Silver granite damp - What to do now?

[The Late Lord Lucan]

Here is a very short video of something that happened whilst doing our garden.......

I work as a health & safety officer in the oil & gas construction industry. Most people that have to come & do any work at my house find this a little irritating as they have to follow the same rules as if they were working on a construction site....

Here is a good example why you shouldn't assist the delivery driver when he arrives....
Now I know that sounds a bit mean, but ask yourself this..... who is going to pay out to support you whilst you are off work & unable to earn?
The driver will be insured, but I'd be pretty certain that couriers don't pay to insure their customers too?

This one could have very easily ended up as a fatality.....
Fortunately, the outcome was a pallet of unusable slabs & a severe ear bashing for the lad that felt he was doing the right thing by helping.....

The supplier was absolutely first class with their service, I really couldn't fault them.... they had them replaced as soon as was possible.

Hopefully the courier may be reconsidering their delivery methods & equipment......

http://s269.photobucket.com/user....p4.html

[London Stone Paving]

Personally I don't agree with your statement that you shouldn't help a delivery driver incase you injure yourself in the process.
That kind of thinking IMO is the thin end of the wedge. You could injure yourself helping someone up who had fallen over, you could injure yourself while you were helping an elderly person to change a tyre. Where do you draw the line?

We should have enough common sense to be able to decide what we can reasonably do without the risk of injury. If we all went about life worrying about the consequences of what might happen, we'd never get out of the front door

That delivery driver is a complete moron and should be sacked for doing that.

[lutonlagerlout]

I am 50/50 on this
common sense yeah,but we often get people asking us to move large/heavy/awkward items gratis

when I ask are they going to pay my blokes when they are off with a slipped disc they look at me funny

its nice to be nice,but common sense must prevail

PS pallet trucks eh?
LLL

[msh paving]

I have had 4 jobs delivered by pallet line now, the guys struggle to pull the crates about, but this seems the norm for the mail order sandstone supplier .
the last delivery was 3 crates in a artic walking floor trailer with a moffat to lift off, that went great .I try not to get to involved in pallet truck off loads any damage is there fault then.
this is usually when customer buys product themselves. MSH



Edited By msh paving on 1381730690

[PavingSuperstore]

We deliver all our small loads using this method, 99% of the time, without a problem. Larger loads are made with hiab or moffat offload. The problems we encounter are usually as a result of the customer being economical with the truth with regards to their delivery location. For example, we stipulate firm level ground (not grass or gravel) and that the goods will usually be left kerbside, but it's amazing how many customers still expect us to deliver on a 1:3 slope and take the paving up the garden path, up a flight of steps and into the back garden! The slope is one of the biggest hazards as it can cause the same issue as seen in the video above to occur. On the occasions where the delivery location is slightly tricky, then we ask the customer to assist the driver in offloading. This is essential to enable us to offer low prices on major brand paving. The alternatives are to offer a higher spec delivery method at a greater cost or for the customer to buy the same goods from their local merchant / garden centre, again, usually at a higher cost. It's simply a case of give and take.

[msh paving]

paving superstore,i had a slope issue in wroxham rd norwich delivered via pallet line had to call another lorry and driver to help push up slope into yard, 2 drivers and me to push 4 boxes never again MSH

[PavingSuperstore]

Slopes will always be an issue with a tail-lift / pump truck offload, so any cost saving on the paving will be lost if customers don't advise of the potential issues. I can assure you, no-one enjoys these experiences!:0
Most of the time, there's a plan B, but it needs to be agreed up front to avoid any nasty surprises.
From the original video at the top of the page, it doesn't look like the issue was as a result of the lay of the land - more that the driver didn't use the brake on the pump truck.

[PavingSuperstore]

MSH - out of interest, was that with us? You're local to us, so just wondering......

[msh paving]

no,, the customer got them from somewhere in sheffield....stone was good but back up with broken slabs was crap. MSH

[PavingSuperstore]

Think I know who this is.
Unfortunately, there is a risk of damage in transit especially with some stone types, but resolving the problem and replacing the damages is part of the deal when selling online. I've heard that some online retailers advise their customers to buy extra paving to make allowances for breakages in transit! This suddenly pushes the price per m2 up considerably. We just ask for photos and a list of damages within 7 days of delivery and then get replacements sent out. This seems a fair approach to us.

[lana]

Lord Lucan, thank you for update and such a full description of the process. your patio looks great, btw . I'm happy to report on mine that it has been finished some months ago and I'm happy with the results (finally, after quite a few set backs in the process, but I've got it right at the end!)

I would say what you described how you did it makes a lot of sense to me now and can be used as a basic guidelines for the granite paving. While others might find some steps to be overkill but for the newbies like myself, I would rather have it overdone but safe than have to keep my fingers crossed for unexpected.

it looks like I did it almost the same way as you: full bed of mortar, narrow gaps, sealant before pointing.

I didn't do the backs of the slabs (I wished I would, but at that time I didn't know of this trick). We laid the slabs and let them dry, then sealed before the pointing.

I would have more peace of mind if did it your way, i think it is better. It cost me few weeks of biting my nails guessing if the wet patches on the slabs will ever dry, especially after reading all the horrors of the picture framing, etc, reported on this board for granite slabs like mine. They did come up all good at the end though, so it was a relief.

One other mistake my contractor made was that while he did seal the slabs before doing the pointing, he didn't bothered cleaning them properly before the seal. well, he did cleaned them with the water and the brush. then sealed all that building dust that couldn't be removed that easy. I didn't realised it until it was too late and my patio was covered in yellow-ish marks - it looked way dirtier then when it was just laid!. so a word of advise for everyone: do take an extra effort to clean the slabs well, possibly with the professional cleaning solutions before even thinking of sealing! I found that acid based things from Wikes and Homebase worked for silver gray granite just fine. But of course, as everyone reccomends, do try it on off-cuts first.

And so it is all done now and I'm glad to report that I am happy with the results. And also wanted to say that it would've been a complete disaster if not for the great help from this board! I cannot stress enough how helpful, professional and very efficient these guys were in helping damsel in distress and I am very greateful to you all!

best wishes for all your future projects!
~Lana~

[London Stone Paving]

Hi Lana

Glad to hear that you finally got things finished off to your satisfaction. I think you did quite well in the circumstances bearing in mind that you are completely new to a project of this nature. Next time you do a patio it should be a much less stressful process )

[Seabass]

Hi all , so I have just bought the same paving from a Web based shop starting with N and ending with stone , I am also a newbee at this and getting a garden company to lay it for me but am worried about getting the same problem , I believe they will be using a 1 concrete to 6 sharp sand mix , digging down 75mm and laying Mot1 bought from wicks , Would it be advisable to use SBR ADMIXTURE ? also and lay Appolo weed control fabric ? Any thoughts are welcome before they go down in a week from now Many thanks Mark

[lutonlagerlout]

Yes to SBR
what pointing are they planning on?
cheers LLL

[Seabass]

Was going to get a Patio grout probably grey , any help and suggestions would be great so I could pass it on , I really should have done more homework on this as its a large section about 70sm would it be best to get sealant and seal the slabs before they are laid or once they are down and dry