In 2013, Norwich City Council Highways Department had identified significantly increasing costs due to reoccurring problems with damage, premature breakdown, and urgent repointing requirements for urban paving.
This resulted in paving repair, replacement and repointing works needing to be carried out on an almost annual basis, at significant ongoing cost to the Council.
Therefore, together with their Term Contractor, Tarmac Highway Services, they carried out extensive repointing trials using a wide range of different paving jointing materials and products.
The objective was to find the most effective, durable, and cost-efficient solution for town centre pointing and repointing works, and as a result of these trials, GftK vdw 850+ from NCC Streetscape, was the clear winner and selected for use.
The range of different paving that the Highways team have successfully repointed over the last 10 years with the unique GftK jointing mortar, includes natural stone setts and slabs of granite, porphyry, limestone, sandstone, as well as concrete elements.
The Project Leader recently commented: “The first phase that we installed in 2014 still looks as good as new. GftK vdw 850 has proven to be the best value for money jointing mortar we have ever used - and believe me, we have used them all!They also added: ‘Rapid installation with minimal cleaning, plus the ability to be applied in wet conditions, are real advantages for us.”
Paving repointing for all types of paved highways and urban areas, from roads and pavements to market squares and historic areas, is frequently required because the original cement-based pointing and/or previous repointing, has deteriorated and failed. This risks the paving elements becoming loose and unstable, especially with smaller format paving (generally regarded as <400mm x 400mm), such as natural stone setts and cobbles, which then puts the public at risk.
Very often, the root cause will be that the original pointing, or previous re-pointing, was carried out with perfectly good jointing products, but which were not suitable for application in the typical UK conditions at the time, such as application in cold and wet conditions, and with residual water in the joints, and/or inadequate initial protection and curing. No such problems with the unique GftK Paving Joint Mortars!
GftK vdw 850+ is probably the ‘Gold Standard’ of paving jointing, as it can be applied in cold and wet conditions, even in the rain and it self-compacts into the joints and hardens quickly.
In these pictures you can see some of the applications in and around Norwich City Centre since 2014, with these areas still looking ‘good as new’ in 2024.
