Steintec tufftop jointing mortar - Pointing cobbles

[surreyzone]

I've now seen (on here) the rubber rollers from Acosim. I won't use this for reclaimed granite setts.

[Tony McC]

Acosim is more of a system rather than just a jointing medium. It needs the correct trass bedding to work as intended, although if it *is* used with standard sand/cement bedding, it will work well, just not as well as intended, and given it ain't particularly cheap, and that you can get equivalent cement-based jointing mortars for considerably less, why would you bother?

There was a firm based in Essex (not SteinTec) who were importing a belt cleaner very similar to the Pergo and then hiring them out. I don't think they were/are as good as Pergo, but for smaller jobs they'd be fine. I'l se if I can find their details.....

[r896neo]

With flowpoint if you hose it off correctly at the right time you can get a better grittier finish. The self leveling look is caused by letting the cement rich scum settle and harden on the joint. If its power-hosed off hard once the joint is set it can be removed.

I also find an acid wash a week later removes some of it and clears the slight white haze over the paving

[surreyzone]

Thanks Tony C - sounds like a pergo or 'pergo-type' cleaner might be useful.

Very interesting point from Neo. We found with our sample bags that you can force slightly different finishes by changing methods. Problem might be consistency since it becomes more of an art-form.

It's now time to dive in and get on with it.

Thanks for all your help folks!

[surreyzone]

So, we have run several trial areas using Flow-point. Looking at the Forum under 'pouring grout' I notice the advice is 'add water to suit' basically. Get the consistency right for pouring and not too sloppy etc.

Flowpoint advise 4 1/4 ltrs per bag - with a cautious 4 1/2 ltrs maybe. The more water, they say, the less strength.

Also, I notice that the colour changes too with more water. The charcoal grout is almost blue/grey when 4 1/4 ltrs is used and will go progressively lighter with more water.

Our sets look amazing as they are and the darker the grout (within reason) the better the sets stand out. Flow-point did a one-off run of black Flowplast for a Dubai project and I would like some of this - but 3-4 pallets isn't enough to get them changing a batch colour. I don't want to use bitumen for a few reasons...

Does anyone know of another pourable solution (not Steintec) that will produce a darker great grout?

Are Flow-plast being too cautious when advising to stick to 4 1/4 litres? The areas that flowed nicely (using 5 ltrs) were easier to do and seem incredibly strong!

This stuff goes off fast in 20 degrees though - although we could slow it down with iced water. I'm thinking that a few weeks time might be a better time of year to grout if using Flowplast.