Landscape & Urban Design Issue 71 2025 | Page 41

CONCRETE & STONEWORK
Several solutions were proposed and trialled , to find the most effective , durable , and costefficient solution , including one from NCC Streetscape , the paving jointing specialists , who J . M . & M . Scanlon had found online at the very informative NCC Streetscape website ( www . nccstreetscape . co . uk ). The NCC recommendations , were to thoroughly clean the surfaces , completely remove any residual sand , dirt , and weed growth from the joints , by using high-pressure jet-washing , then to permanently fill the joints by repointing them using wet-slurry techniques with the unique , GftK vdw 850 + paving jointing mortar .
GftK vdw 850plus is unique and the ‘ state-of the-art ’ in paving jointing . This is a very high-performance , 2nd-generation , 2-part , epoxy resin-based paving joint mortar , which is easily wet-slurry applied across the pre-wetted , clean paved surfaces , where it very effectively self-compacts into the joints , with no additional tooling or finishing required . After allowing 24 hours to harden , the areas can be reopened to the residents – Job done - permanently !
Within the first year after the trials that were carried out in 2017 by specialist paving contractors , CR Services , it was already very clear to everyone involved that this alternative solution , was also by far the best option , which provided the owners and their facility managers with the ideal long-term
solution . Since 2018 , C . R . Services have continued to work with J . M . & M . Scanlon to undertake the refurbishment and repointing of the paving in this way , and now , some seven years later , in 2024 , the team have completed the refurbishment and repointing of the more than 8,000 m2 of this natural stone block paving , which was carried out in six annual phases .
As a result , the Birchwood Business Park owners and their tenants are already benefitting from less disruption , and significant cost savings , as the progressively completed areas of paving have required none of the previously essential annual weed growth removal , weedkiller application , joint cleaning and waste disposal , then resanding , as required in their previous routine maintenance treatments , for the past 6 , 5 , 4 , 3 and 2 years respectively now . Also , very importantly , these savings will continue to grow , as the joints in this paving will not now need any further treatment for many more years ; the paved surfaces will just require normal paved surface cleaning as and when required . Incidentally , this GftK jointing solution also makes future surface cleaning much faster and easier , as the materials are fully resistant to jet-washing , even to the use of mechanical street cleaners . The Project Leader from Scanlon recently commented : “ The first phase of the GftK jointing that we installed as a trial back in 2018 , actually still looks good as new .”
Visit our Repointing Unbound
‘ Flexible ’ Block Paving page : https :// nccstreetscape . co . uk / pavingjointing / flexible-jointing-unbondedblock-paving . html Also , visit our specialist paving repointing pages : https :// nccstreetscape . co . uk / type-ofarea / paving-repointing . html Contact details :
Website : www . NCCStreetscape . co . uk Email : sales @ nccstreetscape . co . uk
Tel : 01257 266696
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