No assessment of paving and patio grouts would be complete without taking a look at the Streetscape range of Larsen paving products. Read our review to find out more about these quality materials and why landscaping contractors swear by them.
Background to Larsen building products
Larsen has been manufacturing paving products since 1975, and today has an extensive range of streetscape, flooring, highways and tiling products.
As a major supplier of paving products to the construction industry, Larsen completed its purpose-built manufacturing facility in the Port of Belfast in 2008. This computer-controlled facility makes and sells 100,000 tonnes of products to the building trade each and every year.
Larsen paving products include flowable slurry grouts, slurry primers, bedding mortars and gun pointing mortars.
We review Larsen’s slurry grout, gun pointing mortar and slurry primer below. Read on to find out more about these three paving products loved by large-scale contractors up and down the country.
Features of Larsen products
Streetscape contractors, sub-contractors, architects and other specifiers rely on paving products with tested and proven performance characteristics.
Larsen building products meet and exceed the rigorous requirements of the British Standard BS 7533.
Let’s delve into the specifications of Larsen building products and some of their other features.
Independently tested
A paving material is not worth its weight in Portland cement if it’s unable to demonstrate its reliability from independent testing. In fact, major contractors on large streetscape projects actually demand that products meet these standards.
The good news is that Larsen’s full range exceeds the strict performance requirements of British Standard BS 7533 and, as such, has been independently tested by an accredited UKAS lab.
This rigorous and regular testing assesses the performance of materials, taking into account the compression, flexion, adhesion and shrinkage, among many other facets of testing.
What’s more, the materials are tested in combination with each other to ensure their overall reliability when used together.
Range of colours
If you’re wanting more options in jointing colour, then look no further than Larsen.
Each grade of Larsen pointing mortars often come in four colours.
Read on to see the colours available in Larsen jointing mortars, including their flowable slurry grout and gun jointing mortar.
Eco credentials
Environmentally sound construction is high on the priority list with Larsen paving materials. And it’s no surprise with the sustainability scores and eco credentials more commonly being scrutinised on large civil projects.
Today, Larsen’s FJM, GPM and PS paving products all contain 20% recycled materials – and that’s as standard. So whichever Larsen product you choose, you can boast about the project’s green credentials to your clients.
In fact, sourcing environmentally sound purchases can even help your company win CEEQUAL awards on a project, which stands for the Civil Engineering Environmental Quality Assessment & Awards Scheme. These awards are based on a sustainability assessment tool for all types of civil engineering, infrastructure and landscaping.
Winning a CEEQUAL award is great for some extra PR for your landscaping business, and especially to use when pitching to new clients.
Now we’ve covered a few of the benefits of Larsen, let’s get onto some of the most popular paving materials used in the by streetscape contractors.
Larsen FJM: Flowable Jointing Mortar
As part of Larsen’s Streetscape range, Larsen FJM Rapid is a flowable jointing mortar that allows you to grout large areas of paving, quickly and cleanly.
Available in Standard Eco and Smooth Eco, Larsen FJM is ideal for all types of paving schemes, from small domestic patios to large commercial projects, and comes in a contractor-friendly 25kg bag.
With fast-setting and high-strength characteristics, Larsen FJM slurry grout sets rapidly, allowing areas to be open to foot traffic within a couple of hours and vehicle traffic within four to six hours.
As with all Larsen products, Larsen FJM exceeds the requirements of BS 7533.
Features of Larsen FJM
- Suitable for almost all paving types including granite, sandstone, Yorkstone, limestone and porphyry
- Joint widths: 5mm–50mm
- Joint depths: up to 200mm
- Compressive strength: >40MPa
- Working time: 15 minutes at 20ºC
- Shelf life: 6 months from date of manufacture (unopened bag)
- Coverage: 7–10 square metres per bag
Larsen FJM colours and grades
Both of the Standard and Smooth grades of Larsen FJM are available in:
- Natural
- Charcoal
- Buff
- Mid Grey
This range of colours for the two grades of flowable grout offer a total of eight options to choose from to complement the aesthetics of your project.
Larsen GPM: Gun Pointing Mortar
An alternative to flowable slurry grout – and particularly for those hard to reach areas – is using a gun pointing mortar.
Larsen GPM is a jointing mortar that can be applied using the Larsen point-joint mortar gun. It’s especially handy for steps, water features, general paving, and even repointing stone walls and brickwork.
Another pointing mortar that exceeds the requirements of BS 7533, Larsen GPM contains a special mix of fine aggregates, cements and additives to make an economical and easy-to-apply mortar. It has a setting time of around four hours.
Features of Larsen GPM
- Joint widths: 5mm–25mm
- Joint depths: up to 150mm
- Compressive strength: 40MPa
- Working time: approximately 40 minutes
- Setting time: around 4 hours
- Shelf life: 6 months from date of manufacture (unopened bag)
- Coverage: 28 linear metres (joints of 5mm wide by 10mm deep)
Larsen GPM colours
Larsen GPM is available in:
- Natural Grey
- Buff
- Black
- White
- Charcoal
Larsen PS: Priming slurry
Another tried and tested product on the Streetscape range is Larsen PS, a high-quality priming slurry to secure pavers to the bedding mortar.
Larsen PS is a superior grade, brush-on priming slurry that provides an extra-strong adhesion to the mortar bed below. It is easy to use, is ideal for porcelain and meets the strict performance characteristics of BS 7533.
Manufactured using a blend of specially selected aggregates, cements and synthetic polymers, Larsen Streetscape PS requires only the addition of water to produce a high quality priming slurry.
This priming slurry contains a formula of specially selected aggregates, cements and synthetic polymers. It is recommended for use with Larsen FBC flexible bedding compound.
We recently touched on the topic of the importance of priming pavers in another article. The article covers how using a high-quality primer will reduce the risk of efflorescence and mortar cracks. And that’s regardless of whether you’re using paving elements of the porous or non-porous kind.
Features of Larsen PS
- Perfect for porcelain
- Application temperature: 3–30ºC
- Working time: approximately 60 minutes
- Setting time: around 4 hours
- Coverage: around 19 square metres
- Bed thickness: 1–2mm per pass
- Shelf life: 6 months from date of manufacture (unopened bag)
Bulk deals on Larsen products
Bigger savings are available when you buy Larsen mortars and priming slurry by the pallet rather than by the bag.
Save on pallet deals
Each pallet of Larsen FJM, GPM or PS contains 39 bags of each product.
- Larsen FJM Standard – 39 x 25kg bags
- Larsen FJM Smooth – 39 x 25kg bags
- Larsen GPM – 39 x 25kg bags
- Larsen PS – 39 x 25kg bags
If you’re purchasing for a large-scale project and require more bags to complete the job, it is possible to deliver larger pallet quantities of 48 bags. Call our team on 0330 122 1025 to enquire as we’ll need to arrange a larger truck for delivery.
At The Paving Experts we offer free delivery on all full pallets delivered within England and Wales. A small fee applies to pallet deliveries to Scotland. Get in touch if you would like a delivery quote at orders@thepavingexperts.co.uk
Find out more about Larsen building products
If you’re new to Larsen, check out this video to find out more about the company and how they manufacture and test their quality building products.
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