The Diary Of A Natural Stone Supplier

Being a natural stone paving supplier is quite an interesting job. It takes you to all sorts of places, brings you into contact with many different types of people and drops you into a whole range of different scenarios. Everyones got a camera phone thes days and I am no different to anybody else in that I am constantly snapping away. I though it might be an idea to keep a weekly diary of events at London Stone, so here it is

Week starting 20th May

Monday
The week when Chelsea opens its doors to the world. I didnt have time to go this week, but I encouraged as many of my team as possible to pay a visit. Chelsea is at the forefront and its a goood education for them to see first hand, some of the amazing designs and show gardens

Tuesday
We took delivery of a load of Portland stone blocks. We are atttempting to build up some stock of our indigenous British stones. The blocks weigh approx 7 tons each so are not huge but on the other hand they are regular shapes which will, reduce the amount of wastage. We recieved some monster blocks of Yorkstone last week which weighed about 14 tons each. With blocks, big is best. Less wastage and less downtime changing the blocks over on the saw.

Wednesday
We announced on the LJN forum a few weeks ago about our new trade sample box. I am glad to say its been a real success. In fact we have really struggled with keeping up with demand. We are currently working through a large back log of sample box requests. Here is a picture of our bridge saw chopping up the Yorkstone & Portland stone samples for the boxes

Thursday
Coming from hard landscaping backgrounds, the London Stone team have a genuine conection with the industry and are passionate about its success and development. As part of this commitment we have teamed up with the KLC school of garden design. When the KLC gets a new intake of students, we will go down and talk to them about the use of natural stone in garden design. Yesterday, Rebecca (our West London showroom manager) and I were at the KLC in Hampton Court talking about natural stone paving. We always enjoy these events as we feel its important to put something back into the industry. Its also a real eye opener to meet these young designers. Some of these guys WILL be the stars of the future

Friday
We have been making changes to our West London Showroom. We have extended the size of the display to showcase some of our new sawn paving products and we have also relaid some of our existing natural stone products. The hard landscaping has now been completed and we did all the planting this week. Here is a picture of the ladies from Landart getting the plants laid out

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Oliver clarkson posted a discussion
Evening what products are people using for black spot on roses, I'm about to run out of my current product which isn't available any more. many thanks 
8 hours ago
Graham Taylor replied to Jamie's discussion Stihl BG86c problems
"I just use a couple of pieces of paper for the gap and then just rotate the flywheel to ensure its not rubbing anywhere.  I set it up when the magnets are pulling the coil onto it with the paper as a sandwich between the two..................holds…"
8 hours ago
Honey Badger replied to Jamie's discussion Stihl BG86c problems
"You're welcome. 
Im glad you got it working again."
10 hours ago
Jamie replied to Jamie's discussion Stihl BG86c problems
"Thank you for your replies. As it happens, i just re-alligned the ignition coil slightly just to get it slightly closer to the fly wheel as i noticed one side had a bigger gap than the other, and fingers crossed it's been ok today so far. It does…"
11 hours ago
Honey Badger replied to Jamie's discussion Stihl BG86c problems
"Replace there wiring you've probably worn out the kill switch. If it is a flywheel problem stop yanking the pull chord so hard, thats what shears of the flywheel key. I've had three bg86 they get a bit unreliable after 4-5 yrs. They all still run,…"
15 hours ago
John F replied to John F's discussion Service Schedule Stihl Cordless Hedge Trimmer ?
"Thanks Tim for the useful information , definitely worth mentioning also useful reminder to grease the gears regularly  
I must admit I sometimes forget with my more expensive kit which has the grease thread the grease soons dries out .
My Stihl…"
17 hours ago
Honey Badger replied to Jamie's discussion Stihl BG86c problems
"Get the flywheel off is tricky. Strip down both sides of the machine there's two opposing compression nuts you have to loosen the one on the fly wheel side. Use a punch and hammer to gently slide of the compression nut, there's a centre point the…"
17 hours ago
Honey Badger replied to Jamie's discussion Stihl BG86c problems
"Use a piece of cut plastic milk bottle to get the space right between the ignition coil and flywheel. The flywheel could be the problem. There's key on the flywheel that shears off and knocks the engine timing off. You have to remove the flywheel…"
17 hours ago
Tim Bucknall replied to John F's discussion Service Schedule Stihl Cordless Hedge Trimmer ?
"All the stihl kit I've got has grub screws for greasing, and stihl do grease in tubes like toothpaste.  Take the screw out (torx) and screw the tube in, squeeze some in.  Should be done quite regularly.  Also on shaft drive machines you should take…"
18 hours ago
Jamie posted a discussion
Hi all, hope this is in the correct thread.So i've had some BG86c blower problems recently. Long story short, i've replaced the carb with a genuine Stihl carb as my previous one wasn't priming, everything was fine once replaced but on full throttle…
18 hours ago
Honey Badger replied to John F's discussion Cherry Blossom Tree
"If it's right by a boundary wall it sadly needs to come out. Cherries are one of the worst for causing subsidence. People Are such idiots when it comes to planting tree's."
yesterday
John F replied to John F's discussion Cherry Blossom Tree
"Yes it's not always easy to do the right thing for the tree unfortunately whoever planted it put the wrong tree in the wrong place right next to a boundary wall when it was just a small tree .
Once it's pruned I  can't see it adding any value as it…"
yesterday
Peter sellers replied to Ben Hattersley's discussion Pricing for School grounds maintenance
"Ben, seems that you are in a strong position as you are well thought of by the school as you aren't the obvious choice to quote for something which is not your main business. Are they asking other contractors who do this type of work to quote? If…"
yesterday
Ben Hattersley replied to Ben Hattersley's discussion Pricing for School grounds maintenance
"Yes it seems to be mine field! The school arent happy with the current contractors and to be honest i wouldn't be either. The main concerns of the school are that they are paying for the contract but very little gets done.
Because i try stay away…"
Wednesday
Jim Mileman is now a member of Landscape Juice Network
Wednesday
Honey Badger replied to John F's discussion Cherry Blossom Tree
"Can't say I've ever seen silver leaf in 22 yrs because I don't prune prunus in the winter. The only dease I've seen on cherry is a die back due to old age. With exception a fungal thing that was poor soil related and did recommend to customer not to…"
Wednesday
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Stihl BG86c problems

Hi all, hope this is in the correct thread.So i've had some BG86c blower problems recently. Long story short, i've replaced the carb with a genuine Stihl carb as my previous one wasn't priming, everything was fine once replaced but on full throttle…

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6 Replies · Reply by Graham Taylor 8 hours ago
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