• Style & appearance
• Product data
• Design considerations
• Installation & Maintenance

Style & appearance

Photographs

Colour availability
Charcoal	Grey

Product photograph

Product data

Trafficking

• All pedestrian areas
• Traffic-free zones
• Car parking (using herringbone pattern)

Features and benefits

• Complements shades and textures of other paving materials
• Use of granite aggregate increases durability

All Parliament blocks are shrink-wrapped.

Design considerations

Complementary products

Charcon Countryside Classic Kerb.

Standards

Parliament products comply with the performance levels in European Standard BS EN 1338.

Composition and manufacture

Parliament is made using granite aggregates which are exposed by shot blasting the semi-dry manufactured product.

Performance

Skid resistance

Concrete paving blocks have satisfactory slip/skid resistance in accordance with BS EN 1338.
For full details of slip resistance, please refer to Charcon Technical Services.

Strength

Meets requirements of BS EN 1338.

Specification clauses

For further information, please refer to Charcon Technical Services.

Installation guidelines

Preparation

Sub-grade:

• Clear top-soil: complete sub-grade drainage.
• Excavate and back-fill soft spots: compact well throughout.
• Protect sub-grade from adverse weather.
• Lay geotextile fabric or capping layer (if specified/required).

Sub-base:

• Prepare in accordance with Specification for Highway Works.
• Lay and compact in layers to a close-textured finish.
• Open-textured sub-bases may require a binding layer of finer material.

Laying

General principles:

Lay paving immediately on prepared bedding: do not leave bedding exposed to weather or overnight.

To avoid bedding layer damage and creep, lay paving units up slopes and/or away from edge restraints.

Stand on previously laid paving when placing next row.

Block and sett paving

Lay fine aggregate bedding course (to BS EN 12620 Gf85 0/4 mp) to a final compacted thickness of 50 mm (in accordance with BS 7533: Part 3).

This can be done by either:

1. Compacting 50 mm of fine aggregate and screeding a further 15-20 mm of loose fine aggregate. (A small trial area may be required to determine the actual surcharge). Note: this is the preferred method. If laying on a roadbase or previously paved area, recommended thicknesses are reduced to 30 mm followed by 9-14 mm.

   Or:

2. 60-70 mm loose fine aggregate screeded to accept blocks. Note: 39-44 mm if laying on a roadbase or previously paved area.

• Lay blocks hand tight (2-5 mm joints).
• Bed blocks with vibrating plate compactor (2 or 3 passes typically required).
• Brush-fill joints with fine dry sand (in accordance with BS 7533: Part 3).
• Vibrate surface again to assist joint filling.

If necessary during early life, top-up joints with loose sand to within 1 mm of working face by brushing surface.

For Countrysetts (pedestrian):

• Lay setts in traditional stretcher bond with 6-10 mm width joints.
• Ram well into bedding.
• Cut setts as necessary for obstructions etc. (minimum cut lengths: 75 mm): dress top arris of cut pieces with a lump hammer to give rounded top edge.
• Fill top joints with limestone dust (approx. 3-4 mm down) and ram down.
• Alternatively, use weak dry sand/cement mix, 1:9 mix).

  Note: to prevent mortar staining, keep setts dry during joint filling.

• Sweep clean, then moisten with watering can fitted with a medium rose.

For Countrysetts (vehicular-cube):

• Lay as traditional granite setts on minimum 100 mm of ST1 concrete.
• Bed on 25 mm Class 1 mortar with 6-10 mm class 1 mortar joints.

For Woburn:

• Lay setts in Herringbone pattern if heavy duty (80 mm) version is specified for regular/heavy traffic applications.
• Complete as for block paving.