latest example
LLL
Spot bedding
-
lutonlagerlout
- Site Admin
- Posts: 15184
- Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:20 am
- Location: bedfordshire
-
lutonlagerlout
- Site Admin
- Posts: 15184
- Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:20 am
- Location: bedfordshire
-
Tony McC
- Site Admin
- Posts: 8346
- Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:27 pm
- Location: Warrington, People's Republic of South Lancashire
- Contact:
I've never understood how spot bedding became so popular.
I served my time in the late 70s/early 80s, just before the boom in driveways and patios that came in the mid 80s when block paving prices fell to a reasonable level, and back then, no-one taught it, no-one working on sites ever used it, and it was regarded as a bit of a DIYers' bodge method.
Fast forward 20 years and hundreds of contractors claiming to be paving professionals are laying on spots because "that's what they've done for 30-odd years".
Really? How come I rarely saw it 30 years ago? How come it's not documented in any of the course notes or the one text book we had back then? I strongly suspect some eejit saw Percy Thrower doing it that way in the Blue Peter garden and it spread from there.
It didn't help when, back in the late 90s when I started this website, I had a constant battle with certain well-known, national manufacturers, who were showing spot bedding as an acceptable installation method in their catalogues and brochures. I like to think my constant railing and belittling of them, both privately behind the scenes and publicly on the website and in various interviews, caused them to actually check the British Satndards and see for themselves that, indeed, spot bedding, even then, wasn't tolerated.
One golden day in the future, no-one will be daft enough to lay that way, and we'll be sat in a comfy boozer, chewing the fat, and chuckling at how, back in Olden Tymes, some pillocks actually thought spot bedding was acceptable!
I served my time in the late 70s/early 80s, just before the boom in driveways and patios that came in the mid 80s when block paving prices fell to a reasonable level, and back then, no-one taught it, no-one working on sites ever used it, and it was regarded as a bit of a DIYers' bodge method.
Fast forward 20 years and hundreds of contractors claiming to be paving professionals are laying on spots because "that's what they've done for 30-odd years".
Really? How come I rarely saw it 30 years ago? How come it's not documented in any of the course notes or the one text book we had back then? I strongly suspect some eejit saw Percy Thrower doing it that way in the Blue Peter garden and it spread from there.
It didn't help when, back in the late 90s when I started this website, I had a constant battle with certain well-known, national manufacturers, who were showing spot bedding as an acceptable installation method in their catalogues and brochures. I like to think my constant railing and belittling of them, both privately behind the scenes and publicly on the website and in various interviews, caused them to actually check the British Satndards and see for themselves that, indeed, spot bedding, even then, wasn't tolerated.
One golden day in the future, no-one will be daft enough to lay that way, and we'll be sat in a comfy boozer, chewing the fat, and chuckling at how, back in Olden Tymes, some pillocks actually thought spot bedding was acceptable!
Site Agent - Pavingexpert
-
lutonlagerlout
- Site Admin
- Posts: 15184
- Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:20 am
- Location: bedfordshire
a fantastic slabber George Adams who sadly passed away the other week in his 80s,never used spots and he worked for 60 years laying council greys 3 by 2s
a maul and chalk line and a level were his main tools,never used a cutter,just a hammer and pitcher for perfect cuts
to see that man lay slabs was an education
but even he used a full bed,because that is the correct way
I think the advent of thinner injun stone and also certain *gardening shows" with a certain Mr. TW where with my own eyes saw him laying stone of 5 dots caused all this crap
shame this patio was stonemarket millstone,but its all in the skip now
LLL
a maul and chalk line and a level were his main tools,never used a cutter,just a hammer and pitcher for perfect cuts
to see that man lay slabs was an education
but even he used a full bed,because that is the correct way
I think the advent of thinner injun stone and also certain *gardening shows" with a certain Mr. TW where with my own eyes saw him laying stone of 5 dots caused all this crap
shame this patio was stonemarket millstone,but its all in the skip now
LLL
-
Tony McC
- Site Admin
- Posts: 8346
- Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:27 pm
- Location: Warrington, People's Republic of South Lancashire
- Contact:
The mixing of building sand and sharp sand to make a laying course was the cause of a rift between said TW and meself when we worked the website spin-off from GroundFarce. I was "required" to endorse the methodology, but refused, and so we went our separate ways, eventually. Him to daytime TV ads for lean-tos; me to....errr....penury and irrelevance!
Site Agent - Pavingexpert