Red stone paving

specialbranch · Mon Jan 20, 2014 3:05 pm

Im looking for a bit of advice, Ive started to get more and more involved with our village 'In bloom committee' and this year we are looking to create a little memorial space in the village centre to commemorate the 100years since the start of WW1. There was talk of commissioning a wall mounted steel poppy artwork. but with this sort of thing getting weighed in all the time I suggested a paving feature. Im looking to create a poppy themed feature around 5ftx5ft. Ive got some Marshalls Kingsize sawn paving to make the background of the feature. 100x100 black granite setts to add a border and the poppy centre. I just need something nice to create the poppy petals. (Its just the 2 petal simplified poppy as used in the appeal. Im struggling to find red stone locally (I only need 2x600x600). Ive thought about quarry tiles or maybe even a red tegula type block but would prefer it in just 2 pieces. I want it to look really nice but we have zero budget so im paying out of my own pocket. Any suggestions chaps?

Mon Jan 20, 2014 4:35 pm

go and select 2 pieces of modak rose?
hard to cut mind
LLL

London Stone Paving · Mon Jan 20, 2014 9:05 pm

Hollington red
Comes from a quarry in Staffordshire
The guy who owns it is called Martin and he also owns a company called stone valley 01782 303364
Steve

Mon Jan 20, 2014 9:59 pm

theres a softish red sandstone from cheshire/staffordshire probably one lsp mentioned

London Stone Paving · Mon Jan 20, 2014 10:02 pm

Thats the one Giles. It is soft and is primarily used for intricate stone masonry work. Back in the day when I used to be a landscaper in stoke we would go to this quarry and buy walling stone. It was crazy, you would chuck them a tenner and then load your transit up with the stuff (well up to the legal weight limit anyway :;): )

Post: # 94889Post **Tony McC** Tue Jan 21, 2014 11:25 am

There's some lovely Bees Head red sandstone from near Carlisle. I've been looking at some setts custom made for a design client and, although they are too soft for vehicle traffic, they are very definitely, unmistakeably red, and work well on foot-traffic areas.....

specialbranch · Fri Jan 31, 2014 6:59 pm

Thanks for the tips , the chap at Staffordshire was very helpfull, but the colour of the suggested stone was a bit on the terracotta side.
My latest thought is to try some resin bound gravel, ive never done it before but as its only 0.5m2 I think i will be ok.
I have the poppy shape cut out from some 22mm thick sawn stone (4 pieces) And a small black granite centre circle. I am going to seal everything at home before I lay it. The site is on a reasonable sloped banking. If I set the feature up at home on a level clean plyboard. Could I set the resin poppy up, let it cure then remove it as one piece(22mm thick). Then lay it on site on a mortar bed with everything else? Anyone any experience? Is it very brittle? I will be using red 2-5 mm granite chippings.
Thanks

Post: # 95165Post **Tony McC** Sat Feb 01, 2014 12:41 pm

I think you're making it more complicated than it needs to be.

If you pre-cast the RBA, then any minor variation in dimensions once you get it to site will result in awkwardness. Casting in-siti ensures you get a proper 'fill', in the right place, to all the edges, and at the right level.

If you pre-cast at, say, 15mm depth using a 5mm agg, ii will be sufficiently robust to carry as a roughly 0.5mÂ² piece, but as I said, why make life hard for yourself?

specialbranch · Sat Feb 01, 2014 1:10 pm

Mainly because ive never tried resin bound before so if I balls up at home I can have another go. Also the job is on council land and i gave visions of kids throwing resiny gravel all over the place. If everything is planned n prepped at home I should have it all done in a couple of hours on site.