Newark Market Square

The medieval market square in Newark still has open air markets and other public functions and activities being held for at least 6 days a week, which requires frequent mechanical machine cleaning and there are all different types of delivery vehicles and traffic. Since 1999 the District Council has been undertaking an improvement programme with 100mm Porphyry stone setts in a traditional paving pattern.

The pointing of the joints has been an ongoing concern and all types of mortars have been used and trialled, but unsuccessfully. In addition to not withstanding the traffic and cleaning, they have all either caused staining of the stone, take too long to apply and cure, are sensitive to water in the joints and so cannot be used in wet weather, are susceptible to shrinkage and cracking, so the surfaces succumb to damage from freeze thaw reaction in winter.

Finally the Council identified GftK mortars from NCC Streetscape to overcome all of these problems and so A C Moore Construction Ltd used the GftK mortar to grout the newly laid area of porphyry setts. This enabled this area to be grouted up within one day, as against several days with conventional materials.
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Although not normally designed for this purpose the Council then decided to instruct A C Moore Construction Ltd to re-grout the whole of the previously laid market area paving, replacing any damaged setts, and overlaying the cracked and broken out areas of the existing cement grout. This additional work was carried out on each of five consecutive Tuesdays, whereas using cement mortar would have taken weeks.


For further information, visit NCC Streetscape online or click here to send an online enquiry