Recent work

[sy76uk]

Not posted in this one for a while.
Here's a few jobs we did at the end of last year.










I'll start my display area at a local stone merchant's on Monday.
Looking forward to it.

Thank to LLL for the advice on pricing the commercial job in the pictures

[lutonlagerlout]

Hey Sy you did the work mate!
all that work looks like bread and butter stuff but with an edge of quality
all good mate
LLL

[sy76uk]

Yeah did the work.
I got all the landscaping and the fencing in the end.
Those woburn 80's are awful, you can't get a block Barrow on them so all doubled handled but we still did well off it.

Also yep, all bread and butter stuff but I try and save all the block paving for the winter months so I don't get nightmares about bedding mortar blowing under slabs.

Got a few nice jobs coming up too so fingers crossed this will be another good year

[dig dug dan]

Yeah did the work.
I got all the landscaping and the fencing in the end.
Those woburn 80's are awful, you can't get a block Barrow on them so all doubled handled but we still did well off it.

Also yep, all bread and butter stuff but I try and save all the block paving for the winter months so I don't get nightmares about bedding mortar blowing under slabs.

Got a few nice jobs coming up too so fingers crossed this will be another good year

Why not the proper morticed posts for the fences? Or the dreaded v notch? I only ever see that construction done by the big housebuilding firms, which they do for speed atthe expense of asthetics

[seanandruby]

Yeah did the work.
I got all the landscaping and the fencing in the end.
Those woburn 80's are awful, you can't get a block Barrow on them so all doubled handled but we still did well off it.

Also yep, all bread and butter stuff but I try and save all the block paving for the winter months so I don't get nightmares about bedding mortar blowing under slabs.

Got a few nice jobs coming up too so fingers crossed this will be another good year

Why not the proper morticed posts for the fences? Or the dreaded v notch? I only ever see that construction done by the big housebuilding firms, which they do for speed atthe expense of asthetics

My thoughts exactly, a lot weaker to i'd of thought ???

[sy76uk]

It was a house building firm we did the work for. They specified and supplied materials.
I would have done a few things differently if it were up to me I. E I wouldn't have used the road side kerbs outside the houses.
I'd have used a demarcation block or small key kerb. I'd have used cast I. C covers too.
In general though they have gone way above and beyond when you compare the houses to most other new build site's.
They also listened to me and only declined my suggestions when the budget made them.

[lutonlagerlout]

sorry Sy , I should quantify the bread and butter remark
not being derogatory ,just saying those big areas leave little room for your artistic flair to shine through
so everyone has to do bread and butter work (to put food on the table LOL)
but its nice to do the cream as well

the fact you got all the landscaping says a lot , and the people moving into those houses have actually got a proper patio to sit on!!
cheers LLL

[dig dug dan]

sorry Sy , I should quantify the bread and butter remark
not being derogatory ,just saying those big areas leave little room for your artistic flair to shine through
so everyone has to do bread and butter work (to put food on the table LOL)
but its nice to do the cream as well

the fact you got all the landscaping says a lot , and the people moving into those houses have actually got a proper patio to sit on!!
cheers LLL

Shame the scrimped on the fencing. To be fair I have yet to see a house building company put up a decent fence. You can only work with what you have been told

[seanandruby]

Seems the builder scrimped on a lot of things including retaining walls ( looks like sleepers ) also
No step, ramp, or level threshold for disabled access.

[sy76uk]

No worries Tony. A lot of the work I did last year was bread and butter stuff.
As long as everything is built up with a a proper sub base, has a retaining edge and is laid and finished well it will stand out.

I would have put a retaining wall in instead of sleepers.
The disabled access was pointless to a certain degree as the houses are tiny and not suitable for anyone with a severe disability.

As far as the fence is concerned, the whole of the perimeter fence is concrete posts and gravel boards.
The fencing around the back gardens just had to go up as it did because the build had run behind quite a bit.

On the other hand. The finish on the inside of the buildings is really nice.
All the patios are marshalls sandstone with rumbled CPB borders and astro turf that has been laid on an mot base, granite dust screed and is fixed down with glue and masonry screens in to a concrete haunch.
All the paving is 80mm rumbled on an inch of sand with a 500mm sub base.

If that was a big house bashing site you might have had a few block paved parking areas with a tarmac access road and round the back a couple of rows of 30mm buff riven slabs and turf laid on clay rich as dug.
Most of my input was in the paving.

TBH to the builders, I think they've gone above and beyond the standards I see on most big site's.
They're very good payers too which makes me like them even more

[seanandruby]

Surely the builders should be in compliance with parts M & K of the building regs' ???

[sy76uk]

The building inspector came out and agreed disabled access wasn't necessary.

[lemoncurd1702]

No worries Tony. A lot of the work I did last year was bread and butter stuff.
As long as everything is built up with a a proper sub base, has a retaining edge and is laid and finished well it will stand out.

I would have put a retaining wall in instead of sleepers.
The disabled access was pointless to a certain degree as the houses are tiny and not suitable for anyone with a severe disability.

As far as the fence is concerned, the whole of the perimeter fence is concrete posts and gravel boards.
The fencing around the back gardens just had to go up as it did because the build had run behind quite a bit.

On the other hand. The finish on the inside of the buildings is really nice.
All the patios are marshalls sandstone with rumbled CPB borders and astro turf that has been laid on an mot base, granite dust screed and is fixed down with glue and masonry screens in to a concrete haunch.
All the paving is 80mm rumbled on an inch of sand with a 500mm sub base.

If that was a big house bashing site you might have had a few block paved parking areas with a tarmac access road and round the back a couple of rows of 30mm buff riven slabs and turf laid on clay rich as dug.
Most of my input was in the paving.

TBH to the builders, I think they've gone above and beyond the standards I see on most big site's.
They're very good payers too which makes me like them even more

I'm with you on that one Simon, compared to most they've over spec'd the site if anything. Never seen one around here using sandstone and lucky to get a square of six councils outside the patio doors.
Most of the large builders skimp on as much as possible to just please the shareholders.

It also seems they can get away with anything. There's a new estate going up near me where parking is atrocious. Shouldn't a 3 bed house have 3 parking spaces? And yes I've included the garage and a 6ft drive that leaves half the vehicle totally blocking the footpath.
Cars parked on both sides of a bendy road, not good!

Don't know what the beef with the fence is, seems the standard way to me.

[sy76uk]

Cheers Mark.
That was the first time in 20 odd years on house bashing site's I've used any sanstone.

I live in a new build on a bendy road. You described it to a T lol.

The fence on one side of my back garden is the original one and is exactly the same as the one in the pictures.
It's still there after 13 years :rock:

[seanandruby]

It's hard to tell on my phone if they are arris rails. If they are arris rails then you would have to cut the ends flat to suit the posts thereby significantly weakening the rails. Not very professional i'm afraid. I expect the posts are a lot cheaper not morticed and time consuming to retro mortice them.