Damp/stained new slabs

[carl2fisher]

Hi,

To be honest, this is my first garden, have very little experience or knowledge with gardens, but have just had my garden landscaped.

Looking at it now, I am not happy with how some of the paving looks visually. Can you advise whether or not these should have this look? They look as though they are damp, but there has been no rainfall for days now, only morning dew. You can also see lots of dampness round the edges of the slabs, which does not look right to me.

The landscaper is currently away on holiday, and when he returns Id like to have a bit of confidence in what I am talking about when he gets back.

You can see pictures at the following link... https://www.dropbox.com/sh....ca?dl=0

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[lutonlagerlout]

what did he point with?
did he lay on a full bed?
cheers LLL

[lemoncurd1702]

All in all, I would say it looks a decent job. Nice and level with straight lines and clean cuts.
I see your issue though, so couple of questions:
When was the paving finished and were your piccies taken in the morning or later in the day?
Also as LLL full bed?

[carl2fisher]

Thanks for your response both.

I believe it is a full bed. I have added a couple of pics to the dropbox link from during the proces. On one just below the patio doors he is about to lay a slab on what looks to be a full bed. Of what I don't know.

The pics are a mixture of morning and evening. The close up ones are morning, likely around 8.30am, the long distance ones will be around 6pm.

The joints are "sealed" with a dry sand, he left us an extra bag which we have tried to sweep in, but it isn't very compact in there. Whenever I go down and look, all the sand in the joints is wet, which makes me think its a moisture issue coming through the flags.

Perhaps the flags were always like this, but I have my doubts, as I think Id have noticed immediately upon seeing the garden.

[r896neo]

Do you have any spare unlaid flags? I would say this might be an issue with the flags?

[lemoncurd1702]

I missed the image of the paving in progress outside the patio doors.
Was the bedding material bound with cement. Hard to tell from the images, but looks like they're bedded directly onto stone dust?

[carl2fisher]

I don't have any spares unfortunately, but I am perhaps inclined to agree neo, the flags could be the problem in the first place. The flags you see outside the patio doors are flags we already had and are being put back down, and they seem in a lot better state than the new ones. He was supposed to be getting the same ones, and making it the same.

With regards to the bedding material, I don't know whether he bound it with cement. I would have to ask him. I am assuming it should be?

[seanandruby]

You'll know if not cbm by trying to lift one. Try one near an edge so easier to re-lay.