I'm really impressed with this site and it has made things a lot clearer for me. My boyfriend had been trying to persuade me for the last couple of weeks that spot/dab laying was not on (even if it IS in the Readers Digest or Collins manual) but I guess I'll believe him now that I have seen so much other vehemence here!
Anyway, I just have a straightforward question about designing a layout in Indian Sandstone. The shape is constricted by trees and buildings and in essence is three rectangles side by side. I wanted to use a mix of 30x30cm and 60x 30cm (the only sizes available easily here in the middle of nowhere in Ireland) and avoid cutting. Is there some program/trick in Excel (or something) that would allow me to mess about and find a good layout and therefore the correct number of each size slab I need?
There's no program available, only the service I offer in designing patterns and layouts. For more info, see the Random Layouts page.
Regardless of where you are in Ireland, there are far more than 2 sizes of the imported sandstone available. If you're within 40 miles of one of the bigger cities (Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway) there are suppliers in each that offer imported sandstone in 5-9 sizes, and even places such as Kilbeggan have suppliers offering a good choice in 4-7 sizes.
Unfortunately I'm not even within 70 miles of any of the four major cities and even Kilbeggan is 50 miles from me. To even get the 2 sizes I had to travel 30 miles and pay for delivery(although there were 2 places within a 30 mile radius offering the same stone).
I figured out a way of doing a pattern in Excel and although it's very basic, maybe it will be of help to someone else.
Select the whole spreadsheet and in Format menu set your width and height of every cell to correspond with the smallest unit/slab you are using. Mark out your layout outline by using borders on appropriate cells. Infill with "slabs" by putting borders inside the outline. Bigger slabs are formed by joining multiples of the smallest sized cell.
It's basic but it works and let me count up my slaps and give my boyfriend a plan for the layout.
Thanks for your help and congrats on the wonderful site.
Rebecca
