Discoloured paving slabs (any advice please).

marleyboy

On behalf of thelibertinedream.......

Bought some paving from a local merchants less than a year ago.

I went to them with a complaint about them being discoloured.

They were shocked at how bad it was and they told me to contact the manufacturer of the paving

below is the letter - it gives it the jist of it with pictures

Dear Sir/Madam

I write to you with a complaint regarding paving purchased from xxxxxx around September/October 2009.

The work to lay and finsh the patio area was contracted to xxxxx and I was happy and satisfied with the end result.

Unfortunately, not long afterwards the paving became discoloured then over the last few months the discolouring has went from bad to worse with large areas of grey now visiable in most of the paving slabs.

The slabs no longer, even closely resemble what we purchased and paid a lot of money to have fitted.

I have enclosed photographs of the paved area and await hearing from you on best way to resolve this matter

Regards
xxxxxx xxxxx





The reply I got back is this



Paving cost approx £600
Labour approx £1500

What are my options?

Their offer wont even cover the cost of a skip to dump the dodgy slabs let alone get someone to relay them, sand, cement etc.

This is a new member, so please go easy on them

Googlewhacker

I would have thought that if they wish to get Labour paid back they will have to goto Court because not many companies will offer to pay back the labour.

The offer is good IMO but they could get more, just depends how much they want to fight.

Meepster

Seems more than fair to me.

They are right in what they are saying about differential weathering, over time it will become less prominent and may even go on to affect more of the slabs. It doesn't cause any problems with the stability of the slabs and does not mean the slabs are in any way sub-standard and they are definately NOT "dodgy".

I've seen this happen plenty of times and over a couple of years the discolouration has become less apparent. Whilst I can understand the OP being miffed at them not looking as good as when first laid, he needs to appreciate that the offer he has been given is MORE than fair. Some slab manufacturers wouldn't offer any form of compensation for this, as it is a natural phenomenon...

marleyboy

I would have to agree that 50% is a good offer, I am sure with time the slabs will fade to a more evenly, natural colour balance

If_it_can_go_wrong

The reason the op has been offered 50% is precisely because this is not natural weathering. Natural weathering of the flags would involve a slight degradation of colour in areas of the flags.

The picture seems to show a total colour change of the flags where the buff colour has effectively eroded away leaving behind the bare grey uncoloured material. That will be why the merchants are shocked at the amount of discoloration.

Usually when flags are produced they are coloured right through the material and as people have said this can still result in slight variation over time. These look to have been stained on top of the original colour and that is definately not satisfactory.

After all when you pick a colour, that's the colour you want, not what's underneath.

I would definitely explain this to them and try for more of a refund as I believe in this case that the manufacturers are using the usual weathering issue as an excuse.

If this fails you could rip them up and return them to the merchant for a full refund as being unsatisfacory quality. After all your claim is against the merchant not the manufacturer and the merchant seems to agree that there is excessive discoloration.

This is a risk though as you could end up out of pocket with the labour costs. I can't see them refunding those. Ultimately it might end up at court to take your chance at retrieving some labour costs.

deanos

I agree they look like they have been painted didn't realise they did this with slabs thought they coloured the cement mix so it went right through the product

If_it_can_go_wrong

OP, I would suggest that you take a look at the off cuts if you still have them. If the cut part is the same as the grey colour then this proves that the flags have not been coloured through correctly.

If this is the case then eventually you will end up with all grey flags. Especially if you pressure wash them at any time.

Keep some off cuts as evidence to back up your claim.

Premier_2

This is a tricky one.

If it were me, I would be tempted to accept the offer, albeit not very happily.

There are a number of issues here, starting off with the fact I would not have gone direct to the manufacturer as instructed by the seller. The seller is responsible for the goods sold.
(Having said that, I suspect the seller wouldn't have offered the £300 )

But what is important here, is that I suspect the offer won't increase without legal action and then you need to be certain you are suing the correct party. As others have said, it would be most unlikely that the majority of the money involved (the labour) would be refunded without a court judgement.
(This assumes the product was purchased separately to the labour)

Then there's the unknown issues of the exact description of the product sold, but I suspect it wasn't sold as a 'coated' product. If it is indeed coated, can't the supplier re-coat it? (Perhaps you don't want it now you know it's only coated? I wouldn't blame you)

In court you should expect to face the challenge of the supplier's best technical experts who will, as the letter does, waffle on that the structural strength (durability) of the product isn't affected and probably then go onto explain that the appearence you have is the result of natural weathering and is normal or perhaps accuse you of abuse by repeated pressure washing.
What you will need is a technical expert/witness to help you with your claim - that'll cost money.

Even then, there is no guarantee the court will award any more than the cost of the product, so we are only arguing over a £300 difference.
It's the choice of either a definite £300 now and no hassle, or a possible load of hassle for what is likely not to be any more than £600 (although you should at least ask for damages i.e. the cost of labour you employed, in the claim even if the court doesn't eventually agree).

As I said, I think I would take the £300 offer on the basis it's guaranteed with no more hassle and I could get on with replacing my patio.
Next time, get the person who lays the product to buy the product, even if you specify what that product is. Then if it all turns pear shaped later, you can sue that person for the entire cost of the job

thelibertinedream

Hi

Some great advice

They have just offered my a full credit on the material.

I'm thinking, I will just accept that

marleyboy

Thats Excellent news, grab it with both hands