Sealing large gaps around block paving

[233sqn]

Hello Folks
I am giving our block paved drives a bit of a cleanup and de-weed, and have got to the stage where, weather allowing I need to res-sand.
However we do have a small number of larg-ish gaps, typically around down pipes and drains and a few edges, I’m guessing these may vary between 3-10mm. I’m thinking that these should have something else other than sand brushed into them, and was wondering if GeoFix was a good solution?
I know it’s expensive, but we are only talking about a few places and I’m liking the fact that it’s really easy to use and won’t crack.
Any thoughts? Or is there a better solution?

Thanks for your help!

[London Stone Paving]

Dont buy Geo fix. Its complete rubbish. I have never heard anybody with a good word to say about it. I have got peronal experience myself with it. I used it once to point stone setts, 1 week later I was scraping it out.

Try easijoint, marshalls weather point, or Romex easy.

or

Use good old fashioned sand and cement

steve

[local patios and driveway]

Sharp Sand and cement mix, make it quite dry it'll be easy enough to apply

[Bob_A]

I'd take Romex Easy of your list (Romex)
Mine has a cycle of moss/clean a couple times of year and and each time I clean more is eroded away.
Won't be long till they'll be nothing left.

[Tony McC]

I'm with Bob - The Easy just isn't performing in the near permanent damp we've been having. Much better to go for the Romex D1 or Dran. If a ready-mixed product is preferred, the VDW 840+ does seem to thrive in the damp.

[Bob_A]

Tony they changed the tins a couple of years ago.
It now says
Rompox Easy
New Improved Formula
Can be used in any weather wet or dry
Easily washed in with water
Suitable for family cars
Improved shelf life 12months
min joint depth only 20mm
min joint width only 3mm
RPS Romex Protection System. Keep working whatever the weather (cover only needed in heavy rain)
Romex Distributor www.mcmonaglestone.ie .


Do you think it may of gone down hill since ?
There never used to be many complaints on this forum a few years back but there has been more recently

BTW I didn't wash it in I struck it in with a brick tool.

[lutonlagerlout]

I did a few with rompox easy going back 5-6 years and they have all eroded now
sand and cement for me from now on
tried and trusted
LLL

[Tony McC]

I'm not as closely involved with Romex Product Development as I once was, so I'm not sure what changes have been made since the last time I was at the factory in Germany. Back then, a minor change to the chemistry made it 'better suited' to washing in, and this change didn't seem to affect performance.

However, there were further changes in the following couple of years that I suspect were undertaken either to reduces costs or to increase production, possibly a bit of both, and it is since those changes that the perfomance of the product seems to have suffered. As I'm no longer party to product developments, I don't know what has happened, only that more and more users are reporting problems and I see no sign from Romex that these concerns are being dealt with effectively.

[Nathan80]

Tony they changed the tins a couple of years ago.
It now says
Rompox Easy
New Improved Formula
Can be used in any weather wet or dry
Easily washed in with water
Suitable for family cars
Improved shelf life 12months
min joint depth only 20mm
min joint width only 3mm
RPS Romex Protection System. Keep working whatever the weather (cover only needed in heavy rain)
Romex Distributor www.mcmonaglestone.ie .


Do you think it may of gone down hill since ?
There never used to be many complaints on this forum a few years back but there has been more recently

BTW I didn't wash it in I struck it in with a brick tool.

There's no problem using the product in damp conditions, the issue is the product doesn't set hard and shrinks.

Quite expensive too, more often than not it's easier to use sand & cement, you know what you're getting over the short and longer term.

[Bob_A]

I can't see the point of a product that you can use in adverse conditions if it doesn't set hard and shrinks

To the original poster I would avoid Rompox Easy and Geofix.

[Tony McC]

There's a growing trend with jointing products for low-end applications, by which they normally mean patios, pathways, driveways and pedestrian-only civic areas, not to actually set hard as we would understand the term, but to set sufficiently to bond to itself and, with some of the new generation of products, to the paving as well.

The rationale is that these low-end applications don't actually need a rigid joint and are actually better off if the jointing has a degree of flexibility or, even more desirable, have what is referred to as "self-healing" characteristics. This means they are stiff, but not hard, and flexible rather than rigid, and that when they are forced to move because of trafficking or settlement of the pavement, they 'adjust' as necessary and then re-set to their 'at-rest' state.

The major advantage is that there is no longer the awfullness of cracked jointing to spoil a pavement. There are also cost implications because these new jointing products are much cheaper than the resin mortars; several of those I've looked at (under NDAs so I can't say too much) are priced to compete with KDS or basic sand/cement mortar.

The downside is that none of those I've looked at are capable of withstanding the ritual blasting they would receive from the 99 quid power washer that most households now have and feel obliged to use on their patio and/or driveways on a regular basis.

These new products are technically superior to GeoFix (but then, so is putty!) and are supposed to have a different target market to Romex Easy, but just how tangible that market is remains to be seen. I'm sure there are applications where these new products would be ideal, but they are few and far between and nowhere near the scale of some of the wildly optimistic speculation being bandied about by certain advocates with a vested interest.

[Nathan80]

I can't see the point of a product that you can use in adverse conditions if it doesn't set hard and shrinks

To the original poster I would avoid Rompox Easy and Geofix.

It has the same problems when applied in perfect, dry conditions too.

As stated above, if it set enough to stay in place it maybe OK for patios and such, problem is it also shrinks so looks unsightly and eventually can be lifted out in large pieces.

[Bob_A]

Yes some of my Rompox Easy shrank within 6 weeks
.

I can't see how Geofix could be any worse. They are both shite

[Tony McC]

I'd hazard a guess that what you have there, Bob, is movement rather than shrinkage.

I *am *party (still) to the shrinkage data for Romex products and it would be damned near impossible to achieve that degree of shrinkage (which I'm visually estimating at 3-5%) unless it was a contaminated product. That's not to say that no shrinkage has occurred, because there may well have been some, but it is extremely unlikely that the gaps to both sides of the jointing solely result from shrinkage.

And despite theser issues with Easy, it's still better than GeoFix because it does actually go hard and doesn't turn green in a matter of days. Admittedly, I'm comparing poor with poorer, and no-one pays me to defend Romex, but if those were the only two products available, I'd go with Easy every time.

Did anyone from Romex ever comment on this matter or visit the site?

[Bob_A]

Flags laid on a full bed and definitely no movement Tony.
Rompox Ray came to visit me but could not give a reason.
He said that he had not seen it before and gave me some replacement tins for the affected areas.
To be fair since replacing the affected bits the new stuff has not shrunk, so perhaps a couple of bad tins?
I was grateful to Ray for the visit but overall I'm still not impressed with Easy.
My patio is south facing and has no overhanging trees yet the joints (but not the flags) attract moss badly.
The material wears away when cleaning away the moss. You can almost scratch it away with a key.

I'm not sure what to do, I spent approx £250 on Easy. I was thinking of either contacting Ray again but I'm not in the mood to replace it just yet. When I do I might just suffer the loss and use something like easipoint.

Edit
Part of the email I sent to Ray
I used the Rompox Easy about 3 weeks ago to finish my Indian Sandstone Patio but in a couple of areas it has appeared to have shrunk and is now moving within the joint .
Before applying I thoroughly cleaned and vacuumed the joints. The weather was dry and warm at the time but since then we've had some really high temperatures.
I've never used Rompox before so didn't know what to expect but it seemed stickier and less free flowing than what I had seen in a promotional video, also it didn't leave a surface film as I had expected.
I found it easier to use a squeegee to work and tamp it into the joints. I found when using a broom the compound tended to get swept over the joints rather than go into them. .
On completion I was satisfied that i had fully filled and compacted the joints.


So it was 3 weeks not 6 weeks. That's my memory for you.

Apologies to the original OP for going off on one but I don't want him to have problems.