has anyone used Mandarin Stone

[pantshavenames]

Just that really... We are looking for slate flooring for our kitchen and also slabs for a patio and they seem so much cheaper than other sites I've looked at I desperately want them to be good as well

Yes. I would happily use them again. They (in Bath) were very good at helping us decide our square metre age and grout/chemical needs from our drawings.

We bought stone for our bathroom walls and floor and kitchen floor 6 years ago and the shop made some very good suggestions about what to buy (with kids and lots of muddy boots and paws etc.). My neighbour's hallway (and next-door but one) are also Mandarin Stone efforts.

They do seem to include a selection of cheaper stones as well as some really lovely pieces. It is also worth looking at their ends of lines (or their sales) if you are on a tight budget.

We didn't put the floors down ourselves (builders did it), but the shop were careful to make sure we had detailed instructions of how to lay/seal/wax and clean everything.

Just one thing to be aware of (and it will be the same for all stone firms, I am guessing), our stone came in a pallet on a big flat-bed lorry equipped with a crane. It's your job to shift the stone up to your house (luckily I had an army of builders around - it was pretty heavy even carrying a few tiles at a time).

I hope this helps

Re the garden slabs (and I am sure Mandarin will tell you) I seem to remember that they need to be much thicker than internal slabs.

We used reclaimed flagstones for our patio but used a riven stone for garden steps (which we really appreciated on icy or drizzly days).