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 inspected before leaving our warehouse.

However, paving slabs, coping stones, steps and other landscaping products are heavy yet fragile materials. Despite specialist packaging and careful handling throughout the delivery network, occasional transit damage can occur. Whilst uncommon, this is an accepted part of transporting stone products across the UK.

We Strongly Recommend Ordering Extra Material

We always recommend ordering an additional 5–10% of material.

This is standard practice throughout the landscaping industry and allows for:

• Cutting and fitting around your project.
• Installation wastage.
• Future repairs or alterations.
• Natural product selection.
• The occasional transit breakage.

Ordering a small amount of additional material can prevent unnecessary delays and helps ensure your project continues smoothly if a small number of products become damaged or unusable.

Please note: Orders under approximately 10m² are generally transported on standard pallets rather than upright transport frames. Whilst both methods are suitable for transporting paving, smaller pallet deliveries are naturally more susceptible to isolated transit damage.

Inspect Your Delivery

Please inspect your order as soon as reasonably possible after delivery.

If you discover significant transit damage, you must notify us within 48 hours of delivery.

To help us investigate your claim, please provide:

• Photographs of the damaged product(s).
• Photographs of the original delivery pallet.
• Photographs showing any damage to the outer packaging or timber frame.
• Your order number.

This information allows us to raise a damage claim with our specialist pallet courier.

Unfortunately, damage reported outside the courier's reporting window cannot normally be accepted by the haulier.

Damage Claims

Our specialist pallet delivery network operates a minimum damage claim value of £100.

• Damage exceeding £100 – We will submit a claim to the courier and, where accepted, arrange replacement materials as quickly as possible.
• Damage below £100 – Unfortunately, this falls below the courier's minimum claim threshold and replacement claims cannot be made through the haulier.

Why Can't Every Damaged Item Be Replaced?

This is one of the questions we're asked most frequently.

Whilst we'd genuinely like to replace every damaged item, the reality is that replacement deliveries are often significantly more expensive than the value of the products themselves.

For example, a small number of damaged slabs, coping stones or steps may only have a combined value of £20–£50, whereas arranging a replacement pallet delivery typically costs £55–£70, before the cost of the replacement materials is even considered.

Because the courier will not accept damage claims below £100, we are unable to recover either the transport costs or the replacement materials for low-value damage claims.

Rather than increasing our delivery charges and product prices for every customer to cover these occasional claims, we've chosen to keep our prices as competitive as possible and instead recommend ordering a small amount of additional material. This approach is standard practice throughout the landscaping industry and helps keep costs fair for all customers.

Can Damaged Products Still Be Used?

Often, yes.

Many transit damages involve minor corner chips or isolated breakages that still leave a large proportion of the slab intact.

These pieces can often be used for:

• Perimeter cuts.
• Borders.
• Smaller infill sections.
• Other areas where a full slab isn't required.

For this reason, a damaged slab isn't always a wasted slab and we do not offered refund on slabs that can still be used in some form

Our Commitment

If your order suffers significant transit damage, we'll work quickly with both you and our delivery partner to resolve the issue and arrange replacement materials where applicable.

If you're unsure how much extra material to order, our team will always be happy to help before you place your order.

Our Recommendation

For the relatively small cost of ordering extra materials, you can avoid unnecessary delays, additional delivery costs and the frustration of being left just short of completing your project.

After supplying landscaping materials for over 25 years, we've found this to be the simplest and most cost-effective way to keep projects running smoothly.