What limestone is
Limestone forms when shell fragments, coral and lime mud are compacted over a very long time on a sea floor. Under enough heat and pressure the same calcite recrystallizes into marble, so the two stones share a mineral and differ in structure. Because limestone never went through that step, its cut face often keeps traces of how it formed: shell fragments, fine bedding lines and the occasional whole fossil.
Limestone is also laid down in layers, and the direction a block is sawn against them changes the face. Sawn across the bedding, the layers show as faint banding; sawn along it, the face reads as an even field with fossil fragments scattered through it. In a fossil rich limestone, one block can yield a tile with a clear shell section and another with almost none.
Colors and series names
Beige leads in this collection, with white next, then gray and green. Limestone is sold under trade and series names, and at Stone Tile Depot those are Jerusalem and Jerusalem Light, Paris, Thala Beige and Thala Gray, Lymra, Savanna, Gray Fousanna, Seagrass and Verde Cordoba. Jerusalem and Jerusalem Light are separate selections, the second a lighter shade of the first.
Seagrass and Verde Cordoba are the green limestones, and they surprise people who picture limestone only in cream and beige. Limestone takes its color from small amounts of other minerals mixed with the calcite, which is why the same rock type can run from near white to gray, beige and green.
Tile, mosaic and waterjet formats
The field tile runs from 12x12 and 18x18 squares to a 12x24 plank, with 4x4, 2 3/4x5 1/2 and 3x12 for walls and smaller floors. Limestone also cuts cleanly into small, precise shapes, so Jerusalem Light comes as a 12x12 floor tile and as a waterjet picket, a Gothic arabesque and a Winter Leaf pattern.
The dimensional pieces are wall tile. Paris comes in stepped and cascading 3D sheets and in a rock face mosaic split to an uneven face, and Seagrass and Thala Beige come as textured 3D hexagons, made to catch side light across a backsplash or feature wall.
Honed and textured finishes
Honed limestone is ground flat and left matte, and it makes up the large majority of this collection. A honed face shows the color and fossil detail without glare and hides fine scratches and etch marks better than a gloss. Textured, fine textured and rock face finishes are worked or split for relief and turn up mostly on mosaics and wall pieces. One Paris 12x12 is polished, and polished limestone carries a soft sheen, since its grains are less tightly fused than marble's.
Any smooth stone gets slick when water sits on it, so honed field tile suits dry floors and walls, while smaller mosaics, with more grout lines underfoot, are the common choice where a floor gets wet.
Shade variation in limestone
Limestone varies within a single quarry because a bed changes as it goes down, so pieces cut from the top and the bottom of the same face differ. For that reason a series name says more about what will arrive than a color word: two products both labeled beige can be quite different stones, while a series name points to one specific stone and its usual range. A single sample shows one piece of that range, and several pieces show more of it.
Limestone, marble and travertine
Limestone, marble and travertine are carbonate stones made mostly of calcite, which sits at 3 on the Mohs scale, so the three scratch and etch in similar ways; a dolomitic stone reacts to acid more slowly. Density and porosity are what change how each one wears. Marble recrystallized into interlocking crystals, which makes it denser and lets it take a high polish, and its veining comes from clay and iron in the original bed. Travertine formed around mineral springs, where escaping gas left holes and a grain that runs one way. Limestone sits between them, with a calm, even face and a porosity that varies from one stone to the next.
Tile thickness
Most limestone tile and mosaic at Stone Tile Depot is 3/8 inch. A few floor tiles step up to 1/2 inch, among them the 18x18 Jerusalem Light and the 12x24 Lymra, and the split rock face mosaic sits around 3/4 inch because its face is broken, not sawn.
Thickness matters where two floors meet. A 1/2 inch tile next to a 3/8 inch one, or next to a wood floor in the next room, changes the height at the doorway, so the thickness on the product page is the figure to compare before ordering.
Limestone pavers, coping and ledger panel
For outdoor work the same stone is cut thicker. Limestone pavers and beige limestone pavers cover patios and walkways, pool coping covers pool edges, and limestone ledger panels are split strips bonded for cladding a wall. Stone pavers sets limestone next to other paving stones, and freeze ratings for cold climates are listed per product.
