When my house was built they laid two rows of nice, riven finish, 3ft by 2ft 50mm thick, slabs from the pavement up to my garage door. Just long enough that I can park the car without the back end hanging over the pavement but still open the garage door without skelping the front of the car. This pic gives you some idea:
Shortly after buying the house (which was a new build) I realized the gap between the two strips of slabs was almost exactly 3ft so I bought a whole load more of the riven slabs and laid them sideways down the middle of the existing two strips with another complete row laid same way on the other side. Then I did a large patio with the same slabs in the back garden. This was not quite 40 years ago so I was young, fit and stupid back then!
I thought I had enough slabs left to pave the front completely including up to the front door but I'd miscalculated and broken a couple of them when tamping them down. So I ended up with enough to lay a row from the front door to the pavement one length ways then one crossways then one length ways and so on - a sort of castellated effect. I filled the area between the garage slabs and the path slabs with agate chips and very nice it all looks.
Back then our other car would be parked at the kerbside in the road but with many more cars now parking in the estate we've taken to parking Becky beside Twink with her N/S wheels on the slabs to the side of where Twink is and her O/S wheels on the gravel. This works well for parking but has two problems. The darn gravel sticks to the O/S tyres and are dragged into the road every time you go out and it's not great for working on Becky if she needs to be jacked up - also the gravel is dirty and uncomfortable to wriggle around on:
A few years ago I had a real bit of luck when one of the neighbours decided to lift all his original slabs (same as mine) and lay block paving in it's place. He allowed me to "acquire" about a dozen of the used slabs for nothing! Almost unbelievably I found the distance between the path slabs and the garage slabs is exactly 3ft so these slabs will just slot straight in! I couldn't believe my luck as I didn't deliberately try to get this spacing when I laid them all those years ago. Every year I promise myself I'm going to take up the gravel and lay these slabs so Becky can have a hard standing all of her own and every year the summer comes to an end, the weather becomes less attractive and I've still not done the slabs!
Now, at 75 years old, I'm finding I can barely "walk" these slabs let alone think about laying them and I'd just about given up on using them. Day before yesterday though a chap turns up next door with a transit pickup towing a trailer with a mini digger on it! That looks interesting I thought! so I lurked about on my side of the fence in the back garden and it turns out he's going to landscape and install a large patio next door! I caught him and my neighbour, who I get on with very well, as he was returning to his van and asked him what he might take to lay my single row of slabs.
So here's the question. Dig out a found with his mini digger. line with hardcore and compact. Lay the slabs (8 of them) on mortar with me standing by to give help with the slab lifting if needed (think I can manage that, just can't do them on my own). He recons to do it in one day and says £200 to £250. I think this includes materials but I'm not quite sure. What do you think folks? should I be biting his hand off?
So what do you think on his price? Sounds very reasonable to me but I haven't payed anyone to do something like this in over 30 years so I'm just wondering?
Shortly after buying the house (which was a new build) I realized the gap between the two strips of slabs was almost exactly 3ft so I bought a whole load more of the riven slabs and laid them sideways down the middle of the existing two strips with another complete row laid same way on the other side. Then I did a large patio with the same slabs in the back garden. This was not quite 40 years ago so I was young, fit and stupid back then!
I thought I had enough slabs left to pave the front completely including up to the front door but I'd miscalculated and broken a couple of them when tamping them down. So I ended up with enough to lay a row from the front door to the pavement one length ways then one crossways then one length ways and so on - a sort of castellated effect. I filled the area between the garage slabs and the path slabs with agate chips and very nice it all looks.
Back then our other car would be parked at the kerbside in the road but with many more cars now parking in the estate we've taken to parking Becky beside Twink with her N/S wheels on the slabs to the side of where Twink is and her O/S wheels on the gravel. This works well for parking but has two problems. The darn gravel sticks to the O/S tyres and are dragged into the road every time you go out and it's not great for working on Becky if she needs to be jacked up - also the gravel is dirty and uncomfortable to wriggle around on:
A few years ago I had a real bit of luck when one of the neighbours decided to lift all his original slabs (same as mine) and lay block paving in it's place. He allowed me to "acquire" about a dozen of the used slabs for nothing! Almost unbelievably I found the distance between the path slabs and the garage slabs is exactly 3ft so these slabs will just slot straight in! I couldn't believe my luck as I didn't deliberately try to get this spacing when I laid them all those years ago. Every year I promise myself I'm going to take up the gravel and lay these slabs so Becky can have a hard standing all of her own and every year the summer comes to an end, the weather becomes less attractive and I've still not done the slabs!
Now, at 75 years old, I'm finding I can barely "walk" these slabs let alone think about laying them and I'd just about given up on using them. Day before yesterday though a chap turns up next door with a transit pickup towing a trailer with a mini digger on it! That looks interesting I thought! so I lurked about on my side of the fence in the back garden and it turns out he's going to landscape and install a large patio next door! I caught him and my neighbour, who I get on with very well, as he was returning to his van and asked him what he might take to lay my single row of slabs.
So here's the question. Dig out a found with his mini digger. line with hardcore and compact. Lay the slabs (8 of them) on mortar with me standing by to give help with the slab lifting if needed (think I can manage that, just can't do them on my own). He recons to do it in one day and says £200 to £250. I think this includes materials but I'm not quite sure. What do you think folks? should I be biting his hand off?
So what do you think on his price? Sounds very reasonable to me but I haven't payed anyone to do something like this in over 30 years so I'm just wondering?
