The Brew Cabin

I am getting a contractor to lay two new patios with connecting path. Around 60 sq m in total. I am using good quality concrete "cotswold stone" riven slabs (approx £25 m). The secondary patio will have a 2.5 diameter timber floored gazebo/summer house with a 6x4 pent shed behind it and a couple of metre visible patio around the front.

Should I be considering using cheap slabs under the shed and gazebo or is it preferable to use the same material throughout to insure against "future changes of use" of the patio?

Second question. I tried a search, but is the consensus that the man made slabs are as good as natural products? My main reason for choice was a better colour match than allowed by natural stone.

Only you know what your future plans might be, and how likely you are to re-arrange the garden buildings. 25 quid per square metre for flags that may never be seen does sound a lot, but then the floor area of the shed and gazebo only comes to around 10 square metres, so that's 250 quid for the riven-effect flags as against, say, 75 quid for plain concrete B50s (600x600x50mm). Is it worth 175 quid to know that, if you do ever have a shuffle, your patio will be intact?

Bear in mind that the flags underneath the shed/gazebo will, to a large extent, be protected from weathering and exposure to UV light, so after even just a couple of years, they will look much fresher and newer than the rest of the paving.

The debate about manufactured or natural stone has been going on since we first learned to make concrete. There is no definitive answer: there are good and bad of both formats, so you can't say, one road or t'other, that this is better than that, or vice-versa. You can say that some stone flags are better than some concrete flags, and some concrete flags are better than some stone, but there's so much variety on the market that you can only make a case-by-case judgement.

You have to choose the ones you like, then you can look at the quality issue. All of the manufacturers listed on the Concrete Paving Links page are quality manufacturers. There may well be others dotted around the country that haven't been included on the list, but that's because I can't check every single producer. If the flags you've chosen come from one of the companies on my list, then it's a fair bet that they will be quality items, but then, there is so much variability in different products from an individual manufacturer, that it becomes ever more complex to decide which are top quality, which are medium quality, and which are budget products.

A couple of very good points Tony. I hadn't considered the weathering effect but I can see the outline on the patio now!

I'll browse through your links.

Thanks for your time, I get the impression you singled handedly respond to almost all the queries here.

Never mind the Marshalls approved contractor list, I think you should set up your own based on feedback here. Set up a postcode search and charge contractors a small commission per lead!

Not quite single-handed - I'm up to using two fingers on each hand and my thumbs occasionally! Not bad for a knackered flagger, really!

Other folk have mentioned the possibility of setting up a contractor list, but I have to be careful, as I've no way of ensuring only the best gangs get on the list. It only takes one eejit to ruin it for everyone, so I only ever recommend the gangs I actually know, who's work I've seen, and who I'd be happy to have working for me.

I occasionally "suggest" other gangs that have been 'mentioned in despatches', either here in the Brew Cabin or in correspondence with other users of the website, but a suggestion is not the same as a recommendation.