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Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:29 am
by MaxAli
Cookie did this job last summer and I have finally got round to posting some pictures here. Great workmanship and nothing was too much trouble.

Tony did a lot of work with the design. I think it works well. Shame I haven't got a good camera to take pictures at night with all the lighting in place. It's not too blingy - a couple of LED strips under top step from doors and spots in pots.

Need to change some of the plastic pots but that will have to wait. Thanks to Tony for hosting my photos.

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Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:37 am
by MaxAli
Forgot to mention materials:

215x140x65mm Rudgewick red multi stock sq edge (S/E) barn paviours from Baggeridge.

200x100x52mm thick red dragface chamfered paviours from Baggeridge. Used as edging strip against the house walls.

The front of the steps used a handmade paver from my local brick manufacturer - HG Matthews.

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:55 am
by Pablo
Good looking job Max the materials compliment the house very well and should stand the test of time. Cookie you have the patience of a saint building those curved steps.

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:16 am
by MaxAli
Thanks Pablo. Tony did mention there might be too much of the same colour and we originally planned to put in a granite circle on the main patio area. However, when Cookie was doing the work he didn't think it would look right so I took his advice and left it out.

The big pain will be that it is a north facing patio which will end up getting mossy so will need regular cleaning.

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 4:31 pm
by lutonlagerlout
hi max :)
very nice finish there
i popped down and met cookie and the lads on that job and IIRC cookie built those steps in about 3 days
some going for such a high finish
are you going to seal it max?
I found the sealant doesnt seem to impede the algae and moss in any way at all
cheers LLL

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 5:53 pm
by haggistini
very smart and skillfull work yet again. nice job !

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 7:08 pm
by dig dug dan
fantastic job. i was hoping to get down an meet cookie myself, but never found the time
Rudgewick red multi stock


when i rung my builders merchants about a year ago to get some, they said they were discontinued. Buggers obviously wanted me to buy something else from them!

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 7:18 pm
by ambient
very smart job like the curves :D

Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 7:36 am
by MaxAli
Hi Tony (LLL) - I had also come to the same conclusion as you. I thought the best a sealant might do is to delay the onset of moss and algae by a few weeks. Perhaps it would also be easier to blast it off with a jetwasher. This is just my guess and I do not plan to apply a sealant unless someone recommends different.

Hi Dig-Dug - you're right that they have stopped making those blocks. I remember when Tony McCormack showed me these pavers about 4 years ago I knew I would use them. I didn't think at the time the big companies made such beautiful pavers. I got them from EH Smith at what I thought was a great price - £682+vat including delivery to my house near Amersham. This was less than half the price quoted by others. I brought 3 extra packs to do a bit down the side of the house in the future.

Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 7:05 pm
by dig dug dan
it was ehsmiths who told me they were discontinued! ???

I don't use them anymore tbh. not since they closed my account without telling me. it wasn't until i went in to buy some bits that they said "it was costing them money to keep i open" thanks for ringing me to tell me!
so to spite them, i send all my customers in to choose the paving, then i buy from butterfields!
I even brought a bag of kiln dried sand and paid on a card :D that will rack up some bank charges!!

Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 7:18 pm
by lutonlagerlout
i find eh smiths ridiculously expensive, so rarely use them unless the time and motion says otherwise
at the minute jewsons in leighton buzzard are giving us the best deals,but i have found chas lowe and sons in knebworth to be reasonable too
like anything in life these days you have to shop around or get mugged
LLL

Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:15 pm
by local patios and driveway
beautiful work.

Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 7:45 am
by MaxAli
Perhaps I got EH Smiths on a good day. They were one of 4 suppliers recommended by Wienerberger. The supplier the sales guy said would give me the best price gave me the highest. When I was planning to get the paving done about a year earlier the best price from another supplier was slightly more than EH Smiths. When I went back to the same company this time they were over twice as expensive. The EH Smiths salesguy did say they were making very little profit on these and based on my research I believed him.

As Tony says you just have to shop around. I also got the prices below from EH Smiths which looked pretty good until Cookie found Lovedays who supplied MOT @ £16.50. All prices +vat.

18 tonne M.O.T type 1 @ £ 19.20 tonne
10 tonne river washed sharp sand @ £ 22.60 tonne

The other good company I found was for my outdoor spotlights. It was Edmundson Electrical in Watford. They gave me 45% discount - my electrician couldn't get more than 25% from Grant and Stone.

Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 6:02 pm
by lutonlagerlout
i wonder who gave cookie lovedays number ?
<whistles nonchalantly>
cheers LLL :)

Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 6:13 pm
by GB_Groundworks
We use edmundsons for all our electrical stuff, used to be CEF but they got creative with adding stuff to our account we didn't have