However, if the soakaway is suspect or unable to cope, the only other drainage options are to create a new soakaway at some point (at least 5m from any building) or to find some way to connect the linear drain to the existing drainage system.

If all else fails, I suppose the tidiest option would be to replace the gravel with fresh stuff, and I think, given the drive's on a slope, it might be a good idea to use a cellular matrix (like the HDPE cellular grass pavers) to keep the gravel from tumbling down the slope.

Think about it - if laying blacktop in the rain was a serious issue, we'd never get any laid in this country!  

Make sure you get a written guarantee, just to be on the safe side.

Don't forget to have the kettle on for them!

And yes: they should have included for the drain in their original quotation, which should have been in writing. Charging for all these sudden extras when it comes to driveways is like charging extra for tyres on a new car - it's a con.  

You asked for a price to install a tarmac driveway, complete. You do not expect to be charged extra for edging kerbs, drainage, access, hire of the roller, or tea-bags once you've accepted a quotation, which is why I keep banging on and on about getting written quotations that give full detail of exactly what is included in the price.

If 'extras' are required that could not have been foreseen, then that's fair enough, but surely their surveyor should have realised that the drive would backfall towards the house, and therefore, they should have allowed for that in the pricing.

Do you have anything in writing?

Sending water onto flower beds and gardens is all well and good if you have a lot of flower bed or garden onto which it can be sent, but if you've only a couple of small patches, you end up ruining what soil and plant life is in there, and it eventually silts up and starts to pond.

Using the existing gully sounds a possible solution, but your contractor would have to weigh-up just how feasible. However, given there is an existing gully, it should be possible to install a linear drain for a hell of a lot less than 350 quid! The presence of an existing gully means it should be a doddle to link up a metre or so of linear drain in place of the gully.

Reckon on a tenner a metre for linear drain, plus a tenner for their trouble, plus a fiver profit. That's 25 quid per metre, and then, say, 40 quid max to make a connection to the existing gully.

How about having a friendly chat with the contractor and asking how they come up with a price of 300+ quid for a ten quid length of linear drain, and could they not install something simple and functional for, say 50 quid? It's a good place to start negotiating, but try not to be pushed beyond the 100 quid limit, unless, of course, they can justify their costs and convince you that they're telling the truth.

I await news of developments with bated breath.  

1 - connecting clayware and uPVC - they want to replace part of the existing with uPVC, but then say connecting uPVC to clay is not a good idea. It's not ideal, but there's no real problem with it. I actually prefer to use clayware, especially for shallow drainage, as it's inherently stronger than uPVC.

2 - bringing in an external contractor - yes, it would cost 300 quid plus to bring in someone else, but then, your current contractor is already on site, which should reduce the cost.

3 - not quoting for drainage - so how do they price commercial work? Do they think we would be awarded estate infrastructure contracts if we were to tell the developer that we'll tell them how much the drainage works cost once we've been awarded the job and opened the ground? Any decent contractor can 'guesstimate' how much it will cost to install a simple drainage system. This crew 'guesstimated' 300 quid the other day, before they'd opened the ground - why couldn't they have done that at the tendering stage?

4 - the 50 quid gully is about right, including the profit mark-up, but 2 men for half-a-day to install? I'm not so sure.

I think, as you say, they have you by the short'n'curlies, and you have no real room for manoeuvre, but I still believe they should have been able to inform you about the drainage before work started. It's the ability to predict and identify these issues before work commences that makes using a professional contractor advantageous. If they can't tell, in advance, that a drive sloping back towards the property will need some form of drainage, well, they shouldn't really be in the trade!

I think you'll have to accept their price, but make sure you get your written guarantee, and a full receipt for all the work they do.

Broadband cable under the haunching - well, it's not the best place for it, but it should be ok. It's sometimes run via a duct, to make replacement easier, but I wouldn't worry about it, as long as it's not damaged.

So - all set for Monday then. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, I think this contractor has hell of a nerve. They mis-measure the gates, and expect you to pay for their incompetence? That's really extracting the urine. Your (or your son) agreed to pay them to supply and install new gates; if they can't read a tape measure, why should you be expected to pay? On a commercial contract, they would have to bear the cost themselves, and they would not be paid a penny until they had agreed to bear the cost of the adjustments themselves.

They stung you for the drainage, which was, in my opinion, a tad unfair, and now they want you to pay for yet another 'oversight'. No way! They agreed a price for the gates, and that's all they should get.

Good luck!

When it comes to your dropped crossing, you must get approval from your council; that's the law, but you do not have to accept their quote. It's worth getting one or two competitive quotes on the '£xxx to do the job' variety, rather than the '£50 less than anyone else' variety. You can be extra cheeky and use the same spec as will be supplied by the council when they give you a price.

Be aware that many councils have 'approved lists' of contractors, and that, if this is the case, you are obliged to use one of these companies rather than a contractor of your own choosing. It might sound like a restriction of free choice, but it's done to ensure the cowboys are not allowed to bugger up the public footpaths quite as easily as they get away with buggering-up private driveways. Mind you, having seen the so-called repairs to the road outside our local school, I'm not so sure it's totally foolproof!  

As for your neighbour's driveway - the safest solution is to wash it down with a 10:1 dilution of Jeyes Fluid and give it a good scrub with a stiff brush. If the bitmac is still 'tight' and not crumbling at all, then you might be able to use a power washer, but be very careful, as the force of the jet can easily dislodge less-than-satisfactory bitmac surfacing on private driveways. As with all these clean up jobs, test a discreet area first!

1. - theoretically: yes. Practically: no. Although concrete does indeed reach its design strength at (or around) 28 days, it continues to harden long after that, and actually reaches something like 90% of design strength after 5 days. Maintaining a humid curing environment is really not essential for the full 28 days.
2. - Yes, if you set up sprayers or you live in a soggy climate like that or Ireland and Britain, but the usual practice is to use a membrane that's spray-applied to the surface to retain the water content of the concrete during the initial curing, and then peeled off after a few days.
3. - You could cover the slab with a membrane yourself. A polythene sheet will do, or even old sacking that is dampened down every 4 hours or so. It's too late now for a sprayed membrane, and I guess, 3 days after the pour, a great deal of the initial cure is complete, especially with such high temperatures, so there's very little to be gained by using any membrane this late in the process.
4. - Spray the concrete enought to dampen the surface and cover it with polythene for another 3 days - after that, it should be fine. You might find some minor, surface 'hairline' cracks, but these aren't worth losing sleep over, and occur in virtually all concrete. If the preparation was right before the pour, then there's not  alot to be gained by spraying, sheeting or submerging it for the next month!

HTH

The principles are more or less the same as those shown for constructing any other concrete-bedded edging, although it takes a little longer because of the variable sizes of the cobbles (or is it setts?)

Have a read of the Laying Edgings page.

It takes a bit of practice to get the cobbles to sit evenly on the mortar bed, so that they are all at the same level and not all higgledy-piggledy, and you need to select the cobbles carefully to get a reasonably sweet line, so try not to put out too much bedding and mortar in advance of yourself until you feel more confident.

Try to make sure the cobbles are the most prominent feature of the edging, and not the mortar. Keep joints as tight as possible, and in-fill any smaller gaps with small cobbles or pebbles rather than dollops of mortar. Every metre or so, stand back and assess your work for level and alignment before moving on to the next metre. If you get any mortar on the surface of the cobbles, wipe it off asap with a damp sponge, which is also a handy tool for smoothing-off the mortar surround.

What's going either side of the cobbles?

Although I've no problem with the construction, how will you get on when it comes to mowing the lawn? You'll not be able to get a mower near the cobble edge, so you'll have to use a strimmer or similar. Sounds like a lot of work.

Wetting the setts before applying the pitch is a good idea: in fact, I may add this point to the page dealing with pitch jointing, but then great care needs to be taken because standing water and boiling pitch are a bloody dangerous combination. If you choose to dampen down your setts before sealing with pitch, give it a few minutes to soak in and for all small pools or puddles to disappear before pouring in the pitch.

Where you're extending over what was lawn, then that needs a new sub-base and this needs to be at least 100mm thick, preferably 150mm thick, and using a decent DTp1 material. It may also need a membrane between the sub-grade (dirt) and the sub-base (hardcore), but your contractor should advise.

The top dressing needs to be 20-30mm thick, and you're going to have to accept that it will need topping-up every year, so try to choose a local gravel that's readily available rather than summat exotic that's a pain to source in years to come, such as Spanish White Marble.

Also, bear in mind that you still need to drain the area, so make allowance for installation of gullies and/or linear drains, and a firm edging is a real benefit, as it will prevent the surfacing spreading into the adjacent garden areas. You could use any of the edging types mentioned on this site - the cheapest are timber, but, in my not so humble opinion, a brick soldier edging looks great with gravelled areas.

Q1 - Mask off one of the colour areas with a sheet of visqueen (or similar) while you spread the colour hardener over the first area, then mask t'other area and do the second colour.

Q2 - not sure, but it seems to be a fine-grained hardwood. Iroko, perhaps? The rough wooden floats used for rubbing-up work are often knocked-up on site from whatever timber is lying about, which would normally be Deal or CLS.

Ay up! There's God at the door, wanting another brew. I'd best go....!

Personal experience tells me it's probably true, but I don't have any empirical data to back up that belief, just my lug'oles and what they hear. Gravel driveways constructed using geo-matrices do seem quieter than loose gravel drives.

Have you tried the Golpla website? Or any of the other manufacturers? There's a list of cellular system manufacturers and links to their websites on the Grass Paving Links page.

Preparation involves cleaning off any vegetation, loose material or crud, then painting on a "tack coat", and then laying 25mm or so of a 6mm wearing course macadam.

This is usually a relatively cheap job but, as always, get at least 3 quotes from reputable companies before choosing your contractor. Get a full, written specification/quotation and a guarantee.

Owt else you need to know?

However, once you've installed the sub-base, the rest of the paving is relatively cheap. Concrete blocks paving can be bought for around 10 quid per m² and concrete flags are a little bit cheaper. Installation is pretty easy on a small area, and, assuming your dimensions are right, you could do the lot over a weekend.

If you opt for concrete flags, then the 450x450mm wafers sold at B&Q, Wickes, Homebase, etc., are a waste of money - they're only 35mm thick and can just about manage the weight of a wheelbarrow. Even a small car will crack them into pieces, unless they're laid on concrete. If it's flags you want, then you should go for the 65mm thick units - you can get away with 50mm flags, but 65mm are a safer bet.

Easiest of all is concrete block paving. The units are small and light; they're strong enough to take the weight of anything up to a Tranny Van; they're attractive and, if you do want to surface with bitmac at some future date, they can be removed quite simply and the sub-base used again to carry the bitmac.

Have a look at the Excel Block Paving spreadsheet and work out for yourself how little it would cost you to DIY block pave it.

There can't be much of a cost saving in hiring a tipper van, which, unless it's a HGV, can't carry anywhere near as much as a Builder's Skip, and you pay a daily rate, whereas a skip is a one-off fee, whether you have it for a day or a week.

Anyway, how's it gone over the weekend? I've been away at a Trade Fair on Saturday and Sunday so missed all the fun! Did you get all the digging-off done?

Bargain!!  

Personally, I prefer option 1, as it reduces the amount of work required, but then as a professional, I would be confident of using up a 3m³ delivery of ready-mixed concrete in 4 hours or so, whereas a diy'er might be struggling to use up 1m³ in a day.

That brings us to where the concrete is sourced. As I suggested above, I'd bring in Ready-Mix, but, if you opted to lay directly on a concrete bed/base, then it's probably easier to hire or buy a little mixer and knock out the concrete as you need it, from sand/gravel and cement stored on site.

However, if you were going for option 2, then you could bring in enough concrete as Ready-Mix to lay the sub-base in one operation, and then knock-up the laying course mortar as you needed it to lay the flags.

Which option do you think best suits your project?

1. - see Concrete Mixes page as that has all the info on concretes, mixing them, ratios and recipes.
2. - I can't work in feet, so I'll convert to metric. 11ft is, apparently 3.4m, so you've 11.6m² and it needs to be at least 100mm thick, so you need 1.2m³ of concrete for the sub-base.
3. - Mortar bed needs to be a Class I or Class II mortar, (1:4 roughly) and you need 30-50mm to acheive a decent bed.
4. - What else would you use???
5. - Pointing mortar - see Pointing and Jointing page

All the answers are on the site, Adam. It's just a matter of reading through the pages I quote above and coming back here if there's summat you don't inderstand.  

There's no need to worry about the blocks 'sinking' into the sand/grit, as long as you use a decent graded material. Just make sure the edges are firm and fast, and all should be fine.  

How old is this slab? PIC is normally sealed within 48 hours of being poured and this seems to help reduce the incidence of efflorescence (assuming the correct type of sealant is applied).

Get the seal on as soon as the slab's been dry for 24 hours, Jim. Which sealant are you using? Is there a brand name or is it just a generic xylene-based goo?

Not so keen on the Ouzo, Jim - I like me Crested Ten or Jamesons. Tullamore Dew, too, if I can get it.  

Given the gradient on your driveway, I would suggest using some form of transverse restraint at the mid point, to prevent the blocks (or flags) being 'pushed' down the slope. The actual type of block is up to you, but all of the concrete blocks from the large UK manufacturers are more than capable of coping with your driveway in terms of wear and skid resistance.

I think you're going to have to accept that there will be some tyre-marking of the surface, regardless of what surface you choose. This can, with a deal of effort, be cleaned off, but, if you go for a reversible block/brick, then you have the option to lift and invert the worst looking blocks in, say, 4 or 5 years time, and no-one will be any the wiser.

It's true that block paved driveways are becoming too commonplace, but that's because there isn't enough inventiveness shown by the designers. There is such a HUGE choice of blocks available, yet folk are still opting for the bog-standard "brindle'n'charcoal" because we are, in design terms, such a conservative nation, and folk are scared of being too adventurous.

Have a read of the 'Choosing a Block' page, which will tell you more about the wealth of choice available, and then get a few designers or contractors to take a look at your plot and see what they can come up with.

If you're looking for summat a bit different, then I'd go for one of the small element flags, say a 300x300 units, interspersed with a concrete or clay paver block. You could go for PIC, but bear in mind that you're going to have to have the sealant re-done every year, especially as you'll be driving on and off the same spots day in and day out, which always creates the 'striped' look. Or what about Resin-Bonded Aggregates?? The slope works against you, in that many of the more decorative aggregates used in the more attractive shemes, are simply not tough enough to be used on gradients of more than 1:12, so you'll find yourself being 'persuaded' to go for the Chinese Bauxite, which may or may not work with the colouration of your property.

Or you could just have it laid to tarmac. A black 'mac won't show up the tyre marks quite as much, but let's be honest, it's not going to wow anyone!

Has that given you summat to think about?  

There's a section on the site dealing with patch repairs to tarmac, and this should be done to those spots affected by tree roots or anywhere that's crumbling.

With regard to drainage; how is the existing driveway dealing with surface water? Do you have any gullies or linear drains etc? If necessary, you can install drainage before having the Ronadeck done, patch in with repair macadam, and then cover the lot with the Ronadeck, and no-one would ever know!  

Porosity of DTp1 - it's not impermeable, but, when thoroughly compacted, it's not free-draining either. Water will find a way through it, but the speed at which it does so depends on the type of rock and how well it's consolidated. A drain is a much better solution!

Gravel on top of 'mac - No no no no no no! No! It's a bad, bad idea - it will just roll around, get swept to the sides by trafficking and act like ball-bearings on a hard floor for the pedestrians. It's a recipe for disaster.  

Separating the layers in tarmac - if it's been properly laid, this is impossible. If it is possible, then the 'mac wasn't properly laid.

Gravel is a bit of a PITA for getting walked into the house, especially if your have wooden floors, so an area of hard paving, be it blocks, flags, bitmac or whatever, is a good idea at the entrance - along with one of those steel grille doormat thingies! :)

Resin bond over 720 m² is going to be feasible and relatively cheap, certainly cheaper than re-paving with blocks or bitmac, and I guess there wouldn't be a great deal of difference in the cost of ripping out all the existing bitmac, paying to have it carted away and then laying a loose, un-bound gravel, or, preferably, a self-binding gravel, such as Breedon.

I'd get it priced both ways, just to see what was possible, on terms of cost. I'm sure Simeon can get one of the Resin Reps to call around, if you ask nicely.  

If you go for the unbound or self-binding gravel, then you've approximately 50 cubic metres of bitmac to dig up and dump, and bitmac is now classed as 'hazardous waste' because it's oil-based and it degrades over time, so it's even more expensive to dump than inert material, such as clay or rock. Any local landscaper or paving co should be able to price that option for you - and get them to include at least one drain!

FYI - we work on a very loose 'rule of thumb' that you need one gully per 200 square metres of hard surface - so you really need 4 gullies to cope with your driveway!

Is it not feasible to lay a bitmac base course to the new area, then resin bond the gravels onto that and the old section in one fell swoop? Or is that just piling up the costs too far?

The grainage sounds a bit hit and miss. Drilling hole sin the bitmac is a nono. They'll fill up with crap; they'll allow the bitmac to crumble at the unsupported edges, and, if the level of the water table gets really high, they'll allow nasty, dirty silt-laden groundwater to surcharge.

We need another strategy. Is there any problem with flooding or ponding at the moment? If not, then it may be best to create a new soakaway at some handy point, and send all the surface water into that.

That theory about gravel 'holding water' is, in technical terms, utter bollocks (bollockius maximus, to give it the full title!) Gravel is free draining - water passes through, other than the miniscule amount that clings to the surface of the gravels. If there's an impermeable layer beneath a gravel, then any surface water will flood the voids between the individual grains and hang around waiting for the sun, but that's down to the impermeable layer, not to any inherent property of the gravel!

Because I had my Euro-cripple Blue Badge, we avoided the extortionate parking fees and I only had a 50m walk back to the van each night, which was a real godsend after a long day.

BTW, have you been plagued with all sorts of offers to appear in Landscape and Architect's magazines (for a nominal fee, of course!) since you got back? I didn't know there were that many trade magazines!

Try their website or 'phone 0208 965 7292

You could choose a self-binding gravel, such as Breedon or Coxwell, which will provide a more stable surface for your kids than would loose gravel, or if you use a cell matrix system, that will help stabilise the gravel, or you could use one of the resin binders to 'fix' your chosen gravel to the existing bitmac surface.

Why are you so keen to get shut of the bitmac?

It's got to be worth a phone call or two!  

Basically, this 'system' is intended to minimise any disruption to the protected trees, especially to their rootballs, and provides a pavement surface that allows water and atmospheric gases to reach the underlying soil more or less as though there was no surfacing there.

Personally, I don't know any blacktop gangs in your part of the country. Try asking the BCO or you could ask Aggregate Industries in Hoddesdon for a quote - 01992 443480

Patching pot-holes is rarely, if ever, succesful in the long term. The existing gravel could be stripped off, the sub-grade re-graded and 'topped up' as required, and a new gravel layer placed, which is a re-vamp of what you already have. Given the presence of a large tree, this may be a better option if roots are a problem.

50mm depth of deco agg is a bit deep, and I think you'll find it difficult to walk on, and that the cars will 'sink' into it, leaving shallow, temporary ruts. This isn't detrimental to the stability of the driveway, but it will annoy you for a while. 35mm is a more realistic thickness for a gravel surface dressing.

The mebranes you've seen discussed are covered on their own page and while they can be beneficial, they're not always essential on a residential driveway. Have a read of that page, anyway, and then come back with any further questions.

I think you've just about enough endfall to deal with drainage. 150mm over 5m is 1 in 33, so that's fine.

For aggs in Essexcestershire, I suppose Brett Landscaping at Cliffe in Kent is the biggest supplier in the area (see Links page for contact details), but a trip to your local BM might be a worthwhile way to spend a Saturday morning, just to see what they have available.

A 20mm gravel is the upper limit really. I reckon a 10-15mm is ideal for driveways, but it depends on the colour/texture etc that you choose. And yes, you should compact the gravel once it's in place. A Vib Plate is suitable, or a powered roller, whichever is easiest for you to obtain.

Finally, for the bedding concrete, if you're using an All-in Ballast (as seems to be popular in the SE) then use a 6:1 mix for bedding and haunching. You could get away with a 10:1, but I reckon that can sometimes be a bit too weak with all-in ballasts, where the proportion of fines to lumps isn't regulated.

Are you going to take piccies as you go??

Horses for courses, as they say.  

When you say you want to put down 115mm of "wet cement", how do you come to that figure? You've excavated 200mm and you're laying 50mm thick flags, so you need a compacted thickness of 150mm of semi-dry concrete NOT "wet cement".

If you're planning to lay the brick edgings on their sides (we call it a "brick on edge" ), do the bricks in question have a presentable face if laid in that manner? If so, then you're plenty deep enough at 200mm dig, as the brick on edge is only 100mm, which leaves 100mm for bedding.

The semi-dry concrete mix I'd normally use for a driveway such as this would be the C20 equivalent, which is basically a 1:6 ratio (1:2:4, roughly). You could get away with a C7.5 equivalent (1:10 or 1:3:6) with a more substantial flag, but with the wafers you're planning to use, a stronger concrete is essential.

For you brick-on-edge, I'd suggest you take a look at the Theta terracotta or Brindle from Brett Paving which may be the sort of thing you have in mind. Alternatively, some of the clay pavers, might be worth checking out.

To be honest, I wouldn't use them on a driveway as, in my opinion, the concrete used in manufacturing them is too soft and wears with undue haste if trafficked by vehicles on a regular basis, especially if you have one of those drives where you're driving on and off the same parts day in and day out. I'm not singling out RMC, as it's not just the 'Village Stone' flags, but most wet-cast flags suffer from the same problem. Have you seen any pressed flags that you like? Or what about some of the imported stone or even block pavers?

With concrete patio flags, the manufacturers tend not to define their manufacturing process, but the vast majority of riven copies are wet cast. The pressed products are often plain or shot-textured, rather than imitation stone, which may not tie in with your plans. Have you your heart set on a riven look?

And so on to your brick edging - why do you need a mortar joint? They can be butt-jointed, if they're laid on concrete in straight lines. That's not to say you can't point them, but it's an unnecessary task. I'm not convinced that pointed flags look better with pointed brick edgings, but then, it's not my path and you should have what you want, and, if mortar joints is what you want, then it's fine to point them up after laying all the other paving.  

Anyway, on to your driveway: You should be ok with a 100mm sub-base, if you use a quality, genuine DTp1. I know Top Pave recommend a 150mm sub-base, but that is often OTT for a residential driveway unless there is iffy ground or you drive an Armoured Personnel Carrier (Shogun/LardRover/Jeep etc).

To save on extra excavation, I'd consider laying a Terram 1000 geomembrane, then a 100mm sub-base. The bedding, which should be 35-50mm and the block work can go on top of that and, in 99 drives out of 100, it will be totally problem free for years. So, your existing 200mm excavation will be sufficient, you'll be glad to know.  

As for the neighbour's wall - if in doubt, lay the edge blocks on concrete. It's much easier to lay them on concrete now than to face repairing it all if/when that wall falls over.

Compaction of the blocks varies from job to job, depending on the type of bedding, the depth of it, the moisture content, the type of block etc, etc, etc., but, on a typical job, the block are laid around 6-9mm high and consolidated down to flush or very, very slightly proud.

Although the partial compaction method is ok'd by BS7533, it's too problematic on site, as explained on the Screeding page. The pre-compaction method is not as tricky as you might imagine. If you have a screed of regular thickness, you usually find that +6mm to +9mm will give the correct level when finally consolidated, assuming you're using 50mm or 60mm blocks.

On to your Q about the sub-base - some contractors and some jobs do use a concrete sub-base, but it's more expensive than DTp1, and, on the vast majority of residential driveways, there's absolutely no call for concrete to be used as the loads imposed on the pavement are minimal. A thoroughly compacted, proper sub-base of quality material is just as reliable as concrete for light-use pavements.

There can be, as you guessed, some problem with drainage of the bedding layer when a solid base course is used in place of a flexible sub-base, and this is usually overcome by implementing some form of internal drainage, such as a composite membrane, but this brings us back to the original point that, for a standard family driveway, this is serious over-engineering.

The bedding mortar needs to be a Class II or better (see Mortars page), and no more than 25mm deep. This calls for a degree of pre-planning and accuracy when placing the sub-base. The Concrete for the sub-base should be a C20 equivalent (see Concretes page) - the DPM will help prevent a wet mix from being parched too quickly, but, if a semi-dry mix is used and wackered/rolled in place, then the DPM could be omitted. There's a calculator there to determine the quantity of 'ingredients' needed for a C20 equivalent concrete - if this mate of yours is using 'all-in ballast' then add together the sand and gravel requirements.

On an 8x3 sub-base of this type, I'd be tempted to split it into two 4x3 bays, but do so by using a plain construction joint or control joint rather than an expansion joint. An expansion joint is just a lot or faffing about on a job of this size, but, as over-engineering seems to be his prediliction, then it wouldn't do any harm if he insists.  

Anyway, a construction joint is simply a self-forming joint created when you finish pouring one section of concrete, allow it to start curing, and then pour against it the next day or a week later. it's just a 'break' in the pour, if you will.

A control joint is a method for persuading the concrete to crack where you want it to crack, rather than allowing it to crack just anywhere. This type of joint is usually formed by partially sawing through a concrete slab a day or so after pouring.

I'll try and knock up a couple of sketches later on.  

Reinforcing mesh is not needed for this type of project. It's much simpler and considerably cheaper to use fibre reinforcement, which the Ready Mix company can add to the concrete on demand, or you can buy at your local BM for around a fiver. No awkward cutting of mesh, no nasty cuts to the hands when placing the mesh, no getting the wellies trapped in the mesh, no worrying about depth of cover....much, much simpler for a basic slab.  

with the upstand and the tightness of the joints you've described, I would either leave them dry, ie, no sand, no mortar, or I would separate the units a little more and make them 12mm wide mortar joints. If forced to choose, I'd go for the mortar joints as I always think they look neater and suggest a more professional finish, but the choice is yours.  

Minimum joint width, realistically, for a mortar finish is 6mm (what used to be a quarter-inch in old money) and the maximum, to my way of thinking, is 20mm, but 12mm is ideal, with 10-15mm being 'acceptable'.