Paving 101

Rule 1 for Paving an area.

Forget what your mate said.

• Unless your mate is a qualified builder or landscaper follow the manufacturer’s recommendations.

Let’s start at the very beginning.

• What do you want? The best designs come from some solid overall vision of what you want to achieve.
  • Do you want a rustic look, a contemporary look or is it purely functional?
  • What other elements do you need to tie it into, such as retaining walls, drainage, plants, water feature and the like?
• Physical factors include but are not limited to...
  • Is it a difficult site to dig? What is the soil like?
  • What is access like?
  • Is there a load on the area?
  • Where is the water going to go?​

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Why should you follow the manufacturer’s recommendations?

• To be perfectly cynical, manufacturers make recommendations for fairly selfish reasons.
  • They do not like complaints or litigation
  • The recommendations work
  • They get good results and good results are good for business
  • Manufacturers are staffed by people and people generally do not like to see other people distressed or hurt.
  • If something does go wrong and the wall is not made to the recommendations you “won’t have a leg to stand on”.