First off, really do appreciate the site - it really reflects the old "spirit" off the Internet - many thanks.
I found Rock Unique through your site (really excellent people - heartily recommended) and bought their mint sandstone and porphory setts for my garden. They were being laid into two oval patios, with the sandstone in the middle and the setts around the edge.
Unfortunately, I was laid up in bed (bunions being done!) when the contractor laid the slabs and he laid them, bedded in mortar, upside-down. That is, with the chamfer upwards so that the gap between flags was wider at the top than the bottom (and uneven). When I tackled him about it he was adamant that he was laying them the only way they should be laid. He grouted them later and the grout level is very low, as you would expect.
Now, nine months later, the spaces in between the flags are constantly wet and collecting crud (surprise, surprise!) Is there any sort of grouting that I could do to improve it? Is there any way I can salvage the situation - I assume that I cannot successfully lift the slabs. I am getting myself ready for chopping them all out and starting again
If this clown laid the flags upside down, then he's no Contractor - he's a bloody cowboy! Lesson number one in flag laying is knowing which way up to lay the damned things. There's a 50:50 chance of guessing right, and this clown couldn't even manage that!
The only real fix is to lift an re-lay, but just how feasible that would be, and how much wastage you'd suffer, is impossible to say from here, but I'd hazard a guess that you'd lose around 20% of the flags.
In fairness, you should get Jesse James to come back and do it properly, on pain of escorting him to the Sheriff (Trading Standards), but I don't suppose he would dare show his face again, and he's probably too busy fleecing other clients.
You could 'top-up' the pointing, but it's helluva lot of back-breaking work. You'd need to run the nangle grinder along the existing pointing to form a 'key' and then use a good quality mortar, with a bond improving agent (such as Ronafix) added for good measure. The new pointing should finish flush with, or no more than 3mm below, the level of the inverted paving.
I don't envy you this task, and I really would consider going to the Sheriff about this clown, as the sooner we drive these cowboys out of our trade, the better it is for all of us, contractors and clients alike.
Thanks for that, I feared as much. Filling the gaps to the top is just about impossible because of the uneven bottoms -- in some places the grout would end up over 3" wide!
One of the problems with the contractor was that, at the time of the work taking place, we were having serious aggro from the Neighbour from Hell. So I was a little preoccupied. Also, from the start he admitted that he had done nothing like our garden, and was on day rate. I did all the marking out etc, but I did expect him to know which way up to lay bits of stone
At least he didn't have the effrontery to come back fo rhte last of his money. Bit of a shame really, I'd been looking forward to that! :laugh:
