Setts and kerbs are not small paving slabs. They are a distinct product, with distinct standards, a distinct customs classification and a distinct buyer — and the buyer is usually a public authority or a contractor working to one.
That changes almost everything about how you sell them.
Start with the customs code
Setts, kerbstones and flagstones of natural stone are HS 6801. Worked monumental and building stone — including cut-to-size slabs, tiles and monuments — is HS 6802.
This distinction is real and it has consequences. Rates can differ between the two headings, and a misclassification is a compliance exposure with back-duty rather than a saving. If your supplier's invoice describes setts as worked building stone and your broker enters them under 6801, resolve it before the container sails.
Full breakdown: HS Codes for Natural Stone: 6802, 6801, 2515 and 2516.
The standards
| Product | Harmonised standard |
|---|---|
| Setts | EN 1342 — Setts of natural stone for external paving |
| Kerbs | EN 1343 — Kerbs of natural stone for external paving |
| Slabs | EN 1341 — Slabs of natural stone for external paving |
All three are harmonised, which means products placed on the EU market need a Declaration of Performance. A supplier who cannot produce one has not sold into European public works.
The characteristics that must be declared and the tests behind them:
- Dimensional tolerance — the defining requirement for setts and kerbs, and where most imported product fails
- EN 1926 — compressive strength
- EN 12372 — flexural strength
- EN 13755 — water absorption
- EN 12371 — frost resistance
- EN 14231 — unpolished slip resistance value
- EN 14157 — abrasion resistance
- EN 1936 — density and porosity
- EN 12407 — petrographic description
Abrasion resistance matters far more for setts and kerbs than for a domestic patio, because public realm surfaces carry vehicles, street cleaning machinery and constant footfall.
Dimensional tolerance is the whole game
A patio slab that is 2 mm out is a slab that lays slightly proud. A sett that is 2 mm out, repeated across ten thousand units, is a surface the paviour cannot lay to line and level.
EN 1342 defines tolerance classes, and the class must be specified at order stage rather than assumed. Setts sold loosely as "hand-split" without a declared tolerance class are not a product a public authority can specify.
What to nail down in writing:
- Length, width and height tolerance, with the EN class
- Face flatness and permitted convexity
- Squareness — whether the sides are perpendicular to the face or splayed
- Which faces are split, which are sawn — the standard combination is a split top and sawn sides, but "all split" and "sawn six sides" both exist and cost differently
- Arris condition — sharp, softened or tumbled
The formats
Setts / cobbles. Common sizes in European work: 100×100×50, 100×100×100, 100×200×50, 140×140, and the small 40–60 mm mosaic setts for decorative bands. Specify in millimetres and always state height separately, because height drives both the bedding depth and the container weight.
Fan-laid and arc-laid setts for the traditional continental pattern require consistent size within very tight bounds, or the arcs do not close.
Kerbs. Straight kerbs, radius kerbs, dropper kerbs and transition units, plus channel blocks. Kerbs are long, heavy and vulnerable in transit. Specify the profile, the face treatment, and the tolerance on length — a 1 m kerb 4 mm short leaves a joint the contractor will not accept.
Setts on mesh. Setts pre-assembled onto a mesh backing in a pattern, laid as a mat. Speeds installation dramatically and is increasingly specified. It requires very tight dimensional consistency and it changes the packing entirely.
Palisades and edging. Vertical stone edging elements, common in Dutch, Belgian and German landscaping.
Steps, copings and channel. Order with the setts, from the same block run, so the level changes match.
The materials
Sandstone
Kandla Grey — Bijolia (Bhilwara), Bundi, Khadhipur. The volume grey. See Kandla Grey Sandstone: A Paving Guide. Raj Green — Bijolia / Bundi / Khadhipur. Sold in Britain as Raveena. Autumn Brown — Bijolia / Bundi / Bhilwara. Modak family. Modak — Modak village, near Ramganjmandi, Kota / Jhalawar. Dholpur Beige and Dholpur Red — Dholpur / Bari / Sarmathura and Karauli / Sarmathura. Agra Red — Bansi Paharpur / Fatehpur Sikri / Karauli. Jodhpur Red — Jodhpur (Fidusar, Mandore, Barli, Sura Pura). Not the same stone as Agra Red, despite frequent conflation.
Limestone
Kota Blue and Kota Brown — Ramganjmandi, Kota, with belts at Jhalawar, Modak, Chechat and Suket. Hard-wearing and very widely used in public realm work.
Granite — for heavy-duty public realm
Where the specification demands granite rather than sandstone: Sadarahalli Grey — Sadarahalli, Bangalore Rural, Karnataka. A classic building granite. Steel Grey — Prakasam / Chimakurthy, AP. Absolute Black — Chamarajanagar (KA) / Dharmapuri (TN) for contrast bands and tactile paving. Jhansi Red — Jhansi, UP, for warm-toned contrast work.
Responsible sourcing — non-negotiable for Benelux public work
TruStone is the covenant governing responsible sourcing of natural stone in the Netherlands and Belgium. Dutch and Belgian public authorities buying paving for the public realm operate within it, and participants have obligations that reach through the supply chain to the quarry.
Setts and kerbs for public works are precisely the product this was written for. If you are supplying a Dutch or Belgian municipality, this is the first question you will be asked, not the last. See TruStone-Compliant Indian Sandstone.
The precondition is a named quarry. Bijolia, Bundi, Khadhipur, Ramganjmandi, Sadarahalli — a village or town, on the documentation, that an auditor could visit.
Packing and weight
Setts are the densest cargo in the stone business by volume, and a container of setts hits its legal weight limit fast. Sandstone at roughly 2,200–2,500 kg/m³ and granite at 2,700 kg/m³ mean a 20ft container of 100 mm setts fills the scale long before it fills the box.
Do the weight arithmetic before agreeing a delivery schedule, not after your haulier refuses the load. See Container Weight vs Volume.
Packing:
- Setts on pallets, banded over protectors, shrink-wrapped — never loose in the container
- ISPM 15 compliant timber pallets, stamped
- Kerbs individually protected at the arrises, which is where they chip
- Mesh-mounted setts crated flat with rigid support, because the mesh will tear if the mat flexes
- Weight marked on every pallet
What to ask a supplier
- Which quarry? Village or town, on the invoice.
- What EN 1342 or EN 1343 tolerance class, and will you hold it?
- Which faces split, which sawn, and what arris condition?
- Declaration of Performance — can you issue one?
- Abrasion and slip data for this material.
- Frost data — EN 13755, EN 12371, EN 12372 before and after.
- TruStone or equivalent sourcing position for that quarry.
- Pallet weights, so I can plan the container and the haulage.
What Gemarix does differently
We name the village on the documentation, which is what a TruStone or public-procurement audit actually requires — and we correct the trade's mislabels rather than repeating them. Kandla Grey is Bijolia, not Kandla. Jodhpur Red is Jodhpur and is not Agra Red. Agra Red is Bansi Paharpur, Fatehpur Sikri and Karauli.
For a public authority that has to be able to say where its paving came from, the name of a port is not an answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What HS code applies to setts and kerbstones?
Heading 6801 covers setts, kerbstones and flagstones of natural stone other than slate. Worked building stone such as slabs, tiles and cut-to-size sits under 6802. Rates can differ between the two headings, so paving units should not be entered as general worked stone.
Which EN standards cover setts and kerbs?
EN 1342 for setts, EN 1343 for kerbs and EN 1341 for paving slabs. All three are harmonised standards, so products placed on the EU market need a Declaration of Performance.
Why does dimensional tolerance matter so much on setts?
Because a sett 2mm out, repeated across ten thousand units, is a surface the paviour cannot lay to line and level. EN 1342 defines tolerance classes, and the class must be specified at order stage rather than assumed.
How many setts fit in a container?
Fewer than you would guess. At 2,700 kg per cubic metre, 100mm setts weigh 270 kg per square metre, so a 24-tonne cargo limit gives roughly 80 square metres. Setts are the densest cargo in the stone business: mostly air by volume, entirely full by weight.
What is mesh-mounted sett paving?
Setts pre-assembled onto a mesh backing in a pattern and laid as a mat, which speeds installation considerably. It requires very tight dimensional consistency and changes the packing, because the mat must be crated flat with rigid support or the mesh tears.