Paving jointing, also known
as the pointing or grouting, is the primary cause for most of the problems with
paved surfaces, especially for natural stone paving with slabs, known as larger
format paving, and setts, known as smaller format paving.
This is true in all
different types of paved hard landscaping, from domestic patios to market
squares and highway pavements, and including the problems of initial staining
and difficulty in cleaning, followed by cracking, and allowing water ingress,
to the pointing breaking-down and coming up under cleaning, such as by
jet-washing domestic patios and driveways, to mechanical street cleaning
machines used in public areas.
Restrictions and limitations
in application for widely used ‘brush-in pointing compounds’ and cement based
paving jointing materials, is also the reason for countless delays ‘waiting for
the right weather’, which means their requirement for application in dry
weather conditions and no rain in the forecast for pointing to go ahead. This
is what often causes delays in the completion and opening or putting back into
service of many domestic, commercial, and local authority projects - as well as
delays in getting paid for the contractors.
These pointing installation
limitations are not only an issue for the contactor and completion, but
non-compliances are frequently responsible for a serious reduction in
performance and a lack of durability in service. There is now an abundance of
premature pointing breakdown, followed by the paved surfaces failing, increasingly
and visibly evident all over the country. This includes domestically at home in
our patios and driveways, at retail developments, and in our town centres, on
highway pavements, market squares and other public paved areas. Typical signs
of these failures are firstly cracking and then breakdown and break-up of the
pointing, followed by full surface breakdown that soon follows.
Fortunately, ALL these
issues and potential issues can now be solved using the right GftK vdw paving
joint mortar from NCC Streetscape, the exclusive UK Distributers of GftK
jointing systems, who are the global pointing technology leaders.
The GftK range includes
paving jointing products that are specifically designed for different types of
paving, joint sizes and types of paved areas, as there is no universal panacea
in paving jointing – though perhaps GftK’s vdw 850+ is the closest to being
one.
