Correct indian sandstone... options? - Indian sandstone laid upside down

[mungoh]

Hi Folks,
At the rear of my property I had 110 square metres area that
her indoors decided lacked Indian Sandstone paving.
I bought the crates of the stone (ten of them), and employed
a bloke who lays the stone as his day job (and was willing to
work at weekends).
When it came to laying them, he firmly stated that chamfer
side up was the "proper" way, and even told me that his mate had
been instructed to fit them the "other way" to which he
exclaimed was patently wrong.
So that was myself convinced that he knew what to do with this
type of product.
The job was finished in the summer, and the flags are nice but
because of the chamfered edge of each stone pointing skyward
it means that the "pointing" cannot fully fill the gap from
stone to stone (it would be too wide, wouldn't look great,
and the groove allows the stone to drain to the edge then the rainwater
to work its way towards the substantial house-perimeter
linear drain that I installed).
Walking on this with normal bloke's shoes is fine - though
it may be a trip hazard if you don't take care. Trouble is, her
with the "heels" finds it tricky, to the extent that she wants
me to raise the pointing with more cement to give a more
"planar" surface.

And then when I sent some *pride* photos of the paving to
an ex colleague of mine, his first reply was "it's laid upside
down".
This has not gone down well with me: I thought that the
final outcome was what you got with Indian Sandstone.
I now have regrets, but the work has been done and I've no
great desire to rip it all up and turn it over.

So, the reason for this post is to ask: would it be wise to
add further pointing cement between the flags to even up
the top surface, or will this make an arse of the job?

Opinion requested please; thanks in advance.

[Please don't reply with "hindsight" advice - I'm still
licking my wounds :-]

Mungo

P.S. One photo of the job shown here:
http://www.mungoh.f2s.com/Miscellaneous/IMG_5652.JPG

[GB_Groundworks]

haha sorry i can't resist pay peanuts get monkeys kinda comes to mind

what is that hideous greeny one with stains in the middle, not only did he lay them the wrong way

you should never have 4 corners together

you have straight joints some look to be 2metre + long

did he spot bed them as well

re what you can do, topping up wont work as it will only be 20mm thick will just crack and come away in frost or wear

you can hack them all out and repoint upto the surface so the pointing is full depth

or maybe there is a resin based thin joint system but i doubt it would work on such a thin joint.

it should be added that the proper side thats now facing the centre of the earth would have been much smoother and less riven than the underside thats now facing skywards



Edited By GB_Groundworks on 1267378874

[msh paving]

Well Giles your straight to the point.....
I would suggest you cut out the pointing and redo it with one off the epoxy based products buy romex or gtfk

call NCC on 01257266696 and ask to speak to Gary Ken he is there product adviser

or call romex on Phone: 07872 824 010 the guys name is ray

all about pointing slabs etc
more about NCC and GTFK products

MSH

[lutonlagerlout]

some are upside down,but i spotted a couple the right way up
you are between a rock and a hard place there mungo,as my colleagues correctly state the laying is out random pattern wise

but any sort of remedial works is going to cost bucks and look pants

to re point you need to use a grinder and grind each side of each joint down to a depth of 35 mm,rake out debris and then hoover out any detritus

you are then ready to re point with easipoint,romex or GFTK
IMHO this will take 1 man 2 weeks ,plus diamond blades etc. then the pointing on top

although they are upside down,the falls dont look too bad ,so maybe buy the missus some caterpiller boots or trainers or such for patio use and put the whole thing down to experience

when the weather dries up use lithofin MN stainstop to seal it
all the best
LLL

[mungoh]

some are upside down,but i spotted a couple the right way up
you are between a rock and a hard place there mungo,as my colleagues correctly state the laying is out random pattern wise

but any sort of remedial works is going to cost bucks and look pants

to re point you need to use a grinder and grind each side of each joint down to a depth of 35 mm,rake out debris and then hoover out any detritus

you are then ready to re point with easipoint,romex or GFTK
IMHO this will take 1 man 2 weeks ,plus diamond blades etc. then the pointing on top

although they are upside down,the falls dont look too bad ,so maybe buy the missus some caterpiller boots or trainers or such for patio use and put the whole thing down to experience

when the weather dries up use lithofin MN stainstop to seal it
all the best
LLL

Many thanks to all the kind respondents.
I am still licking my wounds on this one, but the feedback
you all have given has been read by SWMBO and now I
leave her to make any remedial decision...

Ta again

Mungo