Granite pavers - Advice on prep and laying

[PavingSuperstore]

I agree, but sometimes as a landscaping 'company' it is possible to have a range of skill-sets. For example, we predominantly cover hard-landscaping, but as a company we also offer design and planting, all of which we are qualified to do, although we do not take on garden maintenance, pruning, mowing etc or civil work. I guess it would be difficult as an 'individual' to have the breadth of knowledge and skill to actually DO it all, but a lot of garden designers will know the construction requirements / constraints to build a garden using both hard and soft materials. Equally, there are paving contractors who have a great eye for making sure the paving does complement the house and environment and similarly there are builders who make a good job of paving.

I think that half the problem is that the public doesn't necessarily know the name of the trade they are after. Good old Yellow Pages has exploited this fact for years!

I remember providing materials sometime ago to a franchised lawn cutting company. The guy was laying a patio using hoggin and just hoggin. It was pouring with rain and it was like the World War 1 trenches. The more hoggin he added, the worse it got. He had also laid the paving with around two inch gaps. He was good at lawn maintenance, but shouldn't have been laying paving. He should have made the decision not to lay paving for his existing customer, but obviously didn't want to turn away the work in case he lost his maintenance contract.

In my personal opinion (hopefully not setting myself up for abuse!), I would generally classify the parallel trades as follows:
Builder - mainly vertical work,e.g. houses, walls etc
Landscaper - depends upon specialism, e.g. hard or soft materials, but could be both if different personnel have different skill-sets. 'Landscaper' often used as a term by horticulturists
Paving contractor - specialist in paving, often the fastest kid on the block when it comes to driveway paving!
Gardener - a specialist in soft garden maintenance, e.g. pruning, mowing, planting, mulching etc
Horticulturist - never seen anyone really use this term, but I would think it would suit soft landscaping specialists

[lutonlagerlout]

the only reason i ever got into patios and drives was that we couldnt find anyone good enough to match the builds we were doing
hardscaping like building relies on 4 key components

1 datums

2 levels and/or falls

3 construction technique to a recognised standard I.E sub-grade,sub base ,bedding,material

4 fixing and finishing quality

its as easy to do it right as it is to get it wrong but you need to have the kind of mind where you can think ahead and see potential pitfalls before they arise

like george i have seen middle aged men ( i guess I am one now!) laying patios on dots and dabs,or neat building sand straight on the grass

brushing neat cement into the joints then using a watering can

raking topsoil and tapping slabs down onto that

and we have to price against these uneducated folk!

the biggest issue for me is a lot of these types actually believe they are doing a grand job!!

LLL

[ringi]

I think part of the problem is that most people can lay 2 inch “council� concrete paving as it is so forgiving; coloured concrete paving was not much harder. In my childhood stone paving was way out of reach of most consumers.

Then along come the imported stone and people that got away with poor methods on “council� concrete paving just assume they can do the same with stone.

[gonchy]

"When I was 12 or 13 and working as a general labourer on sites at weekends and school holidays, an old, very old, joiner (he must have been at least 45!) told me that a true tradesman knows the limit of his skills which is why he, as a joiner, never claimed to be an all-round builder or a brickie, a roofer or anything other than a joiner. That notion has stayed with me all my life."

this as a jack of all trades is a master of none

[lemoncurd1702]

In this industry you need to be multi-disciplined to a point but there are lines that should not be crossed, well maybe only slightly. I install block paving, patios and construct garden walls, and do a bloody good job, if I say so myself. I try to stick with the hard works.
But there are lines that I will cross.

For instance, the laying of turf is piss easy and without it a newly landscaped garden looks unfinished, other soft works leave alone.
Decking is also easy peasy to a point. If it's elevated or there are steps and balustrading involved then I will leave alone.

Get me,
some of the simpler aspects of other trades can be done and is sometimes the only effective way of completing a project both in terms of time and money.

But you have to be fair to the customer and honest with yourself, you know your limitations and shouldn't exceed them.

[lutonlagerlout]

I agree with what LC has said here but certain things i wont touch
electrics
plumbing
2nd fix carpentry
plastering
painting

I leave these to the experts
I like pitching the occasional roof or building a stud wall
as with the previous post its all about measurements,getting things square,plumb and level
measure/cut/fix
same in all trades
LLL