Welcome to the Paxton builders website, Created to give you more information about our local family run business.
With some examples of our work for you to look at and more added as current projects are completed.
We feel that this website was a natural progression as most people now have internet access and this goes hand in hand with our advertising in the local Royston listing magazine. You could say building is in our blood as my grandfather and father were bricklayers.
We hope you enjoy navigating around our website which will grow and expand (like our business) with time.
Please enjoy your look around the site.
Alan & Chris Paxton
Some building facts you may find interesting or send you to sleep.
1. Cement, the main constituent of concrete has been around for at least 12 million years. When the earth itself was undergoing intense geologic changes natural, cement was being created. It was this natural cement that humans first put to use. Eventually, they discovered how to make cement from other materials.
2. 3000 BC Egyptians Used mud mixed with straw to bind dried bricks. They also used gypsum mortars and mortars of lime in the pyramids. Chinese used cementitious materials to hold bamboo together in their boats and in the Great Wall.
3. 1824 Joseph Aspdin of England invented portland cement by burning finely ground chalk with finely divided clay in a lime kiln until carbon dioxide was driven off. The sintered product was then ground and he called it portland cement named after the high quality building stones quarried at Portland, England.
4. 1889 The first concrete reinforced bridge is built.
5. Brick has been employed by most cultures through the ages to build everything from temples to castles, cottages to factories - even The Great Wall of China. Favoured for its versatility and the readily available raw material from which bricks are fashioned, clay, many ancient buildings such as those built by the Romans still stand today.
6. The first sun-dried bricks were probably made around 8000 BC in what is now Iraq. From 5000 BC bricks were kiln-fired.
7. The Romans were master brick makers and bought their skills to Britain in 54 AD. These skills were mostly lost when the Romans left four centuries later, only to be revived later by Flemish brickmakers.
