The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:15 pm**

Hi guys,
Firstly Iâ€™d like to say what an excellent site this is, especially for the novice like me. Itâ€™s brilliant to have a platform of impartial advise and loads of tips. Great work!

I have, (reluctantly, after pressure from the wife!) offered my services to an elderly family member to help install a small patio in her garden this summer. I am a relative novice, but I have enlisted the help of a mate of mine whoâ€™s a landscape gardener to help with the tricky bits.

Iâ€™m interested in the Marshalls Coach House paving in the Heatherland colour, mainly because it looks nice and secondly because of the sealant that makes it easier to clean. My first question is...is it worth it? Does it actually stay stain free? It is more expensive than Wickes Wentworth paving which was my second choice and I wondered if it was worth the extra cash? Obviously, with the family member being elderly I thought this would be a good idea with the cleaning frequencies being less.

Secondly, I was planning on using Cementone, Geofix or M-Joint jointing compounds, purely because of their purported ease of use for the DIYâ€™er. Any thoughts on which one is better?

Cheers for you help!
Steven

Posted: **Tue Apr 14, 2009 5:25 pm**

Can't really comment on the efficacy of the Coach House alleged sealant as I've not had a chance to try it out. I have been trialling another allegedly stain-proof paving (from a different manufacturer) for the past month and other than fence stain, I've not been able to make a mark on it, but I'm fairly certain that the sealant used with that paving is NOT the same as that used by Marshalls (in fact, I *know* it isn't because it's a proprietary product)

I'm not even sure about the pricing. How much are you being asked to pay and how does that compare with the alternatives?

As for the choice of jointing materials, I wouldn't waste my money on any of those you've named. They might be easy to install, but do they actually perform? Not in my experience! There are polymeric products that *do* work, and stay in place when you wash down the paving. If you look at some of the other threads in The Brew Cabin, you're bound to find out which they are.

Posted: **Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:00 pm**

Thank you for your response Tony. They quoted me Â£360 for a 10mÂ² project pack at my local merchant. I believe this has 4 different sizes in. The patio area we want to do is about 10mÂ², just enough for a table and chairs. The Wentworth paving is considerably cheaper, but I didnâ€™t like the colours/look as much.

I think iâ€™m going to go for Coach House. With Marshalls reputation and the fact that the sealant is made in tandem with the makers of Teflon, Iâ€™m hoping it will be good and worth the extra few pennies! Marshalls certainly talk a good game anyway!!

On a side note, I was quite surprised that the sales girl in the merchant really didnâ€™t know anything about it! All she could say about it was â€˜Thereâ€™s some info about it in the brochureâ€™ and thrust a Marshalls brochure in my hand!! Although having a bit of experience of builders merchants before, Iâ€™m not sure why that surprised me that much!!

As soon as I posted about the jointing compound I read further down the board and there were plenty of threads on the topic. Thanks for that.

I shall report back once iâ€™ve installed it. In fact, I shall probably be on again asking questions in the mean time!

Thanks for your help
Steven.

Posted: **Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:32 am**

firstly steven,thanks for all the goals you scored for luton :;):

never heard of this coach house paving ,and you are paying top wack for it so be careful how you go about it.

the best joints are either sand:cement or romex or gftk dont go for the geofix,i cant believe they still sell that rubbish

LLL

Posted: **Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:02 am**

The sealant used on Coach House is one of the relatively new breed of mono-fluoro-ethanes (I think that's right) that are appearing on more and more paving products from various manufacturers. Charcon were the first with their StoneMaster (which is still a crap name) and now most other major manufacturers are following suit.

While it's tempting to think that the manufacturers are treating the paving before it leaves the factory as a service to customers, the cynical part of me suspects it's done because it allows the manufacturers to ramp up the price and earn extra spondulicks by selling the sealant and the paving. If you look at what it would cost you to get hold of a bottle of a MFE (liquid teflon) and work out the cost per square metre, it's hard to justify the premium you're being asked to pay.

The Brew Cabin

Marshalls coach house paving