Block paving

[lutonlagerlout]

IME crushed concrete contains a lot of stuff that isn't crushed concrete.
i would rather pay the extra £100 on a drive for peace of mind
same with the leanmix for edgings better to have 1.5cube delivered than knock it up in the mixer
the quality and mix are assured that way
did you get your drive done matthew?
LLL

[Rich H]

Happy to use crushed in certain locations where I know I can get good stuff. If you get bad stuff it's a real problem to then pick out all the wires, rags, sticks, etc.

[Stephen H]

I've spent more than £70 (more like £80).. per square metre for DIY! So that doesn't include any labour. When type 1 costs £40 plus VAT per tonne (ha ha - jumbo bags are more like 850 kg), same for sharp sand and also ballast (for concrete edging), how do you guys do it so cheaply? OK my blocks are £18/sq m and I did use Staff blues (90 p each) for my kerbs and some steps - but still... A lot of expense was equipment hire and waste disposal - but contractors have to maintain their equipment and waste disposal will still cost a lot. £50 per sq m can only mean no sub base £70 must be a minimum for a job that will work - but much more surely for anything with more class...

[Rich H]

If you're buying type 1 in bulk bags it's a very expensive way of doing things; I'd expect to pay about £18/tonne these days vs £40/850-900kg. Sand should be £20-24/tonne and I expect you've bought it for the same price as your type 1? Blocks are £10/m for 50mm and up. Grab load is £10-£20/tonne for muckaway.

Kerbs and steps add a lot of cost.

A couple of years ago you could do it for £50 when type 1 was £12 and skips were £90 instead of £180. Labour is/was more expensive as well.

You've paid more than £14/m just for type 1 & sand. I'd expect to be at around £5.

[Stephen H]

Oh dear - yeah that's right - about £15 per sq m for aggregate and sand... Well you live and learn I suppose. The builder's merchants were great though and would deliver on the day we phoned or the day after
We paid £230 for a grab truck which took about 20 tonnes away so that was OK.

[lutonlagerlout]

it should be cheaper up your way steven,lot of land fill round Edinburgh , most quality drives that I do end up round about £100 per metre but thats high spec blocks drainage walls electrics etc etc.
i cant compete with the 50 quid a metre crowd and TBH i dont want to
regards LLL

[Rich H]

The main thing Stephen is that you've got a good end product. If more people spent their time thinking about quality, longevity and peace of mind rather than cost, cost, cost, there wouldn't be all the cowboys running around.

[Stephen H]

Good points! And I've learned a lot doing it myself.

Although I live in Edinburgh, the house is near London (West of). I had a month off work between contracts so I wanted to use my time constructively and fix the driveway on the house I jointly own in London. Going to sell it next year. It's good to know that if I do a drive up here then materials will be cheaper

[Dave_L]

"use a quality material (and not crushed concrete etc etc) "

hey dave i have to dispute that statement m8, I have been using type spec recycled crushed concrete for years and it is perfectly fine and performs in no way worse than quarried type one, whilst being cheaper and more friendly to the environment

so there!

I would have no problem with a decent crushed material, perhaps I was being a bit sweeping there with my statement - but so much crushed that I see contains bit of wood, terram, plastic, fibregalss etc etc etc.

We use crushed on some of our residential unspecified jobs, but it is always topped off with a decent layer of type 1 limestone. Crushed can be very good at stabilising the ground - in bigger sizes (80mm or so) it is very good as the initial fill.

Again, only aslong as it is free off 'foreign' objects!