Marshalls north west regional awards 2012

[local patios and driveway]

Worthy winner, i cant fault it at all.

Plastic or metal?

[mickg]

no plastic trophies I'm afraid Dan

[lutonlagerlout]

did anyone else win owt mick?
or did they just turn up for the coronation?
LLL

[mickg]

Yeah Nigel Walker a brew cabin member won an awards too plus other Marshalls register members who attended the evening, in total I think its 8 or maybe 9 awards given out for different categories

[dig dug dan]

Did the photographer wait for the householder to come home and get out of the car.?
Forgive the comment, but there are a lot slips on that drive, and was reading a post today in which the guvnor explained why we don't use them, yet its accepted by the marshalls crew?
It looks fantastic by the way

[GB_Groundworks]

well done mick and great work, and good photos

id like to get paid for taking pictures of paving haha

Steve if you need any help or advice re photos let me know i'll see what i can do

[mickg]

thanks Dan

ha ha no they brought 2 different cars and and a male and female model

If it was block paving then I would agree with you Dan, each of the fairstone setts on the photo are bedded in concrete and jointed with a rigid product

[mickg]

cheers Giles

[dig dug dan]

Are the driveway ones on concrete?

[mickg]

yes all of the driveway on the top photo is laid on a minimum of 100mm concrete and both the patio's are laid on a minimum 75mm concrete bed and also jointed using Marshalls weatherpoint 365

[dig dug dan]

Blimey. That must have cost something!
But it certainly looks good, and i am not knocking what you have done, I just wondered if in these circumstances its right.

[dig dug dan]

no lights used, they was at the house for 4 hours in total but was also waiting for the right time when the clouds just blocked off the bright sun glare which gave a better photo

I once had a patio featured in the bradstone catalogue, the guy drove two hours to get to the site, and all day taking pictures, using various props etc, for one photo!

[haggistini]

Well done mick smart jobs.

[Tony McC]

there are a lot slips on that drive, and was reading a post today in which the guvnor explained why we don't use them, yet its accepted by the marshalls crew?

Not to detract from Mick's work, which is, as ever, excellent, but it's long been a source of annoyance to me that Marshalls, as well as Bradstone and Brett, allow and indeed perpetuate these breaches of the British Standards in the 'Approved' contractor schemes.

There was a double page image in a catalogue a couple or three years back of the top assessor for one particular scheme patting the contractor on the back while at his feet was a whole series of non-compliant cutting-in.

If you are going to run schemes that claim the member contractors to be better than average, then you *must* enforce compliance or leave yourself open to ridicule and potential court action.

As I said in the comments referred to by Dan, if this way of working is agreed to or instructed by the client in writing prior to construction, then the contractor is blameless, but as allegedly better-tna-average contractors, we have a duty to either do it right or point out the options to the client.

Sorry, I don't want to detract from Mick's hour of glory, which is well and truly deserved. This is a bugbear I have with the schemes, not with individual contractors. I'm a judge on one scheme's awards next month and I know, because it's happened every year for the last 3 years, that my remarks on structural integrity will be over-ruled by someone from the marketing team on the grounds that "it looks pretty". Shouldn't it look pretty *and* be compliant to the CoP?

</rant>