What we lay
Flags and slabs: Indian sandstone, other natural stone, and concrete flags in a range of sizes and finishes. Riven, sawn and textured surfaces, in single sizes or as a mixed size pattern.
Which one suits depends on where it is going and what is around it. Sawn stone looks right against a modern extension and can look wrong against an old farmhouse. Riven sandstone does the opposite. We will bring samples out rather than have you choose off a screen.
Laying them so they stay laid
The common way for a patio to fail is being laid on five blobs of mortar. It looks fine for a year, then water gets under the middle, frost lifts it, the flag rocks and the pointing cracks out.
Flags want laying on a full mortar bed on a compacted sub-base, with the falls set so water runs off and away from the house, and with a proper edge restraint so the outside course cannot creep. Then they get pointed properly rather than brushed over.
Falls, thresholds and damp courses
Two things go wrong with paving next to a building. Water is allowed to run back towards the wall, and the finished level is taken up above the damp proof course. Both cause damp inside and both are avoidable if the levels are set before anything is laid.
Where a doorway makes the levels tight, the answer is usually a channel drain across the threshold rather than trying to fight the fall.
Paving and tarmac together
Plenty of jobs are both. A paved threshold and path where people walk, tarmac where the cars go and turn. Paved sitting areas set into a larger tarmac drive. Since we do both, it is one crew, one price and one set of levels rather than two firms blaming each other about where they meet.
