large victorian paving slabs or flagstones

This is a problem I have come up against. They will have "wear tracks" on the most walked on bits. Not apparent until you put a straight edge on them. This means you can't move them about as they won't match at the new edges.

Also they will be different thicknesses. They will be different sizes too. Sometimes they are laid in rows of different sizes.

The only solution I found if you want to keep them is to make a drawing so you can put them back exactly as before and relay them on a concrete base. This solves the cracked ones problem (They will likely have worn so they are very thin.) Unless some dozey bastard has driven a vehicle on them & broke them

All very fiddly, time consuming and expensive.

You can get new slabs, because they are machine cut, they don't look anywhere near as good. They certainly won't match with the old ones either.

Laying slabs is an aquired skill too. Not easy.

When I wuz a lad, the houses we lived in had paving stones ten feet each way. Sometimes they covered cellars under the pavement or the outside shithouse roof. Must have weighed tons, they were often eight or nine inches thick.

That's an awfully large chunk of stone - sure they ain't a reconstituted sort?

Nope - single slabs, not sure how thick

and

The "back" side is unlikely to be as flat as the top, maybe by several inches.

Re turning over. Quite often only one side has been chiselled smooth and the edges are tapered so probably not. Sometimes they are"riven", sometimes not.

Often each slab is trimmed to fit it's nieghbour too.

Could be true. If so they will only be about 20/30mm thick. They will have a hole for the wooden peg that held them on the roof unless they have been trimmed down to cut it off.

They have only been recently put down anyway, those kerbs must have been put in first.

If so, you may as well chuck them away.

The neighbour also has them (in better condition!) - seem original to the h ouse. 1875 victorian villa.

I know stone roof slabs can be quite large compared to slates, but even so that seem rather big for me for that (and yes I lived in Yorkshire and friends have a house with a stone roof, so I know what they are like).

More likely they were just cheap stone flags to start with and not thick enough, or whatever, plenty of cracked stone flags about.

As others have said, the underside may well not be flat, so turnign over might not be an option. I don't think the cracked on can be repaired as such, but embedding it onto sand and cement might mean you can at least have it flat and even.

Do these seem at all common in your area? I'd look around local reclamation yards maybe for something suitable

Still seems to me an enormous chunk of stone just for a path. If it is indeed 'proper' stone. The Victorians were adept at reconstituted stuff.

Right, decision made, lifting them and relaying on sand and cement. Any tips?

Amount of sand, Type, proportion of cement/sand, depth to dig down, di I use a sheet membrane - if so what type, do I start with dolomite or some sutch?

TIA

Phil

Those flags are similar to ones used to make walls by standing them on thei r short end below ground level and keeping them in alignment with a bolt pa ssed though the gap near the top. Often seen in the Peninne areas of Lancas hire and parts of West Yorkshire.

Richard

Your two problems are going to be:

1. Shifting the things in the first place. 900x600x50 is only just manageable by one person, and these are about 50% larger.
2. Depending on how thick they are, they may be rather fragile.