The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Tue Sep 07, 2010 9:21 pm**

Hi Everyone
I am after some advice please.
We are currently renovating an 1860 coachhouse and the ground floor including stables has lovely large york stone slabs throughout. Our intention is to lift these and when the required excavations and damp proofing have been carried out, to re-lay them some of them in the kitchen/dining area.

They are not at all worn but appear quite ingrained with mud/dirt,etc and we wonder about the best way to go about cleaning them. Is this best doen before re-laying or shoudl they be laid and then cleaned. The whole of the coachouse is currently undergoing major renovation so no probs with dirty methods !!. Also would we be best to employ a specilaist paver to undertake this as the slabs are of differing thicknesses and we would want them laying properly. We are not going for underfloor heating so they will be laid directly onto the finished screed.

Any help and advice will be gratefully received, Also if anyone knows of or is a paver in the North West
( Liverpool ) area that would be interested in undertaking this for us, we would be very interested to hear from you.

Many thanks to you all
Regards
Lyn

Posted: **Tue Sep 07, 2010 10:15 pm**

Dan or Imogen are the men for this.

Posted: **Tue Sep 07, 2010 11:08 pm**

there is a multitude of decent blokes on this forum who work in that area,in fact to many to mention
i would clean them now and store them somewhere safe
york stone has a habit of going walkies
LLL

Posted: **Wed Sep 08, 2010 12:19 pm**

LLL's advice is sound. Clean them NOW while they are in situ and then lift&store them in a secure location, maybe a steel unit on site, as the WILL go walkabout if left on view.

The most suitable cleaning regime will need to be determined once they been assessed. Often, a good scrub with hot, soapy water and a stiff brush will be adequate, but you may need a rotary head cleaner and/or specialist chemicals to get shut of ingrained muck.

Re-laying them properly is a job for a professional paving contractor, preferably a streetmason. Too many so-called paving contractors claim to be able to lay reclaimed yorkstone based on the fact that they laid a bit of block paving and that turned out alright-ish, but to get the best from reclaimed stone requires a high degree of skill and years of experience.

You should require contractors to lay a test panel before commissioning them to undertake the work. This will have the doubly beneficial effect of scaring off the inept and giving a good indication of the standard achieved by those that take up the challenge. There are quite a few good pavers/streetmasons working Liverpool/Merseyside/Wirral, but they tend to rely on word-of-mouth rather than advertising.

The Brew Cabin

Advice needed re york stone slabs laid indoors