How a job runs
From the first phone call to the walkround at the end. Nine stages, and none of them is a surprise on the day.
You get in touch
Ring or email with the postcode and roughly what you are after. We ring you back and arrange a time to come out that suits you.
Free site visit and measure
We come and look at the ground properly. Measure up, check the levels and where the water is going to run, look at the access, and talk through what suits the frontage and what suits the budget. The visit costs nothing and so does the advice, whether you use us or not.
Full written quotation
The price comes back to you in writing, setting out what is coming out, what is going down and what it costs, so you can put it beside another quote and read the two against each other. It is free, there is no obligation on it, and no deposit is asked for.
Agreed start date
If you decide to go ahead we agree a start date and order the materials. Access, parking, and where a skip or a grab lorry can sit are sorted out then rather than on the morning we turn up.
The dig and the sub-base
The old surface comes up, the ground is dug out to formation, and the spoil goes away. Then the sub-base goes in, compacted in layers rather than tipped in as one lift, and graded so the fall runs away from the house. If something unexpected turns up in the ground you get shown it and told what it means before we carry on.
Edgings and laying
Edgings and kerbs are set on concrete and haunched to the finished level first, because everything else is built off them. Then the surface goes down against them: block paving laid and jointed, natural stone bedded on mortar, or tarmac laid and rolled while it is hot.
Pointing and finishing
Cuts tidied, joints filled, pointing worked in, kiln dried sand brushed across block paving, and gullies and manhole covers checked so they still do their job. Then the whole lot gets washed down.
Tidy up and waste away
Spoil, offcuts, pallets and packaging all leave with us. The new surface, the paths and the road outside get swept before we pull off, and any protection comes up.
Final walkround
We walk the finished job with you. Anything you want a second look at gets a second look at, and we go through how to keep it right and when it can be driven on or walked over.
Living with the work
A drive being replaced means you cannot park on it while we are there, and there will be a skip or a grab lorry outside for part of that time. We agree all of that with you before the start date. Where the street is tight we will say so and plan around the neighbours instead of blocking them in.
Once we start, we stay on it until it is done. We do not disappear for two days to make a start on somebody else's job and leave your frontage open, and that is the single thing that makes the disruption short.
How long a job takes depends on the size of it and what the ground turns out to be. A path or a small patio is typically a couple of days, a full drive a week or more, and we tell you the run of days we expect when we quote. Those are our honest expectations rather than a promise, because weather and ground conditions both move them.
Weather moves dates
Groundwork carries on through most of the year, but there are two things we will not push through. Mortar does not want a hard frost in it, and tarmac has to be laid and rolled while it is still hot, which a downpour makes a losing battle. Rather than lay something that has to be come back to, we move the day. If a date moves you get a phone call about it.
What can change a price once we have started
The quoted price covers the work on the quotation. The usual thing that moves it is the ground turning up something nobody could see beforehand: an old concrete raft under the surface, a service run in the wrong place, or soft ground that needs digging deeper before anything can be built on it. If that happens we stop, show you what we have found, price it and get your agreement before going any further.
Start with the site visit
We come out, measure up and put the price in writing. No charge for the visit and no deposit to pay.