Behind the scenes in our curing room, where winter temperatures meet careful design and craftsmanship

When winter really bites, manufacturing doesn’t get a seasonal pause. Over the past few weeks, as temperatures outside have dipped to a bracing –5 or –6 degrees, one part of our workshop has been working especially hard: the curing room.

Curing might sound like a quiet, behind-the-scenes process, but it’s absolutely critical to the quality of our flagstones. Without consistent warmth, freshly made stones simply won’t develop the strength and durability they need. And if they don’t cure properly, they can’t safely make the journey from our workshop to your home.

That’s why keeping the curing room at just the right temperature becomes a daily challenge in winter. Thankfully, good design plays a role here too. Our curing room is heavily insulated, allowing us to retain heat efficiently and maintain a stable environment even when frost grips the yard outside.

To do this, we rely on a mix of carefully chosen heating solutions. Our mainstay is a static oil burner, fuelled by bio-diesel, which provides a steady, dependable warmth while keeping our environmental impact in check. It’s the quiet workhorse of the operation.

But on particularly cold days, when the chill seeps into everything, we bring out the big guns. Enter the JCB burner – affectionately known by the team as “the jet engine”. Also running on bio-diesel, it delivers a powerful blast of heat that quickly brings the curing room back up to temperature.

It’s not the most glamorous part of making beautiful flooring, but it’s one of the most important. Because behind every flagstone that arrives at your door – ready to transform a kitchen, hallway or garden room – there’s a carefully controlled process ensuring it’s as strong, reliable and long-lasting as it is good-looking. And sometimes, that means battling the depths of winter with a jet engine.