If you’re interested in placing your circle within a new or existing patio, bear in mind that you’ll want to buy a “squaring off kit” at the same time as the circle kit. I would strongly suggest making the purchase of the squaring off kit from the same vendor in the same transaction to minimise any potential problems that can arise from buying them separately. Also, ensure the area of the squared off circle kit matches the area where you intend to place it in your patio.

Check out more questions and answers in our FAQ, or look for specific circle designs using our search function, category pages and tags.

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!)

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

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.

The purpose of dry-laying is to work out how to position the paving stones in the correct arrangement which is especially important in a tricky job like this. It’s much easier to re-lay the paving stones if they haven’t been fixed. Also, with natural stone, there’s significant variation in the colour of the individual stones which makes it a good idea to dry-lay them so that you can align any specific stones based on their slightly different colour hues.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.