The Brew Cabin

i have a 5 meter wide and 300 meter long drive/road shaped like a U on its side to lay in stretcherbond using drivesett, turning the stretcherbond 180 degrees oround the bend and cutting in!!!! i am thinking this has gotta be wrong. all opinions welcomed

There's a few options, depending on how good a job you want, aesthetically.

The simplest involves changing the angle of laying at 45 degrees, at 90 degree and again at 135 degrees. This means that at various points around the bend, the coursing is not 'square' to direction of travel, but, on a low-speed driveway, this is not a major concern, as the shearing forces generated in the bend are minimal, and, as long as the retainer edges are firm. there should be not real problem.

A better job would amend the angle of coursing every couple of metres or so, creating a series of bays that gradually turn through 90 degrees.

The top job, and the most labour intensive, involves identifying the origin point of the radius and cutting every course, every other course or every third course (as suits the scale of the project) to maintain coursing that is transverse to the direction of travel.

Which option you choose depends on the client and the budget.

thanx for the reply. my feeling is that all three options are astheticly bad. the top job being slightley better on the eye, it would incorperate a lot of very small cuts. although i have argued for small cuts being ok (against the marshall register) even i feel there would be too many. the drive turns 180 degrees in less than 7meters on the inside. my predicament is that the property is outragous, self build from scratch so far costing around 3 million. swimming pool,bowling green, 4 garages. the whole 9 yards mansion. evreything new everything perfect.and here i come with a boss that just wont listen and put in a drive that goes against our marshalls approved status(rendering 10 yr guarentee null and void) or put in some klunky horrible drive! sorry but im a bit stressed about the whole situation and we start to lay in the morning! 300m2 before we hit the bend so a fewdays watching a nervous brakedown approaching!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry Tony, for appearing ungreatful for your advice it wasnt meant,i am suffering over this job as it is the largest i have ever undertaken and i have a list of things to abide to from marshalls, i.e the minimum size of cut blocks, that coupled with a boss who demands 80-100m2 per day a not so friendly millionaire customer and a self pride of allways doing a top job things a getting a bit too much. I fully understand your options but i think in myself i believe the wrong pavers have been selected for the job, could i ask for your opinions on small cuts? again i apologise for my last post. sorry

Small cuts, or 'darts' as we call them, are a nuisance. They sink into the bedding, they flick out, they skew, they look untidy. I'm not sure what the Marshalls Code of Practice says on the subject, as I've never received their documentation, despite asking, and being promised, repeatedly. However, the real rule book for block paving, BS7533/3, requires that no pieces should be less than one-quarter of original full block size, but I prefer to work to a minimum of half block size, or a third block size in exceptional circumstances. Small cuts are unnecessary and result in a poorer job, in my opinion.

At the end of the day, you have to remember that this is not your driveway - it's not you living here, or having to stare at the finished job for the next few years. That's the client, and if the client has chosen Drivesett, then so be it. You might think it's the wrong choice, and I might agree with you, but that doesn't matter a toss. It's not our money paying for it, so the client gets what the client wants and we have to put up with it.

On a prestige job such as this, I'd go for the radial fan cuts option. There's an outside chance I could be persuaded to opt for a ring radius, but it'd take some persuading and a lot of beer!

I've laid horseshoe drives in Tegula/Drivesett to this layout in the past and it looks great, especially where you have a relatively fast radius that can show off the worksmanship involved in a radial fan. You should cheack with your boss and the client just what it is they want, and give them just that. There's no accounting for taste, and "he who pays the piper, calls the tune". You can only do what you're told.