Reclaimed Formal Random Rectangular York-Stone Paving
These beautiful flagstones had been laid out in a formal pattern over soil, with no base material for over one hundred years. Formally a rose garden in a much larger estate, the paving had subsided very badly, eroded by mice and moles, leaving the area uncomfortable and unsafe to walk over.
The brief was to take up and re-lay to a similar pattern. (The central urn was leaning at an impossible angle, and was reinstated over a solid concrete base under a slab for greater stability.) The secret with paving of this type, where some slabs are 150mm plus thick, weighing several hundredweight each, is to minimise the distance the paving has to be moved. I therefore elected to work in one quarter at a time, setting out level lines and to ensure a reasonable fall to ensure there were no puddles, lifting and shifting the slabs using only a matthook. Stacking slabs of this weight is fraught with danger, in case any single flagstone slipped and crushed a foot or leg.
I laid the paving over a bed of strong concrete, to achieve an average paving depth of 200mm.
Some of the slabs were laid on only 50mm of concrete, and others 125mm, the thinnest slab being 75mm. Steel mesh reinforcing was used in the concrete to ensure that any subterranean mole runs did not cause future subsidence.
The slabs were mainly selected to fit their spaces, although a few were sawn to shape. Once bedded into their positions, the sawn edges were dressed or ‘fettled’ to remove the sawn cuts and to prevent the slabs from delaminating should any moisture enter the stone and become frost damaged.
Once complete, the whole area was pointed in sand and cement at a ratio of one parts OP cement and three parts builder’s sand, with the joints fully filled and pressed into the gaps, then struck with a suitable ‘bucket-handle’ striker, which suits the nature of these wonderful flagstones. That paved area will certainly be in place in another hundred years – without subsiding.
