Twice failed pointing - Bradstone random carpet stones

[bmalkin]

I have builders currently in laying my patio with Bradstones random carpet stones.Last Sunday they finished off the job by pointing (by brush) with the recommended mix of 4 :1.
The next day the stones were all loose and the mix was dry and crumbly. I understand that they had given the patio a light soaking after brushing in the wettish mix.
After completely removing the pointing they did the job again yesterday. Instead of doing it during the day (Sunday had been warm) they did it in the evening spraying with water before filling the joints and again spraying it gently afterwards with water.
Tonight the same problem is apparent. The pointing is crumbling and dry. Can you help?(apologies for not knowing the correct terms for everything!)

[dig dug dan]

oh dear

Yet again the wrong tradesman has been used for the job!
I am afraid that they are not doing it correctly. Brushing in is a cheap and nasty way of pointing and does not work, never has and never will, unless you buy something like romix.
They should have mixed up a wet mix, got on their hands and knees and filled each joint with a trowel. It is the only way it will set properly.
Best to get someone in who knows what they are doing because your builder doesn't.
I am sure tony will correct me if I am wrong

[Tony McC]

CarpetStones, and all of its imitators, struggle when it comes to the jointing, as they are rarely laid properly...which is why I'm still looking for a CarpetStone job that I can oversee and show some lucky sod how to do it properly, in return for it being featured on the website.

If the CS are laid on a rigid bed (concrete or sand+cement) then rigid pointing should work, but as Dan has said, brushing-in of a dry mix and then wetting it with a watering can is rarely (if ever) successful. Proper mortar pointing would be far better, but with up to 18 linear metres of jointing per square metre, very few contractors are overly keen on getting doen on their hands and knees to do a proper pointing job.

Which is why I advocate a quality polymeric brush-in jointing product. Personally, I think Romex is the best, but other contractors will tell you that Paveseal or Bond It are just as good - horses for courses.

Please please please .... if anyone, contractor or DIYer, is planning to lay CarpetStones on a job anywhere within 50 miles of Warrington, can you let me know? It's your chance to blag some free product, and benefit form having onsite advice on how best to lay the damned things! I'm not interested in slagging off anyone's working methods - I'm only interested in doing a photoshoot on how CarpetStones should be laid.

[bmalkin]

Thankyou both for your comments.I suspected as much and will learn from it for next time. You are right in that there is just SO much pointing to be done that it would have been a long and expensive job. The patio has now been redone and it remains to be seen whether the joints will last !Just for interest (I hope)how much would it cost for the Ramex to do a patio of random carpetstones measuring 50 sq metres.

[clintpm]

I'm also about to create a patio using bradstone random carpet stones.
I am trying to find if it's possible not to point with morter but to use loose fine gravel / grit. Not so fine as to wash away with heavy rain.

Clint