The Brew Cabin

hi,

I was looking at your pages on setts and am very interested in using them for a patio. An office near my office has them in a courtyard and they look great.

However, I tried going to both Bradstone's and Marshall's websites to look for them without any joy. I found something that initially looked like what I wanted at Bradstone's but it turned out to be fake setts mounted on slabs -- no offense but YUCK!!

I am looking for fine picked ones -- bearing in mind one of your cons about this matter -- either 100x100x100 or 100x100x50. Could you recommend to me the names and details of some suppliers?

thanks,

Matt

YUCK is a very polite term for what I think of those bloody monstrosities, Matt! I wouldn't use them under a shed, let alone on a patio!

Peversely, both Marshalls and Bradstone (in their Aggregate Industries outfit) actually supply genuine granite setts but they don't promote them much to the residential market, for some unknown reason. Bardon do a SlimSett (why do these companies always have to come up with a cheesy name for their products?) which is easy to work with, but hard to source in smaller quantities.

How many do you need? In square metres, that is? And whereabouts are you? Up here in t'north reclaimed granite cubes can be sourced from the salvage yards for around 60-90 quid per tonne, with each tonne covering 4-5 m2, but darn sarff, they're a bit pricey, over 100 quid per tonne, I believe.

hi Tony,

thanks for your reply.

The area is approximately 24 square metres and it is "darn sarff".

You're right about the Marshall's site, it's not very diy/homeowner friendly. By coincidence, I solved the mystery of their site yesterday :), finding all "the good stuff" in their professional site.

Setts or cubes, how should I decide? My feeling is that the 50mm thick ones would suit my needs fine. It also saves me 50 mm of height too as the footing for my house is VERY shallow. What other considerations should I keep in mind in making a decision?

thanks again,

Matt

Using the sawn gritstone setts from Marshalls or Farrars reduces the amount of labour and level of skill required to make a decent job of it. These sawn setts are laid in the same way as flexible block paving, with no need for individual bedding on a cement-bound medium, no need for complicated pointing or sealing with pitch, and you should be able to lay the lot in a single day - a weekend at most.

Laying granite cubes means preparing a concrete or mortar bed, tapping down each sett to level, checking alignment, pointing/jointing, knocking all the skin off your knuckles, struggling to cut oversize cubes with a toffee hammer and chisel.....it's a lot of work.

The end result is all that really matters, though. What look are you trying to achieve? Sawn setts look very clean and tidy, but cubes look much more olde-worlde and can be laid to fans or spirals much more readily.

Cost-wise - there's not much to choose. The reclaimed cubes are slightly chepaer to buy but more expensive to lay. Overall, both paving types work out at around 80-100 quid per m2 for what is, relatively speaking, a small area (owt under 100m2).

hi,

one final question about this matter: colour?

As I wrote above, I am in London and live in a late-Victorian terrace with a "yellow" stock brick exterior.

Of course, the word "yellow" there is a bit interesting, as it certainly doesn't look like any yellow I've ever seen. There is a brick wall along one boundary wall: blue engineering bricks at top and bottom and yellow stocks in the middle. On the other boundary wall there is an old picket fence (not mine).

Is that of any help in trying to suggest a sympathetic colour?

I just think it would be a real sin to put all this effort and money into such a project only to have it turn out jarring and out of place.

thanks again,

Matt

P.S. And now, it's back to digging. :(

I'm familiar with the brick you mention - it;s sometimes known as 'buff'.

Colourwise, the yorkstone setts go well with it, as they are a buffy-browny-ochrey colour and quite sympathetic. Granite cubes, especially the greyish-silver granites are 'neutral' and work with almost any color scheme. In fact the only cubes/setts I'd avoid are the Shap/Aberdeen pinks/red, as I despise pink and yellow together - the Dolly Mixture look! :(

The yorkstone will look pukka - trust me!