The Brew Cabin

What advice would you give to any one starting up in block paving as a business?

Spend at least a year working with an established company to get a feel for how the work is done, how jobs are priced, where are the best sources for materials, tools, etc., how and which advertising works, and just to give you more of an understanding of the way the trade works.

It's not just a matter of knowing how to lay the pavements, but how to deal with all the incidentals, and then there's the paperwork, the VAT and Employment law. By spending time with an established outfit, you will at least learn how actual problems are dealt with on-site, and get a feel for what's possible and what's not.

Ideally, there'd be a proper training program for all this, but now that Interpave (trade body for manufacturers) has swallowed up Interlay (trade bodty for contractors) there is no real progress and they have become difficult to contact and it's virtually impossible to get a reply from them.

The CITB/NCC do a very, very basic training program for the bare basics on block paving construction, but, and this is not just blowing me own trumpet, lads and lasses that have done the course tell me they learned more from this website for nowt than they did on the course that cost a fair bit.

Thank you for that advice.

I would also say "study your market". I've lived in a number of smaller places that have say, no fruit and veg shop, or no bookshop. Other people notice this, and suddenly three bookshops open within weeks of each other. Of course, they can't all survive, and the sad thing is they nearly all close within weeks of each other.

The same must be true of the building trade. The good builders have too much work, and are reluctant to farm it out in case the supply dries up, and they can't supervise all the jobs at once. The ones who have to advertise for work are probably the ones you don't want working for you.

As a customer, I'm always wary of any builder who turns up in a new car or pickup. I'd rather they spent the money on materials, or on retaining good staff.

The converse of your last point, Jon, is that any contractor turning up in a decent car/van must be doing well, which may indicate s/he is a good contractor.

I know from my time selling driveways and patios to the general public that some customers look with disdain upon contractors turning up in battered old vans and submitting estinates on the back of a fag packet.

Similarly with trade contracts - as a contractor I knew I had a better chance of winning a contract if I turned up for site meetings and whathaveyou in the one tidy vehicle we had rather than turning up in one of the vans or wagons. Other than the ability for Dad to take the Mother to mass on Sunday in a vehicle that didn't have a wheelbarrow in the back, that was the only reason we kept a 'posh car' on the books. :)