Security issues - Theft of york stone paving slabs

[Tony McC]

Drive bandits want paving they can lift with ease and get into the back of the van as quickly and as discreetly as possible. So, the way to foil them is to make the flags buggers to lift and buggers to load without being spotted.

Back in my contracting days, our usual solution for this problem when reinstating misappropriated yorkstone on behalf of the insurance company would be:

1 - all flags bedded onto 100mm mass concrete with SBR bond bridge to ensure maximum adhesion

2 - all joints fully pointed with SBR mortar to resist attempts to get pick or crowbar in to prise-up flags

3 - all free edges to have either a concrete laid edge course or the bedding brought up the side of the flags as a haunching

4 - restrict access to site by using bollards, low walls, boulders or other obstructions

5 - security lighting

The typical drive bandit will saunter up to a potential site and attempt to lift the flags at the free edges. If these put up a struggle or require serious hard work to come free, the thieving gits will move on. They don't want a struggle and they certainly don't want any hard work. If they're lucky, they might get a tenner per square metre for their ill-gotten gains, so if it's going to take an hour to get up two or three metres, and then the flags are caked with SBR mortar, they'll write it off as a bad job.