Block paving remedial work - Costing ?

[Edgecraft]

Hi all

I've been cleaning Block paving etc... for a couple of years now and have seen soooo many with ruts in where cars have been driven/parked, on a couple of occasions I have been ask to re-lay the sunken parts of the drive before cleaning (usually got my small wacker and some grit sand in the van), which I have done and the customers have been very happy with the results.
Now whilst it is easy to just stick a few bob on top of a cleaning job for me, I would like to start offering remedial repairs regardless of if they want it cleaned or not and was wondering what would be considered the going rate ?
Before you all jump on me I know this is one of those how long is a piece of string questions, but just looking for a very rough per sq/m sort of answer so I'm not a mile off !

Regards

Darren

[lutonlagerlout]

just lifting the block and adding sand is going to fail again darren,my advice would be to leave well alone unless you are going to rip it up and do it again properly,can of worms m8
LLL

[Edgecraft]

Thanks LLL

I guess it's a case of stick with what you know ???

Hate the can of worms hassle !

Darren

[Pablo]

LLL is right topping up with sand is only a short term cosmetic fix you are leaving yourself wide open for all sorts of liability when the fix you do fails so be careful. On the other hand if someone is aware that the fix is only temporary and that it will need to be done every couple of years it may work out cheaper in the long run than replacing it all But it will never be as good. I wouldn't ever give a m2 rate for any kind of remedial work I give an hourly rate and a rough ballpark length of time it would take.

[Tony McC]

Interpave publish a very good guide to re-instatement work for block paving; it's well worth a read. However, a key finding of their research is the need to remove and replace the laying course, rather than simply topping-up.

So, for a typical rutted area, it would be a matter of lifting the affected paving plus an area at least 400mm wide to each side/edge. Scrape out the laying course material and get shut. Correct any settlement by adding material (DTp1) to the sub-base, and compacting before placing a uniform thickness of NEW laying course material, screeding, laying and jointing as per normal.

If you consider a typical rutted drive, where you have two parallel ruts roughly 1.8m apart and extending for, say, 6 metres, instead of taking out 2 sections at (400 + 500 + 400) 1.3m wide, it would make more sense to take up an area roughly 2.8-3.0m wide and re-laying the lot.

There are sound reasons for replacing the laying course: the old material has often suffered crush damage, which increases the %age of fine material and so compromises the repaired area. While this might not always be justified for residential driveways, it is strongly recommended for any remedial work done to commercial or highway paving.

The point about building-up the sub-base rather than simply topping-up the laying course should be obvious: the key to successful block paving is having a laying course of uniform thickness.

[lutonlagerlout]

personally i would rather redo the lot,by the time you fart around doing bits here and there, better to skip the lot and start afresh

chances are if it has sunk the first installation was poor anyway
LLL

[Tony McC]

I tend to agree, but far too many remedial jobs seem to fix only the sunken areas without understanding the bigger picture.

If it's a pavement that's been down 3 years or more, there's a good chance that most of the inevitable settlement is over and done with, so a proper remedial job will actually extend its service life.