Midnight Black stackstone, natural split slate in two formats: 600x150mm strips and 450+150x150mm Z-shaped corner panels, both 10 to 25mm thick. Walling is sold by the square metre, corners by the linear metre. This is the black feature wall product.
Black Stone Cladding That Reads Black
A lot of stone sold as black cladding turns out charcoal-grey on the wall. Midnight Black is cut from the same slate as our Midnight Black slatestone tiles, and it holds a genuinely dark face, deep matt black with the faint sheen slate has. Water features darken it further, which is why it is the standard pick behind waterfalls and pool blade walls; wet, it goes ink black.
Where it works: feature walls inside and out, pool walls, outdoor kitchens, fireplace surrounds, front entries against pale render. Black cladding is high contrast by nature, so it does its best work on one wall rather than four.
Panels, Not Loose Stone
Stackstone is a panel system. Each 600x150mm piece is a pre-assembled strip of split slate fingers, so the wall builds in straight courses far faster than loose stone, and the joints all but disappear. The Z-shaped corner units interlock around external corners so the bond staggers and the corner looks solid, not mitred. That is the difference between stackstone and free form walling, which is fitted piece by piece for a drystone look.
Fixing and Ordering
Fix to a solid substrate, rendered blockwork, concrete or fibre cement over frame, with a flexible cement-based adhesive; add mechanical fixing on external walls above about a metre. Coverage runs 32.4sqm per crate for walling and 37.5 linear metres for corners. Corners are measured and sold by the linear metre: total the height of every external corner and order that many lineal metres alongside the flats. Short-ordering corners is the most common cladding mistake there is.
Slate sheds water well but takes a colour-enhancing sealer nicely if you want the wet look permanently. The paler alternatives are Oyster Gold and Arctic White, and the whole system is on the stackstone page. Samples are free. Direct import, Keysborough dispatch, freight quoted Australia wide.
