paving installations and repairs

Below is a YouTube video of some of our paving installations plus a couple of our repair jobs.

Please contact us for your free consultation and quote. We offer free telephonic paving advice to anyone anywhere.

 

Where we have paved

Paving by Suburb

We have done paving in most suburbs in the greater Gauteng and we will include an article with most of our installations from now on.
Recently we paved in Brackenhurst, Roodepoort, Brackendowns, Weltevreeden park, Midrand, Springs, Boksburg, Horizon, Alberante, Glenanda, Edenvale, Eastleigh and Newmarket.

Corobrick driveway in Roodepoort

In most of the paving mentioned above we paved using Corobrick products however, we do also pave with Flagstones and Bevel bonds in all of Gauteng. It is our policy to give a client advice regarding which paver would best suite the area that is to be paved but we will pave using any brick or paver preferred by the client.

Flagstones and clay combined in Jo’burg North

Most clients do not know what is the costs to do paving today and I like to suggest that home owners try estimate the size of the area to be paved and get a telephone quote before inviting a salesman around to measure accurately and giving a formal quote. I also suggest that a paving quote be done early in the construction of a new house as it would need to be budgeted and not left as the last thing to be considered.

Often a home owner will settle for cheap paving as their budget is exhausted but within a couple of years the paving needs to be re-done due to poor selection or poor installation.

Paving guarantee

When you employ someone to install your paving, you are hoping that they know what they doing and that the paving will enhance the aesthetics of your home, plus it must increase the value of your home.

In a lot of cases, either the builder or the electrician, pool contractor or even the plumber will offer to install the paving and can even give addresses of where they previously installed paving to which home owners give the green light for them to go ahead and install the paving.

Unfortunately the home owner only finds out a year or two later that the paving was installed incorrectly but looked good at the time when it was first installed. This is when we as a paving company get called in to fix or repair the paving.

We recommend the following, ” Let each professional install or build what they have been trained to do and you will save money by holding each professional accountable for their own installation or construction.

Take a drive through an estate and casually look at the condition of the paving and you will be shocked at the amount of paving that is busy collapsing due to incorrect installation procedures. Most of these paving installations have been installed by non paving people, don’t make the same mistake, call in a paving company to install your paving.

Invest with proper paving

Paving to enhance your investment.

Planning your paving and grass areas around the house can be a bit complex and a little expensive if not done correctly. There is always good reasons to leave some grass areas for the children or for the animals to play on. Paving an entire back yard can end up looking very bland even if an expensive paving block is used.

Flagstones and clay combined

 

Home owners should always try to get an even balance in the paving and grass areas. They should not only see paving as a way around cutting the grass on a regular basis but they should also look at the overall look and feel of the possible new look if they are contemplating selling their house anywhere in the future.

Paving has been around for thousands of years but only recently is it being used in many different areas around the house. As mentioned earlier, you may find that you do not want the time consuming job of mowing the lawn but remember that a few grass areas are always welcome to the overall look and feel of a property. Paving is not always the ideal solution to all of your problems even though it can be quite affordable. Paving is often a subliminal item and is mostly noticed only if it is tardy and breaking down. A good looking driveway is often sublimely accepted and lures a potential buyer to come inside to look further.

Smartstone Cotswold

Selecting the right paving block or brick can be quite daunting as there is such a wide variety of types, shapes and colours to choose from. One thing that you have to consider is whether you will be driving on them or just walking on them. If you are going to pave the driveway or a place where cars are going to drive or park on, then you have to ensure that the bricks are designed to carry the weight. Your driveway paving needs to be tougher than any other paving around your property. You also need to decide whether you want uniformity with the brick selection or if you are going to use different bricks for different places around the property.

LaCotta 3 size cobble

Once you have selected the brick and the colours that is going to be used and exactly which areas are to be paved, it is time to either get ready to pave yourself or call in an expert to do the job for you.

 

A suggestion is that you use a dark brick on the driveway which will not need a lot of maintenance and then consider using a light colour on all your borders as it defines the paving areas. On the other areas you could use any colour even a light colour but then again, consider using a darker colour for the borders. Your budget will determine how much of the area you can afford to pave although you can pave different sections at different times.

Dark paving for a driveway

One thing that should be stressed here is the purchasing of good quality bricks. Poor quality bricks will look good soon after the job is completed but will more than likely break down, crack and even dissolve back to cement powder within a couple of years making it necessary to pave once again. . If you decide to lay the paving yourself you will have to be confident and have some guidelines regarding how to pave. If the paving is laid badly then it will look awful and this can make the whole area look bad. Having stressed the importance of a good quality brick, I now need to highlight a couple of important things that need to be done before laying a single brick. Scarify and clean the area which has to be paved, remove all grass and weeds, set your water run off levels, moisten the soil and then compact the ground with a plate compactor which can be hired at most hardware stores. Now that you have prepared the area correctly, you are now ready to lay those bricks. There are plenty tips and advice columns where you can get much needed advice before embarking on paving your property yourself, and I recommend that you get well acquainted with paving before spending and possibly wasting your money.

creative thinking to enhance aesthetics.

If you are in any doubt about laying the paving then it may be an idea to seek professional help. The professionals will be able to not only lay the paving but they will also be able to give sound advice on the best way to clean the paving once laid. If you clean your paving correctly, it will last for far longer and need less maintenance. If the outside of your property looks as good as the inside then you will be adding value to your home. If you are aiming to sell your house one day, then your paving becomes very important as first impressions really do count.

 

Creative paving for gardens

Creative Paving for gardens

I went to the hobby x show at the Dome last week and saw an idea for a garden or an area of the back which might be currently neglected. Often there are areas around the house that is just never used and is therefore neglected or forgotten and often gets over run with weeds.

Why not get charcoal and Grey flagstones and create a chess or checkers board? There was a company called Bigchess that had chess pieces 84cm high and only 2.4kg in weight. I picked up a couple of the pieces to ensure that even a child could move the chess pieces. These chess pieces are almost indestructible as they are made from a durable polyethylene plastic with a 4mm wall.

With a couple of park benches or garden furniture this once neglected area of the garden could become very popular. The chess board and pieces could also be a very good selling item and cover up what used to be a eye sore. The entire area could be landscaped and with a little imagination it could end up as the main featured area of the house.

This is just one example of how to tackle an area that is currently your problem area at your house. Consult a few friends or family and have a brainstorming session with them and you will be amazed at the ideas that come pouring out. Show them what your problem is, tell them about this article and that should get the ideas to flow until the point where you have not only solved a problem area but you also have created a unique reason for your house to be in demand the day it is put up for sale.

Paving needs maintanance

 Keep your paving in good condition.

If you have grass growing on your paving the chances are that you have been negligent regarding the care of your paving. Every item we buy today needs some maintenance, this includes paving. Grass not only spoils the look of the paving but it can also destroy your paving in a short space of time.

In most cases but not all, a simple medium to soft spray from a garden hose and a house broom can be all that is needed to maintain the new rich luster that your bricks had when they were first laid. But, as I said earlier, it is not always the owner’s non-care that degrades the paving, it could also be bad workmanship.

Bricks lifted and the ground being prepared.

The Master builders association of South Africa and those paving companies that are registered with the Master builders association have a strict method of installing paving. This is no guarantee that things can still not go wrong, but it does give peace of mind knowing that the company is still going to be around to repair anything that might have gone wrong. Price is always a factor but long term satisfaction can always trump price.

Edgebeam redone

Richard Arthur has been in the paving industry and sales for most of his 38 year working life and suggests that you should test your salesman to see if he has your project at heart. Most salespeople are only focused on their commission from your job but seasoned salesmen think of the referrals that a good installation always brings. A real professional will want to spend some time with you to ensure that your purchase is not only exactly what you would like, but is the right product for the job as well.

Paving with a tree in the middle.

Do a little research of your own concerning the different brick types either online or at your local brick yard, suggest a brick type as a possible selection to the salesman and see if he/she runs only with that selection or if they offer something different. They should then give reasons why your selection is or is not the right selection for your needs and offer alternatives which they feel could be better for the job. You will soon get the feeling whether the salesman is there for just your order, or if they are being professional.

Now obviously it is always better if you are on hand to watch the way the contractor is going about installing your paving, but often we buy a house and the paving is already done. I suggest that now that you know a bit more about paving, that one of the areas that you take a look at before purchasing that new house is the paving. If you can identify the fact that the paving is busy disintegrating you could get a nice discount on the property as you can point out that the paving will have to be redone. Paving today is not a cheap, so, take paving a bit more serious and you could be having your next holiday on the money that your paving knowledge has just saved you.

2 colour bevel bond paving on a driveway

Contact Richard Arthur for a free quote and sound advice 084 300 4220

Paving design

Paving designs are personal.

Designing the paving for your house can be very simple and at the same time very complex. Nothing is more bland or none appealing than paving that is laid everywhere with no natural grass or flower beds visible. If we remember that paving needs to increase the value of the house, paving then deserves more attention than just calling in a contractor and going with the cheapest quote.

If we truly want to maximize our investment, it is always good advice to have a landscaper first lay out the garden areas and assist with the areas that should be paved. A word of warning, “ always call a paving company to do your paving, no matter who advises you otherwise.” Some landscapers have paving companies that they prefer to work with because of their history of working together while others will simply lay out the areas to be paved and then leave it up to the house owner to finalize the paving. Either way, you should give the paving style and the paving brick the same amount of consideration that you did with the entertainment area or the location of the pool.

Create a style of your own

There are a lot of home owners that prefer to do their own landscaping ideas and that is great. There are plenty of ideas on the internet regarding how to landscape a garden and if you spend a little time you will save a lot of money getting to grips with the art of landscaping. But which ever way a person goes, remember that paving and gardening increase any investment if done correctly. I would again like to emphasize that you don’t have to install very expensive bricks to increase the return on investment, often a cheaper clay brick will enhance a property far more than an imitation rock made with cement/concrete.

It is in most cases ethically better to keep with a similar type of brick on the driveway, pathways and pool areas as it comes across as “patchwork” when different types of paving stones/bricks are used at different areas. Even when the same colour is used on a different size or different shape bricks at different areas, the impression is often still one of patchwork. Not that different bricks cannot be used at different places, just ask for samples or pictures where similar paving was laid to get a better picture of how the end product will look.

Paving is the first thing you see when arriving home and the last item you see when leaving, so designing the paving should and does deserve professional assistance to ensure that it becomes a return on investment and not a costly mistake. There are many types of paving bricks that fit into most budgets, so don’t think that calling in a professional paving company/person is going to be costly, it could save you a bundle of money and give you the look and feel that your house deserves.

Pool paving considered

Pool paving can be tricky

In most cases I recommend clay paving around a pool. Most pools in South Africa have the Corobrick Cederberg paver as the paving brick around their pool, but there is a growing trend to install flagstone around pools. It is a personal taste and often people are price conscious after they have spent a fortune building the pool.

Paving with Corobrick Nutmeg and Cederberg

Then there is the question of whether the pool should be a chlorine or salt water pool. It is common knowledge that the water in a salt water pool is or feels so much softer on the skin and eyes but one has to remember that salt deteriorates almost anything it comes into contact with. Decking, rock waterfalls and most untreated pool paving gets rapidly eaten away around a salt water pool and can incur additional repair costs after anything from 6 months to 3 years.

Pool paving with LaCotta 3 size cobble paving

Sealing can also be a bit expensive as it is needed on a regular basis and is not just a once off cost. I have installed paving around most types of swimming pools and have found that it is most often paving around a salt-water swimming pool that needs replacing or repair, more so with cement or concrete style paving bricks.

Lapa paving done with Cederberg

So as you can see, paving around a pool can be quite complex, but, if tackled correctly, one can get a long lasting paver plus a quality finish with just a little patience and understanding of which paver is best suited for your need. Coping is the most expensive item in the pool paving price and the pool coping should outlive the life of your paving by many years if installed correctly.

Boma with flagstone paving

Spend a little time selecting your pool paving brick and style to ensure that the paving ends up being an investment and not an expensive failure. Check how long a company has been doing paving and also whether they belong to any pool/brick or paving association. This will tell you whether you are dealing with a reputable company and not some fly by night who you won’t get hold of if you encounter a problem with your paving later on.