[muddy waters]

I have a small job (265 sq ft) coming up in which the customer wants unilock hollandstone with a unigrante accented border (b/w soldier course and field brick). My only concern is that the unigranite is about a 1/2 in thicker than the hollandstone. Will it tamp down with no issues? I dont want to have to swing a dead blow for a couple hours or alter the bedding course to get them to the desired level. Any help would be great.

[jshilan]

We've had to do this when we use some of the 3" thick paver's and need to use a 2 3/8" thick border. Your situation is actually easier.

Just set the grade for the unigranite first for the entire patio and lay them out to do the border. Then just add the 1/2" of dust or sand and screed that using the border to rest a notched screed board on (just be careful not to knock the border around).

Tamp as you normally do.

BTW try to get a few extra bucks since it is a little more labor intensive.

[dan deutekom]

I just set the grade for the entire patio as normal. Lay all of your stone. The Unigranite tamps down with the packer just fine without any problems

[Stonehenge]

Dan, are you able to run a compactor over that stuff? Doesn't the compactor want to flop all over the place running over that texture?

[fakie99]

screed as usual - the unigranite will tamp down to the same level w/no problem.

but - if it's not too late - steer them away from unigranite unless you have charged a hefty premium. here's the thing w/unigranite: it doesn't split worth a damn, and you WILL have hefty amounts of wasted material that your supplier may or may not take back. the product looks great, but, in my opinion, is complete garbage form an installation standpoint. what about unilock series 3000 as an alternative?

[dan deutekom]

Jeff

Never had a problem running a compactor over the stuff. I usually centre the plate over it and then run it along. I like the looks of unigranite but you do have to charge a premium for it because there is a fair amount of time spent splitting it. I havn't had fakie's problem of poor splits and have had very few unusable pieces. Also if you live in snow country the snow shovel catches on them when pushing snow. OUCH!

[Stonehenge]

They aren't easy on bare feet, either. We use a splitter on them and they seem to split just fine.

[muddy waters]

Thanks for the advice everyone! I finished the job over the weekend and had no problems with the unigranite tamping down. I tacked on extra labor costs for the time spent splitting and I warned them about shoveling snow, but they didn't seem to mind. Also, I was sure to use the flattest pieces in front of a step off the porch. I had to touch some up with a carbide chisel but since it was a small job it wasn't a big deal. I made some bucks and the job looks great (and will for years to come). I'm happy. Thanks again. Dan