered seat does not show handprints and dust. One warning: a 30mm slab cannot be the seat. Our stock is 30mm, which is right for tops, paving and coping, but a 1500 seat has a clear span of 700 — bases 1300 outer-to-outer, less 300 of base width at each end — with nothing underneath, so a person standing or jumping puts the whole impact on that span and 30mm will not take it. Standard seats are made from calibrated stock at 60 to 80, a different material line. The 100 m² minimum and 5-day lead time are the slab line's numbers; a bench is calibrated stock plus two bases, made to order off the slab line, with its own lead time.

Question 6

Two quotes differ — how do I break them down and check?

Accepted Answer

Ask for one bench split into four lines, and question any line that does not reconcile. Line one, the slab: length, width, thickness, then run length×width×thickness×2.7 yourself — if it does not match their weight, either the thickness or the density is wrong. Line two, the bases: piece count and size per piece, two or four, visible at a glance. Line three, finishing: surface, chamfer, locating pins or groove, and which line they sit in. Line four, packing: crate or pallet, benches per crate, gross weight per crate. Only when all four lines exist can you compare numbers. If you get one total, ask whether packing is priced per bench or per crate: a 130 kg slab and 97 kg bases share a crate badly, and the saving comes back as a chipped corner and half a day matching pieces on site.

Seat slab (L×W×T)	Slab weight	Bases (2 pcs)	Net weight per bench	Ceiling by 28 t net stone
1200×400×80 mm	103.7 kg	194.4 kg	298.1 kg	about 93 pcs
1500×400×80 mm	129.6 kg	194.4 kg	324.0 kg	about 86 pcs
1800×450×80 mm	175.0 kg	194.4 kg	369.4 kg	about 75 pcs

Finish	Where it goes	Where the work multiplies	What to ask in the quote
Flamed	Seat and sides	Flame, then cleaning; chamfering afterwards needs hand polishing	One pass or two, and is hand polishing added after chamfering
Bush-hammered	Seat and sides	Hammer points over each face; denser points, longer time	How deep, and are the chamfered faces hammered too
Polished	Sides only, or indoors	Successive grinding from coarse to gloss	Is the seat the same finish as the sides
Natural split	Sides and ends	Split to shape, wider thickness tolerance	Which face is the thickness measured from

Line on the quote	What it should say	How to check it
Seat slab	Length × width × thickness, stated as calibrated stock	Length×width×thickness×2.7 — a mismatch means the thickness is wrong
Bases	Piece count + size per piece	2 or 4 pieces, visible at a glance
Finishing	Surface + chamfer + pins or groove	Which items sit inside the bench price and which are extra
Packing	Crate or pallet, benches per crate, gross weight	Priced per bench or per crate — do not pay twice