Driveway of the year winner - Call off the search it's a beaut

[sussex]

my son &his girlfriend are out there on a cruise , they came up with the great idea of getting hitched when the ship docks in gib, call me old fashioned but what a bloody waste , lucky he aint into paving expert to read this.He would;nt believe i actually switch the computer on let alone take some interest in a forum .it is all a bit new ! Anyway fly out tue ,wedding wed, fly back thurs,three weeks home fly back to spain for three weeks to brothers place.

[mickavalon]

Just worked next to some real experts, they even told me so. They dug out a 50 mt long x 10 mt Garden, excavated about 15 x 8 at the bottom, down about 1200mm, and layered the Sub soil as top soil for a lawn and beds in the centre of the garden, then layered about 20 tonne of rubble, compacted it in couple of passes of their digger, and topped it with about 100mm of recycled MOT, and laid a patio in lovely 600x600 utility pressed slabs, with same slabs as a 200mm retaining edge and as the treads and risers to some steps leading down to their now sunken Patio. The slabs were laid on screened sharp, with cement thrown across the top and mauled into level.
Once they'd finished that lovely sunken gem, they then built a 450 high, single course wall at the top of the garden, with steps, filled that with more rubble, again whacked it a bit, more recycled, and then laid a Patio using 450x450 Bradstone Panache Paving, in a fetching Charcoal edged with Light Grey, again on the same mix as before, butt jointed and just pointed as they sat on the edge of the "retaining" wall.
We actually saw them sliding forward as it rained, and they asked us why we were laying our paving on mortar beds, nd the wrong way up! Apparantly the correct way is with the wider joint, as it holds them together better???

[mickavalon]

There gaffer also told us, when I asked him why they put in so much sub-base, that they are proper builders and don't do mickey Mouse work, they do all their work propoerly. Not sure who is setting there standards, I'd guess they were making their own, but they're a pretty big outfit, and I'm not naming them, cos they've several different trading names, not all of which I know.