Gravel Ballast Roof

A tightly packed assembly of small, coloured pebbles and stones, gravel is widely used in landscape architecture, interior design and small scale, light infrastructure projects. It can be left loose as it would be in its natural state on beaches, compacted, or laid into and bound to a base surface, such as render, to create pebbledash effects on walls. Coarse in grain as an assemblage, the pebbles themselves tend to be fairly smooth, having been worn down over thousands of years in rivers and waterways. The geological composition of each pebble gives it distinctive colours, ranging from pearly white, to volcanic black via greys, earthy browns, oranges and reds, sandy yellows, and mellow sky, navy and blue-grey colours. Compositionally, the eclectic collection and random locations of each coloured pebble combine to form a neutral, mellow, pastel-tone surface. If laid in driveways, the substrate or backing soil will be porous to allow water to drain naturally, while the backing surface, such as render, for walling, flooring and indoor surfaces will be waterproof if laid, set and treated correctly, while the pebbles themselves are hard-wearing. These factors combine to allow for specification for use on driveways, high-traffic floor areas, water feature beds, rockeries, worktops, bathroom and kitchen surfaces, or decorative small mosaic-style pieces on bathroom, kitchen and fireplace surrounds.