The New Design Concrete Process – Steps 1 to 7

Step 1 – Confirming Your Requirements

• Once you have placed an order with New Design Concrete, the next step is that we will arrange for one of our surveyors to visit your home to discuss in detail your requirements in terms of the aesthetics and practicalities associated with your installation. Each installation is unique so it is important that these points are dealt with thoroughly and with our experience we may well be able to give you some ideas that have not been considered already.
• Once our surveyor has a thorough understanding of your requirements a drawing will be prepared to scale, noting all the relevant points regarding the construction.
• Having had time for you to think things over since placing the initial order with New Design Concrete, this survey enables you to bring forward any changes, modifications or ideas you may have for your new paved area.
• Not all customers are familiar with this type of paving system, so the surveyor will also go through with you the key steps of the installation and explain how it may affect you during the construction process.

Step 2 – Scheduling A Start Date

• Once you have met with our surveyor, the completed paperwork will be passed to the installation department for scheduling. The installation department will then call you and agree a convenient time for the work to commence.
• The process is weather dependent, so initially a week commencing date will be given and as this date draws nearer, we will give you a start day. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control even this scheduled start day is subject to change due to the weather, or interpretation of a weather forecast by ourselves.

Step 3 - Site Preparation

• The site needs to be prepared ready to install the paving. The average job will require between 12 and 24 tons of material to be removed so wherever possible we will use plant and machinery. However, for most patios, when access is not good, excavation will be done by hand. For most areas we will plan to undertake the preparation in one day and will let you know if we envisage the preparations taking more time than this.
• The base will be prepared and new MOT Type 1 will be used as required to achieve a well compacted flat base, prepared to the correct falls.  
• Any drainage requirements are dealt with and all manhole covers, drains or drainage channel is haunched in to the correct level and fall. All levels are checked around the job with respect to these items to ensure that when the concrete is laid, the falls of the paving will adequately direct water to the desired location. 
• Once the preparation has been completed as per the drawings, and all shuttering has been installed, we will ask you to confirm that the layout of the prepared area is as you had envisaged, before we install the paving.
• Subject to the weather (or interpretation of a weather forecast by ourselves) we will install the paving the following day. Should there be a delay due to weather,(or any other factor), all sites are left in a neat and tidy way, so that the area can still be used and any inconvenience is kept to a minimum.       

Step 4 - Paving Installation

• Having checked that the weather forecast is favourable, all systems are go and now begins the main stage of any New Design Concrete Installation.
• We will arrive on site about an hour before the concrete is due to arrive. In this time we shall get all tools and equipment ready, protect walls and any adjacent structures from concrete splashes or contamination from our specialist concrete colouring materials, get all materials ready for use and generally organise the site in readiness for the concrete to arrive.  
• Concrete is never mixed by hand and the correct mix design, as used on all Timeless Paving installations, is delivered to site in a ready mixed concrete lorry. The concrete is unloaded as speedily as possible, generally using wheelbarrows, and placed evenly around the area to be paved. The concrete is raked to the approximate (pre-determined) levels and then flattened using various screeding tools, to ensure the levels are correct and in order to achieve flat concrete, to the required (pre determined) falls.
• Once screeded, a roller tamp is rolled over the surface of the concrete to remove any small undulations and bring some ‘fat’ to the surface.
• Large magnesium floats (4’ wide) attached to long poles are then used to float the surface of the concrete. At this stage we now have a flat, floated, soft, wet, grey concrete slab. At this point work would normally finish with a ‘normal’ concrete slab, however, with us, the real work has only just begun!
• After floating, the concrete is then coloured with the chosen colour (primary colour). This is a powdered dry shake material called Colour Surface Hardener (CSH). It is cast by hand over the surface of the concrete at a rate of about 2 kgs per m² and allowed to hydrate before being floated into the concrete. The (now coloured) concrete is coloured again using the same material, allowed to hydrate and floated again to ensure that the area is not patchy and a uniform colour is achieved. Dependent on site conditions a third application of CSH may be applied to ensure a uniform and durable coloured surface.
• Once the correct consistency of colour is achieved, the coloured concrete is ‘closed’ using large blue steel trowels (4’ wide) attached to long poles. This achieves a smooth surface, free of float marks (from the colouring process).
• At this stage we now have a soft, wet, coloured, trowelled and closed concrete slab.
• A coloured ‘antique’ release agent is then applied to the soft, wet, coloured concrete. This serves two purposes. Primarily, it is to prevent the imprinting mats from sticking to the concrete to ensure a crisp, clean print and secondly, by nature of it being coloured, it will be seen to impart a secondary ‘antique’, two tone effect to the surface of the paving, (which will only be apparent when the paving has been washed off, a number of days later, when the concrete has become hard – see Step 6).
• The concrete is then imprinted with the chosen pattern.
• The site is then tidied and cleaned and we depart.     

Step 5 - Cutting Contraction Joints

• After the paving has been laid we will return to site the following day to cut the contraction joints using a Stihl Saw and a diamond blade.
• In cold conditions, it may not be possible to cut the joints in the next day as the concrete may still be too soft. In this case we would return the next day.

Step 6 – Removal of Antique Release Agent Powder

• Generally the Antique Release Agent powder is washed off and removed about 4 days after the paving has been laid.  
• The area is swept to remove excess antiquing release agent.
• The area is then treated with a release agent wash, which breaks down the release agent powder and enables more effective removal and minimises the amount of release agent powder which would otherwise be blown around the property.  
• The paving is then cleaned with a high pressure water jet to remove the release agent until the water runs clean.
• A dilute acid wash is then applied to the clean surface to remove any release agent contaminants from the top, wearing surface of the paving.
• The paving is thoroughly washed again with the waterjet. 

Step 7 - Sealing

• When the area has been washed, the paving is left to dry. It must be thoroughly dry before sealing. In the summer, the sealing can sometimes be undertaken on the same day as the washing off process, however most of the time the sealing is done the following day in order for the paving to dry thoroughly.
• When sealing, a bead of silicone joint filler is applied into the cut contraction joints. This inhibits dirt build up which in turn inhibits weed growth.
• We will also check that any manhole covers lift freely after sealing.        

And that’s about it – the New Design Concrete Process is now complete!