Delivery & Damage Policy
Delivering Heavy Landscape Products
At Primethorpe, we take great care to ensure your order arrives safely. Every pallet is carefully packed, secured and checked before leaving our warehouse.
Paving slabs, coping stones, steps and other landscaping products are extremely heavy materials which can also be vulnerable to minor edge or corner damage during handling and transportation.
Despite specialist packaging and careful handling throughout the pallet network, occasional transit damage can therefore occur.
This policy explains what to expect, what to do if you discover damage and how we assess and resolve damage claims.
Nothing within this policy affects your statutory rights.
We Strongly Recommend Ordering 5–10% Extra Material
We recommend ordering an additional 5–10% of material for most landscaping projects.
This provides an allowance for:
- Cutting and fitting
- Installation wastage
- Natural colour, texture and dimensional variation
- Product selection during installation
- Future repairs or alterations
- Occasional minor transit damage
Professional installers will commonly incorporate pieces with minor edge or corner damage into areas requiring cuts, meaning an affected piece is not necessarily unusable.
Ordering an appropriate allowance helps prevent minor issues from delaying the installation.
Small Orders
Orders below approximately 10m² are generally transported flat on standard pallets rather than on specialist upright transport frames.
Both methods are suitable for transporting paving; however, small quantities of heavy stone or porcelain can naturally be more vulnerable to isolated transit damage.
For this reason, allowing additional material is particularly recommended for smaller orders where every individual piece may otherwise be required to complete the installation.
Inspecting Your Delivery
Please inspect your order as soon as reasonably possible following delivery and before installation.
If you discover transit damage, please notify us as soon as possible and preferably within 48 hours of delivery.
Where possible, please provide:
- Your order number
- Photographs of the affected product
- Photographs showing the complete affected pieces
- Photographs of the delivery pallet
- Photographs of any visible damage to the packaging, crate or wrapping
This information allows us to assess the damage and, where appropriate, submit a claim to our delivery partner.
Reporting damage promptly also makes it considerably easier for us to establish whether damage occurred during transportation.
Minor Edge & Corner Damage
Natural stone and large-format landscaping products are heavy materials and minor edge or corner chipping can occasionally occur during production, packing, handling and transportation.
Small chips which do not affect the structural integrity or reasonable use of the product may not necessarily make the entire piece unusable.
Depending upon the product and installation, affected pieces can often be incorporated into:
- Perimeter cuts
- End pieces
- Corners
- Borders
- Smaller infill sections
- Areas where the affected portion would otherwise be cut away
We therefore assess reported damage individually, taking into consideration the nature and extent of the damage, the type of product, its intended use and whether the affected material can reasonably still be incorporated into the installation.
Significant Damage
Where products have suffered significant transit damage which prevents their reasonable use, please contact us with photographs before installation.
We will assess the affected material and provide an appropriate resolution in accordance with your statutory rights.
Depending upon the circumstances, this may include replacement material, a price reduction/refund relating to the affected material, or another appropriate remedy agreed with you.
Please do not install material that you consider significantly damaged or unacceptable without first contacting us, as installation may affect the remedies available depending upon the circumstances.
Low-Value Damage Claims
Our specialist pallet delivery network currently operates a minimum carrier damage-claim value of £100.
This means Primethorpe may be unable to recover the cost of low-value transit damage from the carrier.
This carrier threshold does not affect your statutory rights and does not mean that damage below £100 will automatically be rejected by Primethorpe.
Instead, where the value of affected material is relatively low, we will assess the circumstances and seek a reasonable and proportionate resolution.
For example, where two coping stones worth £20 have suffered isolated corner damage, arranging a dedicated replacement pallet costing £55–£80 may be disproportionate, particularly where the original pieces remain usable for cuts.
In circumstances such as these, an alternative resolution such as an appropriate refund or price reduction for the affected material may be offered instead of a dedicated replacement delivery.
Replacement Deliveries
Where replacement is the appropriate remedy, we will arrange this as quickly as reasonably possible.
However, the appropriate resolution will depend upon the nature and extent of the issue.
For isolated low-value damage, we may discuss alternative remedies with you where arranging a dedicated pallet delivery would be disproportionate to the value and significance of the affected material.
The Consumer Rights Act itself recognises proportionality when considering repair and replacement remedies.
Natural Stone
Please remember that natural stone is not a factory-uniform product.
Variation in characteristics such as:
- Colour
- Tone
- Veining
- Fossil markings
- Surface texture
- Natural riven levels
- Edges
- Thickness within stated tolerances
- Mineral content
is inherent in natural stone and does not, by itself, indicate that a product is damaged or defective.
We strongly recommend mixing material from different crates and different areas within each crate during installation to produce a balanced overall appearance.
Individual product descriptions may contain additional information regarding the expected characteristics and tolerances of a particular stone.
Manufactured Porcelain Products
Porcelain paving is manufactured rather than naturally quarried, but normal manufacturing tolerances still apply.
Minor dimensional variation, surface curvature/bowing and shade variation may occur within the applicable manufacturer's specification.
Customers and installers should check the material before installation and follow appropriate installation practices for the particular format being laid.
Do Not Install Material You Wish to Dispute
Customers and installers should inspect products before permanently installing them.
If you believe material is significantly damaged, defective, incorrectly supplied or outside the stated specification, please contact us before cutting, laying, sealing or otherwise permanently installing it.
Installation does not automatically remove your statutory rights. However, installing material after an issue has been identified may affect the remedies reasonably available depending upon the circumstances.
We therefore strongly recommend resolving any concerns with us before installation continues.
Delivery Damage vs Natural Characteristics
It is important to distinguish between transit damage and the inherent characteristics of the product.
Examples of potential transit damage include:
- A slab broken completely through
- A substantial section broken from a product
- Significant impact damage affecting its reasonable use
Examples which may form part of the normal characteristics of landscaping products include:
- Minor edge chipping
- Small corner chips
- Natural riven variation
- Natural colour variation
- Fossil or mineral markings
- Minor dimensional variation within tolerance
- Hand-dressed or naturally irregular edges
Each report will be assessed according to the particular product and circumstances.
Our Commitment
We supply thousands of tonnes of natural stone and porcelain products throughout the UK and understand that occasionally issues occur during transportation.
Where there is a genuine problem, we will work with you to find a fair and proportionate resolution.
At the same time, landscaping materials should be assessed with reasonable regard to their nature, intended use, published product characteristics and normal installation practices.
Your Statutory Rights
Nothing contained within this Delivery & Damage Policy excludes, restricts or replaces your statutory rights.
Consumer purchases remain subject to applicable UK consumer legislation, including the Consumer Rights Act 2015.