Stone Setts

[malcolm]

I have a skip and also an area of around 15m2 of messy cracked concrete at the wrong level. It is in a courtyard and the masterplan may include an adjoining 40m2 at some time in the future for garage access.

Has anyone any recommendations for a nice covering for a 1830 house (at that side)? I am tempted to use stone setts as the first 15m2 won't break the bank and I can use something different for the rest later on if I find I have less money. It looks like thin granite in 200mm x 100mm x 30mm can be had for under £30/m2 and I have the flexibility to put some concrete underneath for support.

I am a little nervous about creating an uneven surface. Tumbled granite might help with that. I have so far only laid a boundary strip of setts which don't really help in figuring out what a larger surface might be like.

Any experiences or ideas?

 

[MatthewC]

The setts I have laid have all been as edging; I think using these as a surface would result in something far too rough and difficult to walk on, plus gaps due to varying thickness.

I have used (imported) limestone flags both inside and outside my house; they are usually between 30 and 35 mm thick with a few going to 25 mm or 40 mm in places, and in general are pretty consistent in thickness and so not too difficult to lay. You can see the tumbled buff/grey exterior ones (laid on sand) at http://houseintheenchantedforest.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/recent-progress-photos.html, and the black interior ones (laid on a limecrete floor) at http://houseintheenchantedforest.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/limecrete-floor-part-3-laying.html.

I got these from a reclamation yard called Burgess Reclamation (http://www.burgessreclamation.co.uk/) - Adam B is very helpful and friendly; he also does a lot of old timber such as lintels and joists which are 1 foot square. IIRC, the price in 2013 was under £30/m2 but I can't recall if that included the VAT.

Matthew

 

[malcolm]

Your flags look nice. It looks like the base required will be much the same whatever I use so I can probably put off a choice of materials for quite some time.

I popped down to a local stone specialist and laid out some of his 200 x 100 x 50 split granite setts on a bit of gravel. They all had one face which was very nearly flat and the surface felt quite good under foot. The price including VAT and delivery is under £35/m2. I suppose the trick will be to pop down with the van and pick some up and lay a small section to see how they look and feel.

I found some cobbles in the ground which might be nice to reuse somewhere in the garden where nobody will want to walk.

 

[mims&pip]

Hi Malcolm,

We also used granite setts as edging rather than paving at a previous house, although to add interest we did mix a few in with the paving and had no issues with unevenness underfoot. I do think they can look very nice laid over a larger area.

At our last house we used Indian sandstone flags for parts of the terrace and the courtyard area of the garden (with one third of an acre we needed to break things up a bit so also had large gravelled areas, some decking ( :roll: ) and some original cobbles still in situ from the long-demolished stable block* as well as the lawn leading down to the stream (where a PO kept pigs :lol: ).

We sourced our paving from DT Stone near Fordingbridge in Hampshire and iirc we paid around £25 per sq m inc vat. For anyone that's interested they have a fairly good website and we found them extremely helpful when we visited their showroom.

Doing a trial run with a few sounds like a good idea!

Mims x

* These were an absolute pig to walk on, being directly outside our French doors, and I stumbled on them on numerous occasions so you are right to think of moving yours to a less frequently walked on location in the garden!

 

[malcolm]

I'll invest in a square metre and have a play. I don't like the stark light grey of the new ones but the silver granite setts I installed as an edging in 2014 seem to have become much darker and more varied in colour and are starting to look OK so it might make a useful finish for the courtyard. It's the one in the photo here http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15374

I'm going to be messing around more in the area so making a best guess at levels and bedding on sand ought to make the paving adaptable as I go along. Paving slabs don't seem to work with willow roots very well so something smaller and adjustable must be the way forward.