SK Trade, sktrade.co.uk

Building Materials

Concrete & Aircrete Blocks delivery in Colchester

Concrete blocks are large masonry units, normally 440 × 215 mm on face, that lay at about 10 blocks per square metre; they come as dense aggregate, lightweight aggregate or aircrete (aerated) blocks.

SK Trade is a builders' merchant delivering concrete blocks into Colchester, priced to your postcode and confirmed in writing.

Pallets of grey dense concrete blocks and pale aircrete blocks beside a blockwork wall

Delivery facts for Colchester

Delivering to
Colchester, Essex
Postcode districts
CO1, CO2, CO4, CO3
How it arrives
Banded pallets, usually crane offload
Nearby (straight line)
Sudbury (13 mi), Clacton-on-Sea (13 mi), Witham (13 mi)
Daylight
About 7h 46m on the shortest day
Delivery
Standard mainland delivery

Choosing from our concrete blocks range

  • Aircrete (aerated) blocksVery light, easy to cut and good insulators; check the strength grade for loadbearing work.
  • Lightweight aggregate blocksLighter to handle with better thermal performance than dense blocks.
  • Hollow and cellular blocksLighter dense blocks with voids, used for some garden and retaining walls.
  • Trench and foundation blocksWide blocks laid in foundation trenches instead of lots of concrete.
  • Block paving and edgingsOn request alongside your sub-base and sand.

Choosing concrete blocks

What strength do I need?

Most houses use 3.6 N/mm² or 7.3 N/mm² blocks. Your structural design, your building control officer or the block manufacturer's guidance sets the grade; tell us what is specified and we will match it.

Dense or aircrete?

Dense blocks are strong and good for sound separation but heavy; a 100 mm dense block can weigh around 20 kg. Aircrete blocks are much lighter and insulate better, which helps with energy targets, but need the right fixings.

In England, building work is checked against the Approved Documents, for example Part A for structure and Part L for energy efficiency, through your council's building control team or a registered building control approver.

Planning the drop in Colchester

Blocks are banded on pallets and usually crane-offloaded where the vehicle and access allow; tell us the weight limit of any drive or the ground where pallets will sit. Colchester is inside our standard mainland delivery area.

  • Pallets left on a pavement can block the footway, so plan a drop point inside your boundary where you can.
  • Deliveries are to the kerb, drive or within crane reach; ask if materials need to go further.
  • With roughly 7h 46m of daylight in Colchester around the shortest day, morning deliveries leave more working light for the job.

Quantities: a worked example

A single-skin block wall in Colchester 8 m long and 2.7 m high is 21.6 m². At 10 blocks per square metre plus 5% you need 227 blocks, with about 0.31 tonnes of building sand and 3 bags of cement for the mortar at 1:4. Try the block calculator

Your questions answered

Can you deliver concrete blocks to a site with restricted access in Colchester?

Usually, yes. Tell us about the access when you ask for a price and we will plan the vehicle and offload, or say if a smaller vehicle is needed.

Is there a minimum order for delivery to Colchester?

There is no fixed minimum. For very small orders we will tell you honestly if the delivery cost outweighs the materials, so you can decide.

How many blocks per square metre?

Standard 440 × 215 mm blocks with 10 mm joints lay at about 10 blocks per square metre of wall. Add around 5 percent for cuts.

How much mortar for blockwork?

Roughly 0.008 to 0.01 cubic metres of mortar per square metre of 100 mm blockwork, allowing for waste. Use our block calculator for sand and cement quantities.

Send your list, get a delivered price

Tell us what you need and where it is going. We check the quantities and come back with a delivered price before you commit.

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