HUDDERSFIELD: Hard landscaping specialist Marshalls has launched a paving planner to give installers a helping hand when it comes to measuring up and planning.

New for 2010, the paving planner makes planning for a project easy. With access to a wide range of design opportunities from a library of laying patterns, the unit calculates exact paving quantities which reduces wastage and better estimates cost projections.

A wide range of project sizes can be input including irregular shapes and curved designs. Flag sizes can be selected to suit the layout and the software gives access to the entire Marshalls domestic range of paving and concrete block paving. Even edgings and kerb can be added and calculated.

By following simple step-by-step instructions, the innovative Marshalls software produces a full laying pattern and list of quantities along with colour swatches of any chosen paving.

For those who want to know the carbon impact of their patio or driveway, the paving planner calculates the carbon footprint of the entire project. With the information at hand, it’s never been easier for customers to fully understand the environmental impact of the products they want to buy.

The paving planner is practical, too. Once the design, paving, extras and carbon footprint have been calculated, an A4 print-out of the project gives an immediate summary of the project for the customer to see at a glance.