Block paving problem

Hi,

I've had a builder (under good recommendations) come and knock down a wall for me and put back with block paving but the blocks he's used seem nowhere near the originals. Granted I agree that the original drive is probably 6-8 years old (before my time in the property) I expect the original block to be slightly different colours to the new batch but.... here's the photo of how it looks:







the new blocks were bought from Jewsons and are classed as "brindle" as it's guessed that the old blocks are also "brindle" what are your thoughts?

Ca anyone tell me for sure what has happened and any ideas/suggestions you have for finding the right blocks? I don't think I should live with the ones that have been laid should I?

Thanks

you could try cleaning up the old blocks

I'd expect some difference in colour but that is taking the Michael. Yes, new blocks look like they are Brindle, problem being, the originals are Charcoal! They are never going to match, really don't know what your man was on if he thought he could pass that off!!

see I thought that at first glance, but in the second pic I can see a tinge of red in the pavers, this is why im thinking they are just very dirty, you could try cleaning just one up and see if it helps

Totally agree that he shouldn't be trying to pass it off as a "match" as it clearly isn't.

I've just looked on good maps and see these photos from:

2008


and
2011


This may give a better idea of there colours although they do look a lot more coloured in these pics.

Thanks for your help guys.

No harm but did you not think it would be worth checking and signing off against a sample prior to them being laid? You also appear to have a pic of them stacked awaiting to be used, so did you not think to mention something then (in fairness they may be extra but I doubt it given the reasonably small area)?

Given it looks like you have viewed these prior to them being laid I would doubt you have all real come back on this. I think your builder has supplied you the same block paving finish as before but naturally one is weathered and the other hasn't. Other than scouring things like gumtree for second hand paving I doubt your builder was not going to be able to match. It will match in time and possibly you could investigate ways to speed up the aging process. Coffee and live yoghurt are techniques often used for brickwork that may help to speed things up.

I see you're jumping to conclusions there then.
The builder bought and laid the new stones in one day and it was done by the time I got home from work. He said there'd be a small colour difference but in the opinion of people who have seen them in the flesh, the new ones are much more red than the old. I'm guessing it's a different supplier and their version of "brindle" is a very red/dark version.

What do others think?

Ps the ones stacked up are for another area he is filling but based on the match I've asked them to be returned.

Between batches from the same plant you can get pronounced colour differences and even blocks from the same batch should be mixed when laying. It bugs me no end when you walk through a new housing estate with nice well-blended architecture and every driveway and brick wall has coloured bands running across them because the builders did not mix them.

When blending in any paved surface you should deep clean the old surface first so you can obtain a closer match. Drives in particular can get very dirty almost unnoticed within just a single season, let alone eight years. It will rarely be an exact colour match, but with a bit of feathering in it can often be made unnoticeable to all but those who know it was done. For small amounts it is possible to source those that have been removed from other sites. eBay usually has loads of people selling old blocks for much less than trade reclaimers. In worse case scenario where no close match is possible you can blend in with the existing by mixing but it is a time-consuming job.

Really unless you had agreed to the poor match in advance your builder should have contacted you as soon as the new blocks were delivered to get permission to use them and he should take the cost himself for being stupid as he must surely have known that you would not accept the result. Your legal rights depend on your contract though.

To remedy this I would first get the driveway cleaned. Properly. Not just gone over with a pressure washer lance which can seriously damage concrete surfaces by removing the finer aggregate. Cost will be in the hundreds of £. Then take a colour-matched photograph and a couple of reference blocks from each end of the colour scale round local reclamation yards or visit some eBay/Freecycle listers to find the best match.

I would personally would have matched them myself as Dave said...second hand and blended them a bit. After all its your eye that needs satisfying!

Help!
My builder has extended my macadam path up to my front step. He said it would be a perfect match, but I'm not so sure. What should I do? Should I sue him? I'm beside myslf with worry!!!

Hi Chris - try googling liquid weather . I used some on 20 year old stock bricks to tone them to 80 year old ones , on a wall . Worked quite well . That was my last house . The one before I had a block paved drive done and the builder left some spare blocks but said :- They MUST be left out to weather the same as the drive , because they`ll never match if stored away .

Why not replace all the old blocks with new ones, that would be give a good match.

FFS! The guy is a one dimensional numpty!!

When we are matching in roof tiles the first thing we establish is weathering and how it has effected the existing roof tiles.

Only a complete twonk would go ahead and use the original colour when the original has clearly strayed from its original red or green or whatever they used to fancy in the sixties and seventies.

More often than not we go for antique brown. This is an understated colour and does not SHOUT out at you when you drive up the road. All you need is a bit of imagination for goodness sake.

My money is still on the fact the original blocks in the 'patch' photo are 'Charcoal' colour. My old man insisted on having Charcoal colour when his drive was done, he thought if the car dripped any oil it wouldn't be noticeable....

His theory failed, but those grey blocks look very similar to those in his driveway. Next door to him used a Brindle type colour shortly afterwards when they had their drive done, and the colour difference is still very apparent even now.

Hugh Jaleak said:

My money is still on the fact the original blocks in the 'patch' photo are 'Charcoal' colour. My old man insisted on having Charcoal colour when his drive was done, he thought if the car dripped any oil it wouldn't be noticeable....

His theory failed, but those grey blocks look very similar to those in his driveway. Next door to him used a Brindle type colour shortly afterwards when they had their drive done, and the colour difference is still very apparent even now.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that. Totally agree that in the 'patch' photo they look 'charcoal'. They tend to look that colour when wet/damp but below is a phot of them dry and you can see they are not 'charcoal'. The light patches in the first photo are where the previous owner parked their car a lot and the second photo is where they had plant tubs.

The noticeable features of the ones that are laid seem to be....
1. There's a lot of 'white' stone flecks in the blocks when wet.
2. They are pretty smooth and not a rough top surface (even after 8 years)
3. The marks on the side are like the last photo and not the like the one I've put next to it (the first brick in the photo is what the builder has used)

Here are the photos:







I think the list of criteria above is key as this will enable me to find who manufactured the blocks and what the original colour was. It looks like Bradstone and Marshall both have the same positioned 'notches' on the sides and plaspave have differently positioned 'notches'. I hope that extra information may lead somewhere.

Thanks