—This pavement is too well known to need any description from me; it is an excellent pavement in many ways, and is most pleasant to walk upon, there being a cling or foothold not experienced in any other material.
The objections to this description of pavement are:—
(1.) Its first cost, which is undoubtedly high as compared to its durability.
(2.) The fact of uneven wearing: one stone will be found soft next to a hard one; the former wears, leaving a pit which forms a pool for water in due course, and has to be removed.
(3.) Unless very carefully bedded, a stone will see-saw; this is very unpleasant in wet weather, water accumulates beneath, and as the pedestrian treads on one end of the stone a squirt of dirty water up to his knees, and a stumble, remind him that the stone is loose.
(4.) Liability to crack when any heavy goods are thrown upon it.
The following specimen specification for Yorkshire flagging pavement may be of use.
Specimen Specification for Yorkshire Flagging Foot Pavements.
The old flagging (where and when directed) to be taken up, refaced, squared, and relaid.
The new flagging is to be chisel-dressed to a fair face, true, out of winding, and not less than 3 inches thick,[106] to be properly squared and not pitched off only, or undercut, but to hold good to the square; to have not more than fourteen pieces to the hundred superficial feet; the joints must be set flush, and bedded and pointed with the best blue lias mortar.