Opinions of paving work carried out at my home - Has my paving been done correctly?

[killa]

Hello all, this is my first post on here so thanks everyone in advance for your opinions.

I have had some paving carried out at my home by a local company. I provided the 47 sqm of rippon buff indian stone flags and the company agreed to excavate, lay and provide all materials needed to do the job.

Upon completion of the job it seemed ok to me so i paid the agreed price of £3000 to the company. (please bear in mind i know nothing about building or paving).

After a couple of weeks the grout started to become loose between the flags and a few of the flags became loose. I contacted the company and after about 5 weeks they came back and fixed down the loose flags and then proceed to put a sand and cement mix on top of the grout that was coming out.

Within 48 hours of them leaving the flags where loose again and the grouting looks a right balls in my opinion.

I then decided to get someone else's opinion who does paving himself and his opinion is it has not been laid correctly and it all needs to come up and be re-laid, here are his reasons.

1. All the patio area is leaning towards my home and all the bottom course of bricks are getting damp.
2. All the patio has been laid using spot bedding (company said that this is the only way to lay these stones as they are diffferent thickness) can you please advise?
3. There is a pea gravel trap set around all the patio which is uneven and in some parts there is none at all.
4. All my indian stone has been covered in cement and needs taking up to be cleaned properly before re-laying.
5. The majority of flags are hollow when tapped on.
6. There is no drainage
7. The paving goes above the airbricks on my home.
8 . Basically the whole job loks a mess.

I have approached the company concrned and all they are prepared to do it stick down the loose flags once more, put in a drain pipe and cut the pea gravel trap evenly. They have stated in no way are ther prepared to undertake the work once more.

So can you please give me your thoughts and advice as to whether i am being to picky or i am well within my rights to ask for the job to be done again.

I have posted many pictured of the job here for you to see before commenting.

http://s1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb428/killa1233/

Once again thanks for reading this and your help and opinions

kev!

[GB_Groundworks]

read the main site it explains how it should be done properly and you'll be much better informed, while your at it print it out and give it to your original contractor, call it an act of public good hopefully stop them from ruining other peoples patios.

http://www.pavingexpert.com/stonpv03.htm

1. should fall away from house or fall into a linear drain connected to an appropriate outlet to the main drains or to a properly constructed soakaway or rainwater harvester.
2. spot bedding is an epic fail and a sure sign of inexperienced not upto standard work, its explained on the site leaves voids for frost thaw action, vermin and your only getting about 25% contact with the bedding material. cowboy/pikey work.
3. poor workmanship
4.again poor workmanship and a lack of care
5.spot bedding
6 & 7 just shows they were amateurs well out of their depth

did you get 3 quotes and look at previous work, speak to previous customers?
did you get a written spec from them saying what they were doing?

to be fair, i tend to stay away from jobs where the customers has bought the paving, what are they saying they think you are going to rip them off on it or something, and its more than likely i can get it a lot cheaper than a customer.

or if they didnt have the funds to buy the flags upfront or accounts i'd be worried about the company i was using


but your right its a shody job, on photo 12 whats the 300x300 sticking up about 20mm?

i personally would have rejected all the very rusty coloured ones, not the best looking slabs ive seen wide spectrum of colours looks a mixed patch.



Edited By GB_Groundworks on 1283941318

[pickwell paving]

most of the slabs are upside down too!

[dig dug dan]

oh dear.
Its a tear up and start again job. problem is, the slabs are up the wrong way so the surface will be marked with cement stains.

what i pity

[lutonlagerlout]

you could of had a proper job for that sort of money
i can see no redeeming feature in that patio at all
wtf is a pea gravel trap when its at home?
too lazy to cut the flags?
looks like stevie wonder jointed it
spot bedding?
they have shown no care or skill as far as the pictures show
only thing i would say is the flags look pants to start with
what did you pay for the "rippon buff" if you dont mind me asking
also were they regularised to 22mm as is most injun stone now?
LLL

[seanandruby]

speechless!

[killa]

Thanks for the replys so far. Much appreciated

So am i right to presume I am well within my rights to demand from the company who carried out this work for the whole job to be undertaken again?

Regards

Kev

[DNgroundworks]

What a naff job, only thing you can do to get it right is to start again with a fresh batch of flags as the ones pictures are not the best IMO.

[dig dug dan]

I get the impression that the guy who looked atand priced the job, sent his monkeys in to do the work, no doubt taking a large profit for himself.
did the "boss" ever turn up?

[Dave L]

Whats even more gutting is that the drainage infrastructure (the expensive bits) are already in place for a nice run of Aco channel drainage to deal with the the water runoff!

Shocking work.

[killa]

I get the impression that the guy who looked atand priced the job, sent his monkeys in to do the work, no doubt taking a large profit for himself.
did the "boss" ever turn up?

Yes the boss was there for the majority but i have since been told by his employees who came back alone afterwards to rebed some loose flags that he rushed them along and he has no experience of laying stone paving. They both agreed the work was a shambles but asked if i wouldnt repeat that to their boss as he could possibly sack them. I just wish i had take more time in selecting a reputable company. I was just so eager to get the work done.

Thanks for your reply.

Regards

Kev

[GB_Groundworks]

keV

Imagine how frustrating it is for us reputable tradesmen on here that loose out on work all the time to these cow boys who undercut you as they have no idea what they are doing.

But you'll know for next time. Did you say where you got those shody slabs from?

[killa]

keV

Imagine how frustrating it is for us reputable tradesmen on here that loose out on work all the time to these cow boys who undercut you as they have no idea what they are doing.

But you'll know for next time. Did you say where you got those shody slabs from?

They slabs were purchased from hardcores, claywheels lane, sheffield, S6

http://www.hardcoresonline.co.uk

Regards

Kev

[GB_Groundworks]

It's only a few miles from where I live, I live just near hunters bar rd about. Would have expected better from them

The ripon buff on their site looks nothing like what you got..



Edited By GB_Groundworks on 1284110781

[mo-uk]

yes you are entitled to ask for the work to be remedied if it was not carried out with reasonable care and skill

you dont want them to do the work and you will probably not get a full refund on it

you need to put together a legal type letter outlining the faults and quoting the law (supply of goods and services act) and hope thatt hey refund you some of the money so you can get someone else in.