Patrick Meehan is a paving mason by nature and nurture

Suffolk based Drimalost Paving and Hard Landscaping are specialists in designing and building natural stone landscapes. This could be a large or small paved area for outside entertaining to a private monumental spot in the garden. Customers can choose from a wide selection of pre-fabricated and natural stone products. They come in the form of flagstones, setts, kerb and edging stones, wall materials, gravels, shingles, cobbles, rockery stone, boulders and standing stones.

Patrick, as a corporate member of The Guild of Master Craftsmen, has used them all in projects for parks and public recreational areas, for local authorities and the highways department and for individuals looking for something more creative to add to their own garden. The name of his company – Drimalost Paving and Hard Landscaping is in honour of the part of Donegal where his father was born. The family there had, for generations, worked with the local but world famous, Drimkeelan White stone. This was used to build castles, churches, municipal buildings and monuments from Dublin, to London, New York and beyond. Not least, parts of the Houses of Parliament.

Patrick’s father, Kevin, moved to London and naturally took to the trade of paving mason. On weekends and school holidays, a young Patrick would accompany his father to work, and growing up, he learned at first hand the ‘old school’ skills of hand laying Yorkstone flags and granite kerbs and setts around old London town.

After dedicating himself to the trade for over ten years, Patrick then decided, after laying some paving for friends in Suffolk, that he would like nothing better than to apply his skills in the much more natural and peaceful surrounds of East Anglia. So, in 2000, he founded Drimalost Paving and Hard Landscaping. He found to his delight that this afforded him much more room for his professional creativity to blossom. Increasingly his work became more design led and as well as the paving, became based around pieces of natural stone as a form of sculpture.

“I think back to all my holidays growing up on the Donegal coastline. The wild and rugged terrain, The Bluestack Mountains and the lonely rocky outcrops, I always loved this raw and unbridled beauty,'” Patrick explains passionately, and then speaks about the ancient Irish Neolithic dolmens and standing stones that he is so inspired by.

“I am very fortunate to spend my Patrick Meehan is a paving mason by nature and nurture professional career exploring all that love I have for stone. I guess in a sense, through my acquired stone craft skills and my memories I carry in my heart, I am trying to recreate a little of those beautiful landscapes of the West of Ireland. Although, Suffolk being far flatter does make it much easier to put in a level piece of paving! “Every project is different,” says Patrick, “and each piece of natural stone is unlike another. So no job could ever be replicated in exactly the same way for another client. It makes my job very interesting and the client always ends up with something totally unique to them.”

The Drimalost service starts with a free consultation with the client, a site inspection, an exploration of ideas and project objectives. If the client wants to move forward with a project, they can choose a range of materials such as Yorkstone, granite, slate, travertine, porphyry, handmade clay brick and dozens of other quartzites, sandstones, limestones etc. A budget is decided, and another Drimalost adventure is embarked upon! Patrick takes extremely seriously his commitment to his quality of workmanship, and his duty of care to the customer. For peace of mind for all involved, Drimalost Paving and Hard Landscaping have full public liability insurance and a ten year ‘failure of work’ guarantee is given on all work.

Patrick adds: “With all the talk about stone, I’ve often been asked in my job what sort of tombstone I would have when I’m gone? If anything I would simply have an unpolished lump of granite. No words on it. Just let the stone speak for itself.”

For more information contact Drimalost on 01728 747835 or visit www.drimalost.co.uk

Published: June 2010
Author: EADT Suffolk Magazine

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