Telehandler with "whacker" attachment.

After 20 years of watching block layers damage their backs, the owner of Norfolk, UK-based On-level Paving Ltd (OLP), decided to use a telehandler for laying paving.

Mark Read and David Ellis, who have been professional paving-layers for 20 years, bought OLP seven years ago.

Read was concerned by the degree of back injuries suffered by block layers.

"Inevitably, that means a serious risk of permanent back injury by the early 40s. And, that simply is not acceptable or moral these days," he said.

Instead of workers manually lifting individual blocks and placing them below foot level, OLP now uses a Probst laying machine, which places one square metre of paving at a time. A Merlo Panoramic P34.7 TOP model telehandler with a "whacker" attachment, made by Stehr, in Germany, is used to tamp down blocks and then, with a sweeper attachment, sweep the area after sanding.

Telehandler with sweeper attachment.

Each man in a team can lay up to 40 square metres of blocks a day but, using the machines, a two-man team can lay up to 600 square metres a day.

Read said no manufacturer he approached could provide the "fine speed control" he required for the application.

"Only Merlo, with its hydrostatic drive, could offer the potentiometer speed control," he said.

Merlo spokesperson Peter Grant said that, to his knowledge, Merlo was the only telehandler manufacturer to fit "as standard" a potentiometer speed control.

"Because we use a hydrostatic drive with electronic management, a simple potentiometer can be used to very accurately set speed.

"It is most commonly used on agricultural applications where a close control of forward speed is needed for spraying. In this application, the driver can dial in a forward speed to suit the type of blocks [being] laid and the degree of tamping needed," he said.

Modifications to the telehandler include a boom suspension system, an additional hydraulic cooler and semi-industrial tyres.