Buy Cheap Paving Circle Kits!

Archive for the ‘FAQ’ Category

If you have a great idea for your next garden circle paving project, and are looking to buy a circle kit online, you need to get good search results fast, right?

So what do you type into Google?

Are you going to type, “Circle Paving”, “Paving Circle”, “Circular Paving”, or what?

Here’s a tip… the more specific you can be about what you’re looking for, the better. If you KNOW you’re looking for “Bradstone, 3-Ring Weathered Cotswold Circle Kit”, then type that in. Hopefully, you’ll visit this page and see the exact product you want to buy.

But what if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for? Well, you should still aim to be as precise as possible in your description, then browse around the pages which turn up in the search results. In the above example, you may type in “Bradstone Circle Kit”, and you may land on our Bradstone category page, which is fine because there you’ll be able to browse all the Circle Kits that Bradstone offers.

You can also think about how to narrow your searches in other ways. For example, if you’re in the UK and want to exclude any USA-based websites, you can either include “UK” in the search you do, or click the Google button which says, “only show results from the UK”. Also, if you’d really like free delivery or next day delivery, include those words in your search phrase.

So when you’re looking to buy online, remember to be as precise as possible in your searches. It’ll save you a lot of time and effort. Oh, and when you find a site you like, don’t forget to share it with your friends and bookmark it. (yes, that was a subtle hint!)

Ever wonder where the stone in your circle paving kit comes from? Well, sometimes that sandstone may have travelled thousands of miles from rural India. Take a look at this blog post where a journey to an India sandstone quarry is described.

Apparently, in this area of India, 250Km from Jaipur, “an area covering approximately 40 square kilometres [is] home to 1,000 sandstone quarries!”

How many different paving shapes and patterns are there? I mean, of course you can create any shape you wish from paving stones and slabs by cutting them to your specification… but how many different shapes are available in kit form?

I was amazed to compile this list…

sunflower
butterfly
dragonfly
nautical star (compass points)
celtic knot
sunflare
astral
petal
abbey
rose

These designs are usually available within a circle motif, which can be included in a larger patio paving area by using a squaring-off kit. Sometimes the squaring-off stones come as part of the overall pack, but usually not because if they’re included, people who only want the circle would waste money buying stones they don’t need and won’t use.

If you’ve been looking for Wetherdale paving from Bradstone (sometimes incorrectly spelt weatherdale), you won’t find it in the Bradstone 2010 catalogue and so you won’t find it at any retailers selling only the current ranges from Bradstone. So what happened to Wetherdale?

Well, it seems that the venerable Wetherdale range was supplanted by the shiny new Milldale range. If you’d like to check out the Milldale range of circles, just click on it in the tag-cloud to the bottom right of this page. –>

Wetherdale seems to have been phased out in 2007, so be careful if you find a stockist online because presumably they will be using up old stock. Make sure they have it available are are not just advertising it for sale when they’ve run out!

Many people wonder where they can find paving stones from Bradstone. The actual paving slabs are made by a company called Aggregate.com, who also make the Stoneflair range of stones. You can find links to the brochures for both Bradstone and Stoneflair on the right-hand side of the page. However, the manufacturer does not supply direct to the customer, so you need to find a retailer who’ll sell you the paving you’re looking for.

At Circle Paving, we offer a wide range of Bradstone (and Stoneflair) circle, octagon and other shape kits for you to easily create a feature from paving stones either as a standalone design, or as part of a patio paving area. We work in partnership with Simply Paving, who process the order and deliver the product to you, the end customer. Simply Paving also supply regular Bradstone paving slabs in a variety of finishes for if you just want plain slabs instead of a paving design, as well as stones for driveways, walling and building materials.

Since their launch in 2005, Simply Paving have supplied paving products to over 30,000 customers in the UK to become the leading online UK paving supplier. They offer great customer service, competitive prices and fast, free delivery.

I found this video at Youtube which give a really quick indication as to how to lay paving slabs, and also how to cut a paving slab in half using a hammer and chisel.

The video says that slabs should be laid over a bed of sharp sand and a 1:5 mortar mix should be used to anchor the paving, particularly when heavy items (lawnmowers, patio furniture) will be moved across the finished paving. The mortar dabs are placed at each corner, and one in the middle, then the sides of the paving slab are buttered with mortar before the slab is laid and gently hammered into place using the shaft of the hammer. A spirit level is used the check that the slab is horizontally level. It’s easier to butter the sides of the slabs when laying them than trying to fill the gaps between them afterwards, and it avoids the possibility of mortar staining the slabs.

Can I Pave Over Mud For My Patio, As A Foundation For A Shed Or To Park My Car On?

People often wonder if they can miss out the fuss of digging up their garden/driveway, putting down substrate and jump straight to putting down paving slabs.

Well, it depends on how good you want the job to be.

If you’re going to put something on the paving, such as a shed or a parked car, it’s not a great idea to put the paving slabs on mud because they’ll subside giving an uneven base for a shed (which will warp) or the car which will be parked on uneven ground and could crack the paving when the ground freezes. If you’re only paving for decorative purposes, and only want to walk on the stones, the importance of a substrate is less. However, you still don’t want a large area, like a patio, to start shifting around and become uneven, which it will quickly do if laid onto mud.

So, the answer is, in all cases except laying individual, well-spaced paving slabs, it’s a good idea to lay a strong foundation for the paving to prevent them subsiding and ruining the job they were used for… to create a flat surface.

How To Keep Your Paving Looking Great!

Most people seem to think that paving doesn’t need maintenance. Perhaps this misinformation comes from the slick salesmen who want you to think that paving is maintenance-free. Unfortunately, it’s rubbish. Nothing in life is maintenance-free!

So here are three top tips for keeping your paving in perfect condition.

Wack the Weeds

Weeds are a fact of life. When it rains, minute particles of soil are deposited on the ground, and in the case of your paving, into the joins between the paving slabs/stones. Over time, and with the addition of seeds blown in from surrounding areas, you’ll have weeds growing between the paving. Getting rid of the weeds is as simple as pulling them up, spraying with weedkiller, routinely brushing the paving to get rid of soil and seeds and using sealant on the paving to help slow the accumulation of soil and seeds.

Aggro the Algae

If you have algae, which usually grows in sheltered, damp parts of the paving, use a dilute solution of bleach to get rid of it. Leave the diluted bleach on the paving for a few minutes, then rinse well with water. You may need two or three applications of the dilute bleach, but the improvement in the look of your paving will be enormous when you’re finished.

Lose the Lichen

A combination of brushing (sometimes with a wire brush at the site of the lichen) and dilute bleach treatments (again, at the site of the lichen) will loosen the grip of the lichen and enable you to get rid of it. Try to do good maintenance to prevent lichen buildup rather than proactively trying to tackle tons of lichen with their phenomenal grip on your paving.

Sometimes, you have an accident. Either you drop your bottle of olive oil while taking it to your barbeque, or your engine suddenly develops an oil leak… all over your pristine paving slabs. So, what can you do?

One of the best ways to get rid of excess oil on paving slabs is to use cement powder to absorb the oil. If you don’t have any cement powder, try some kitty litter. Both product are absorbent. All you do is crush the kitty litter (which is usually bentonite clay) into a fine powder, sprinkle it over the oil spill, scrub the area well and sweep it all up. Some people also recommend using biological washing powder to remove oil.

One thing to note: don’t go overboard with the cleaning or you’ll have a conspicuous clean patch on your paving where the oil used to be!

A lot of people have been asking whether it’s possible to buy quarter- or half- circles to use in paving projects.

I’ve reviewed a ton of paving circles, and, unfortunately, I haven’t seen any sold as quarter circles or half circles.

Quarter Or Half Circle Paving Options

One thing to do would be to buy a full circle and either use the two halves (four quarters) in different parts of the garden, or try to sell the other half/quarters locally. Alternatively, you could get some carpet stones and fashion your quarter/half circle design from them… although, to get it neat, you may need to actually cut come stones, which may prove tricky. Of course, you could always manually create a half or quarter circle pattern from loose stones, but that’s not really a solution to buying a kit.

If anyone knows where half or quarter circles can be bought, please email us via the contact form so we can add the info!