The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Sat Aug 20, 2005 6:38 pm**

I Recently Purchased some Bradstone 'Riven Style' Slabs size 450mm x 450mm and 'supposingly' 32 mm deep to lay on a preprepared concrete base.

After the slabs were delivered I noticed that the thickness within the batch varied enormously on every slab, some were 32mm deep others only 20 or 25 mm, even on some slabs there is a 5 mm difference across the depth of an individual slab.

I know there are manufacturing tolerences but this amount seems ridiculous. and will cause me a real headache when laying them.

Is such a variation normal and if so why should this be?

I have contacted my supplier and they are not interested, they said that this is a Bradstone product and they just deliver.

Good old British Customer Service at its's best!!!

Thanks

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 10:48 am**

Variarion between flags is almost unavoidable in the manufacturing process - they are made on a hydraulic press and variation in the raw material will lead to some variation in finished thickness.

Variation from side to side in any one flag is a manufacturing defect. If it's more than a couple of mil. the press has not been set up or monitored correctly.

Given that it's a riven product, are you measuring 'fairly'? The riven surface will contribute to apparant variation between different points on the flag. (Having said that 5 mil is excessive on a nominal 32 - and if you're down to 20-25mil on a flag then they're going to break.)

Don't let your supplier get away with it. They sold the product to you and if they're not fit for purpose then you want your hard-earned cash back. They'll simply get the Bradstone rep in to credit them in any case.

Posted: **Thu Aug 25, 2005 3:15 pm**

Aren't these a wet-cast product, not a pressed product? That being the case, then 5mm variation in thickness across any indiovidual flag is nothing unusual - it's almost inevitable with modern, budget, fast-track manufacturing. You do tend to find less variation in the upmarket ranges, such as their Old Town stuff.

The fact that this type of flag is prone to variation in thickness within individual flags and across the range is detailed on the Laying Flags page and is the reason why I recommend individual bedding for these products.

Posted: **Fri Aug 26, 2005 10:58 am**

My apologies - if it's a cast, rather than pressed, product then Tony's quite right, some degree of variation is to be expected. I'd assumed from the 32mm nominal depth that this was a pressed product.

I'd still say that if there are flags down to 20-25mm per the original post then that's more than 'normal' variation.

The Brew Cabin

Bradstone Â riven style slabs