The offering

Paving is the first thing a car arrives on and the last thing anyone notices when it is right. We lay driveways, courtyards, walkways and pool surrounds, and we build the base under them properly, because that is what decides whether the surface is still flat in five years.

Most failed paving is not a paving problem. It is a base problem, a drainage problem or an edging problem, and all three are invisible by the time the pavers go down. We excavate to depth, compact in layers, and set the falls so water runs where you want it rather than towards a doorway or a boundary wall.

For the surface itself we work in clay pavers, cobbles, cast slabs, travertine, sandstone and split flagstone, and we will tell you which of those suits the traffic you actually have. A driveway that carries a delivery vehicle is not laid the way a garden path is.

Cape Town adds two conditions worth designing for. Winter rain arrives in volume and has to be taken somewhere, so permeable joints and a considered stormwater route are often worth more than the pavers on top of them. And in the summer the surface around a pool is walked on barefoot, which rules out several finishes that look beautiful in a showroom.

We also relay existing paving. Where a forecourt has cracked or settled, lifting, rebuilding the base and relaying the original stone is frequently cheaper than a new surface, and it keeps the material that suits the house.

What is included