As part of many landscaping, driveways and patio projects, brickwork is an important add on.

Choosing the right kind of brickwork provider is important for a new build or renovation. However, many people make the mistake of choosing an inexperienced or cheaper bricklayer. Understandably, this can bring more than it’s fair share of issues.

Brickwork is one part of the home where compromising on quality isn’t acceptable. Structures which are made with shoddy brickwork may be weaker, unstable or not aesthetically attractive. Doing repair jobs or renovations for period buildings especially need proper repairs.

Bad brickwork will do a lot of harm, and often isn’t worth cutting costs. However, what are the considerations for bricklayers? How do you choose a professional or company that is right for your needs? Well, not to worry, because we’ll be looking at some of the things to judge providers by.

How Do They Operate?

The first and arguably most important consideration for a bricklayer is how they choose to operate. How do they approach jobs?

Ultimately, this does impact how long a job will take to complete, how well it is done, and the overall costs. In an ideal setting, your brickwork team will be a three-person unit. This is the most efficient option in the industry!

The unit is made up of two trained, capable bricklayers and a general labourer. The labourer will have the job of keeping the bricklayers with a steady supply of bricks, mortar and blocks. If they do their job correctly, then the bricklayers can focus on the important stuff – laying and finishing the brickwork properly.

 

How Long Does the Project Take?

Each project that you need to undertake has a specific timeframe to complete. It will vary from one task to the next, but it does play an important role in choosing a bricklayer and company for your needs.

If the weather conditions are favourable, then an efficient brickwork team can lay an average of 1200 bricks every day. However, it’s important to understand that there are many things which will influence the speed at which a bricklaying team can work.

Things like the type of wall that you want to create, the type of pointing involved, the brick bond, as well as openings and lintels can all cause delays to the project. These are not problems so much as challenges which require a proper solution to solve. After all, you want a bricklaying team to work out effective, safe solutions.

What Specs Do You Have?

Understanding what specifications you have is a good way to make sure that you inform the bricklaying team of your needs.

You need to have detailed specifications where you can, because this makes sure that they know exactly what you need regarding work. Furthermore, it helps to remove any delays in the project because they know exactly what needs to be done.

Checking Their Credentials

You need to make sure that you check the credentials of any bricklaying team that you need to work with. It would be a disaster if you hired a company, they arrived to complete the work, and immediately began acting in an unprofessional manner.

Thankfully, this is the Internet and modern methods of credential checking exist. Look for testimonials from other past customers, use websites like TrustPilot and Check-A-Trade, and you will be able to make smart decisions regarding the companies that you choose to work with.

Customer Service

Customer service is a vital part of any successful trade company, so it’s worth ringing and asking a bricklaying team about the kind of services they provide. The answers that you receive are important, but what is more important is the quality of the service that you get.

The right professionals will be polite, courteous, knowledgeable, and more than happy to explain things to you. you will definitely get a sense that they are happy to help, which makes a lot of difference.

Flexibility

Look, you are probably a person with a busy life. There’s a lot of things that you need to do with your time, and it’s important that you can arrange for people to come and perform a job at a time that is convenient to you.

A good way to work out which companies are going to be worth collaborating with is how flexible they are prepared to be. Flexibility is a key characteristic that we look for in tradespeople, and it is no different for bricklayers. The right bunch of professionals would be more than happy to arrange to come when it is convenient for you, not the other way around.

Choosing the right brickwork company is obviously an important thing. This is a project that you clearly have an investment in, whether it is a renovation, an existing repair job, or a new build. For that reason, you have to be quite ruthless when choosing a company, and hold people to the highest standards.

 

The best thing for you in this situation is to shop around. You need to try and look at the different kinds of professionals that are available and work with them to find the best results. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and to come away from a company if they don’t meet your expectations.

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being ruthless when searching for a provider. Brickwork is one area where you can not afford to compromise. Further compounding the problem is the fact that when it comes to tradespeople, for every qualified expert there are several amateurs of dubious quality. These are, naturally, people you should avoid.

 

We provide brickwork services. We would be happy to help, and we love listening to people to get a proper understanding of their needs. We know how important it is to make the right decisions, so we are happy to talk to you about things. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, and we will find out exactly what we can do. We’re here to help you.

Picking the right kind of material to use for a driveway or an outdoor area is very difficult, which is why a lot of people choose to go with block paving slabs to get the best possible results. When you explore them at first glance, they definitely look the part, but why should people use them? Well, it’s a couple of different reasons why this might be the case.

We happen to know all about block paving slabs and why they are such a good choice, and to make sure that you understand exactly what it is you could be getting into, we are going to talk about why they are suitable for any kind of home.

Colours and Textures

The first thing that you need to understand about block paving slabs is that they are a very powerful resource because they can be used in a white selection of different ways. People use block paving slabs all the time, and this allows them to get some of the best results.

One of the big reasons why this is the case it’s because block paving slabs can come in a variety of different colours and textures. At the end of the day, there are plenty of different reasons why you can use block paving slabs, but it’s up to you to pick and choose the best possible results for yourself.

Suffice to say, they do come in a broad range of colours and textures, which means they can fit into practically any environment. It’s all well and good having a driveway or an outdoor area, but if it doesn’t match with the decorations of your home, then it’s not going to fit. That is why being able to customise block paving slabs to your needs is a good idea.

Below are a couple of examples of textures and colours of block paving regularly used for block paving driveways and patios.

slate tegula block pavingbracken charcoal block paving

Built to Last For the Long Haul

Something that you should probably consider when it comes to block paving slabs is that they are built to last. These are incredibly tough, incredibly adorable, incredibly pragmatic resources that have quite a bit of strength. Because of how they are designed, they are thick, sheer slabs of material, which means that they can go quite a long time without needing to be replaced or maintained.

Let’s be realistic about this. When it comes to paving slabs, you are obviously going to want to make sure that you invest in the right kind of material for your needs, which is obviously a challenge because no one wants to spend money replacing slabs every year. That’s why block paving slabs are a good choice because they are built to be quite tough and long-lasting. Depending on the material that you get, you could have some that last for years, whereas there are others that may need replacing every 12 to 18 months.

Ultimately, it’s all down to the kind of material that you use in the weather conditions where you live, but suffice to say, block paving slabs are often quite a reliable choice because they are built to be easy to use.

block paving

Easy to Install

One of the good things about block paving slabs is that they are quite easy to install. This means that you can use them with minimal fuss, which is exactly what a lot of people want.

When it comes to getting some of the best results with slabs, you’ve got a lot of different options. It’s up to you to be able to pick and choose exactly what kind of resources work best for you, and at the end of the day, there are plenty of different options to explore. It’s easy to install them, because you can get them cut to specific sizes.

Obviously, how easy it is to install something will be an important part of it. People don’t want to have to worry about whether or not they’ve got the necessary tools to install specialist options, which makes it a vital consideration. We can fully understand that when it comes to things like installation, you want the disruption to your life to be minimal.

Thankfully, block paving slabs are pretty easy to install, so you can just keep using them over and over again. It’s not difficult to see why you’ve got a lot of different results with this one, which makes it very easy to make the best decision.

Final Thoughts

So, there is a strong argument for using block paving slabs in your home, whether they form a path, driveway or outdoor space. What’s great about something like this is that you have plenty of different options at your disposal, so it’s not worth taking a look at what’s on offer. Block paving slabs can be a very useful resource because they are easy to work with and don’t have a lot of drawbacks. Obviously, the kind of material that you use will influence things to some extent, but it’s up to you to pick and choose.

The good thing about block paving slabs is that they can be incredibly durable as well. They are built to last, and you can use them in a wide range of different spaces because they can handle things like vehicles and people walking on them. They’re not decorative, they are functional, and even though they can look very pretty thanks to the different colours and textures on offer, it’s so important to remember that they can be used in other ways.

Something that we love about block paving slabs is that they are an effective resource that have a lot of practical applications. You can use them in many different situations, which makes it a great choice for people to explore. We definitely recommend that you take the time to experiment with them, and to pick the right material. One of the best things that you can do is have them cut to size, because this makes it easy to install them, and it means that regardless of what kind of shape you wanted for your outdoor space, you can have it.

Here at Direct Drives and Patios Banbury, we have over 30 years of installing quality block paving driveways and patios and there is literally nothing we don’t know about block paving. Our team are on hand all year round to provide you with quality advice and information so that you get the best materials and quality workmanship.

 

Our customer here in Banbury opted for the natural grey option for their new block paving driveway makeover and the team here at Direct Driveways and Patios wanted to show you the finished article. We all know that a well designed garden or well landscaped garden will add value to your home and will ensure you enjoy your outdoor space to the max and for over 20 years we have been the leaders in proving quality driveways throughout Banbury and Rugby areas.

When we met with the customer, they had already seen the scale of our work through our website so they had the confidence already in us that we were the company to work with on this driveway project.

front large block driveway

As you can see from the pictures, we went around the whole property as the customer wanted to keep everything as low maintenance as possible. The lighter colour edging really sets the distinction between the natural grey blocks and the surrounding sleeper beds we installed, you can see this on other projects in our portfolio gallery.

“We had already seen many of the projects completed by Direct Driveways & from that alone we knew they were the company for us.”

This was a larger project but our tight knit team spent no time in ensuring that we levelled the groundwork and expertly laid the blocks in herringbone formation to the highest standards working around the infrastructure of the garden fences and decking areas and to keep the continuity flowing throughout the property.

As the #1 preferred driveways company in Banbury we have built our reputation on quality and transparent quoting. We work with the best suppliers like Tobermore and Marshalls to ensure our customers get the best quality driveway materials and combined with our expert skills and machinery you will never get anything less than 100% with us.

So, we’re looking forward to a long busy summer and if you want to get your new driveway or patio completed then just get in touch today, we offer 10% off when you quote DIRECT10 so don’t forget to mention that when you call us.

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