The type of footing depends on what materials you plan to use. For 105mm wide brick risers, a simple 300x100mm concrete strip footing is adequate, but, for other materials you may need to make it wider.

As soon as the concrete is firm enough to carry the brickwork, you can lay it. If you use a stiff mix, say 20mm slump or thereabouts, you can lay the brickwork more or less immediately and position the treads as you go.

it all depends on whether your road has been adopted and only your local authority can give you that information. Call them up tomorrow - if the road has been adopted, they (or their appointed agent) is responsible for the carriageway, footway and kerbing. If the road is not adopted, then responsibility lies with the owner of the road, which could be a private landlord or you and the other residents.

The LA will know.

this is a popular cheap treatment for existing carriageways. A polymer modified bitumen is sprayed over the existing surface to act as an adhesive and then specially selected chippings are scattered over the surface and rolled into the adhesive.

For the first few weeks, the adhesive can seem soft and tacky, but, with time, it does become less so and in 2 or 3 months time, it will be hardly noticeable. In the meantime, be careful about treading the tacky bitumen into your carpets - check the soles of shoes before moving into the house.

The chippings will continue to work loose for a couple of weeks or so, and the contractor will probably send out a Road Sweeper once or twice over the next month to collect up all the loose stuff, but this depends on the contract agreed with your Council.

Does that help?

Has anyone from the council seen this, or have they appointed an inspector? You may find that the contractor re-appears in a week or so and re-treats the roadway, but I'd be more concerned about the chippings not bonding.

I know it's been warm, but even so, there shoyld not be any great problem doing a surface dressing in any temp below around 35 C, and we just don;t get those temps in this part of the world. I wonder if there was a problem with the binder?

Do you know the name of the contractor? If you wish to switch to private email to avoid making this public, use the Messenger system near the top of the page.

it all depends on whether the road and pavement have been adopted. If they have, and your LA will be able to tell whether it has, then it is their responsibility to prevent surface water entering your property.

However, if it's a private road or unadopted, then it's your responsibility and you would be entitled to carry out any reasonable work necessary to protect your property from inundation.

Give the Highways Dept at your local council a call in the morning - they love getting called out from the office on warm summer days!

You could saw the sleepers with almost any saw that was big enough, but it's damned hard work. A bow saw would probably be easier than a lopping saw. Hopefully, you won't have many to cut!

If you need only 750mm or less of upstand, a flag-on-edge would be the easiest option, I reckon. For 750-1200mm, I'd consider using all-concrete base panels held in place by the slotted concrete posts. Anything over 1200mm is venturing into the realms of structural engineering and you ought to have it professionally designed, or, at least, have a basic design checked and approved by a qualified civil or structural engineer.

what's this RV you mention? Some kind of heavy vehicle? (we call them HGVs in UK/RoI- Heavy Goods Vehicle)

We use crushed concrete as a sub-base material, but only if it falls within certain grading limits (as given on the Sub-bases page). It doesn't actually 'set' in the way that fresh concrete would, but it does become reliably firm.

The thickness of a sub-base depnds on two factors: the strength of the underlying sub-grade (measured in CBR) and the anticpated usage. For small cars and light vcans, we'd use a minimum of 100mm. That would increase to 150mm for biggers cars and vans, and 225mm or more for heavier vehicles. Once a sub-base of more than 300mm is needed, we tend to build-up the sub-grade with a capping or improvement layer, using a lower grade of fill material, and keep the good stuff for the top 225mm layer.

As for the metric system, it really is time you Luddite Americans caught up with the rest of the world - the Civils trade in Britain has been metric since the mid 70s and we're even managing to convince the brickies and joiners in the Building Trade that metric is much easier than poles, perches, acres, yards, feet and inches.  

There are 25.4mm to one inch. 150mm is approximately 6 inches, 225mm is roughly 9" and 300mm is around 12" or one of your archaic feet.

Grade off the vegetation and allow for around 225mm (9" ) of sub-base, plus the thickness for the rest of the pavement. It's worth running the tractor or a roller over the excavated strip a couple of times, just to tighten up any loose stuff. A 225mm sub-base should be adequate for most vehicles up to around 7.5 Tonnes (7 US-ian Tons), but, if your sub-grade is suspect in any way, consider using a Geo-Membrane between the sub-grade and sub-base. This is fast becoming standard practice in Europe and is well worth the few pennies per m² (cents per square yard) that it costs.

Let me know how you get on, Alton.

Further, many LA's have a list of 'approved contractors' that they allow to work on the public highways. They tend to have a policy of not allowing just anyone to undertake the work - the normally insist on Road & Streetworks certification and 5 millions quids worth of Public Liabilty Insurance.

Has the LA given you a list of approved contractors? If not, I'd give them a call to find out.

I know it may seem petty, but it's done for a good reason, which is to stop any Tom, Dick or Harry digging up the public highway. Only those who have been properly trained in streetworks, and have the requisite insurance cover, are allowed to excavate in a public highway.

Also, it's worth remembering that a grand spent providing a properly authorised and approved access to a driveway on your property would more than pay for itself if you ever come to sell up. Ask a local <spit> Estate Agent just how much off-road parking on a nice driveway adds to the value of you house - I bet it's more than a grand!

a 6-kerb crossing includes, usually, 2 droppers (what you call 'ramp kerbs', but what are properly called 'transitions') plus 4 crossing kerbs - the low level ones with a chamfer or bullnose that you can drive over.

I've no idea why you're being charged so much more for the one extra kerb. Have you asked the council? As they are both the Highways Authority and the Contractor, only they can tell you how they've arrived at that cost, and there's nowhere else you can turn for advice, unless you ask a contractor from their select list to price the work, which is where you were at a month or so ago!

I'd contact the council and ask them to check their price in the light of what they charged your neighbour for the same type of work.

I'll have a pint of bitter, please.

If it was my private driveway and some a***hole neighbour was parking on it, refusing to be sensible and reasonable about it, then I'd get myself a big warning sign and one of the clamping devices, and clamp the bugger with a...oh, let's say 150 quid release fee!

If your neighbour is blocking your access to your driveway, then they are inconsiderate, but they are not breaking any laws. You paid to have the kerb line altered, not to buy exclusivity to a section of the public highway.

By the way, I had a bloke on the 'phone Saturday morning - his contractor has just finished his patio, and there's a few flags rocking still. They want to seal the joints by brushing in dry sand and cement. I told him to read your thread in The Craic and see if he still wants to pay them!

Give them a call in the morning.

That bag of yours, Harry, is knackered, I'm afraid.

to clean those Staff Blues, use a brick cleaning acid. It won't affect the bricks, but it will shift the last bit of staining from the spilled mortar. Make sure you're wearing gloves and goggles - see the Removing Stains Page.

To help tidy up your bricklaying, keep your mortar stiff - it should stand in peaks, not slump down; it should retain trowel strikes, not fold over on itself, and it should not drip water when squeezed in your hand. Try using a plasticiser - that makes the mortar workable but sticky, with less added water.

When you lay out the bedding mortar, remove the excess from the edges before placing the bricks, so that when you press down the bricks as they're laid, they squeeze the mortar out to the edge, not over the edge. Remove any excess as soon as the brick is tapped down to level.

Bricklaying isn't rocket science, but then, it's not the sort of thing you can learn in a day. Go for accuracy and cleanliness, rather than speed. 10 bricks per hour isn't too bad - on site, that'd earn you almost 16 quid a day!

Let us know how you get on - with pics, if you can.

Well, you could, but ;you'll probably be rumbled. Not only do they spray-mark the kerbs to be swapped for a dropped crossing, but they make a note about how many replacement kerbs are needed, so that the Donkeys doing the work know what to bring with them. Also, most councils have a set width, usually 2.7m (3 kerbs) for a single driveway or 4.5m (5 kerbs) for a double.

Risk it, if you want, but I'd put your chances of getting away with it at less than 1 in 10. After umpteen years on the Highways, the Council wallahs have seen every trick in the book, and you're not the first to try this one!

Walers are normally quite strong, buit you would get away with something like 75x25mm timber, an dthe same for the bracers with such a relatively shallow trench. The ply shuttering will wriggle free of the concrete after 24 hours, no problem.

You could use the flag-on-edge, if you prefer, but it'll be a right ball-acher getting those flags up out of the trench once the concrete has been poured. That's why we use timber - much lighter and easier to manipulate.

It's always worth spending a bit of extra time with steps such as this as, if you made them with 102mm wide treads, you'd be  cursing yourself everytime you slipped down them, whereas, if you spend a couple of extra hours and another 25 quids worth of bricks, you can make a really impressive 1200mm wide step, with 300mm treads that are safe and will look professional.

225mm for the tread is the abso-bloody-lute minimum I would consider for a garden step. Ar you sure you couldn't squeeze in another half-brick width and get that up to 300mm?

On the decision as to whether to go with a full width step or a specific step around 1200mm wide, then I prefer the focal point of a single step, as this guides users to/from the upper garden, whereas a full width step is more of a terrace and would look better with a wider tread that could be decorated, or cluttered, if you prefer, with pots and ornaments.

But, at the end of the day, it's you that has to live with this, not me, and you know your garden and how you use it far better than I do, so the decision has to be yours. The specific width step forms a focal point and, with a couple of small pillars either side, it would look quite stylish, while the full-width step is more open and informal.

1 - it protects the entire floor, including the concrete, from damp and from attack by corrosive minerals/salts that can be carried by the groundwater.

2 - it ensures the mix water in the concrete is not 'sucked out' by a dry sub-base. The strength of the concrete is dependent on the water:cement ratio, and if the mix water is drained out by the sub base, or allowed to escape into open ground, it can adversely affect the curing process.

So that's why the dpm goes below the concrete.  

Remember that a decent beech hedge will be 600-900mm wide, so you need to plant the whips on a centre line and make sure you have 300-450mm clearance to the edge of the remaining concrete.

With regard to the water meter, I'd guess that you'd be ok, as these new meters tend to be fairly decent yokes that are root-proof, but it may be worth checking with your water supply company. If any part of the meter casing (the vertical 'pipe' that contains the meter itself) is exposed during your works, it might be worth wrapping it in a root barrier membrane, for extra security.

There's the standard recipe for C30 concrete on the Concrete Mixes page. You'll need around 400kg of cement, 600Kg of a grit sand and 900kg of 20mm gravel, all mixed together with about 200 litres of clean water. A plasticiser will help with the mixing and make it a bit easier to work.

As for the brickwork, the usual spec for an oil bund is 225mm Class A Engineering brick laid with a Class II mortar (you butter the bricks with mortar not cement! )

The height of the wall is calculated according to the slab size and capacity of the tank. The bunded area has to be sufficient to contain all the oil should the tank itself leak/burst when full. So, if you have a 1,000 litre tank, and the slab size (excluding brickwork ) is 3.0 x 1.6m, that gives a plan area of 4.8m², so the bund height would need to be at least ....

(1,000 / 4.8 ) = 210 mm high

Eeeeh, when I were a lad.....

If you opt for the small-element flags, then the 25mm thick stuff won't last more than a month. Given you're planning to park up a 1500kg machine, you need to use the 65/70mm thick units at least, and they need bedding on sand over a sub-base of at least 100mm thickness.

Block paving would be fine, but you're paying for a decorative product (albeit a damn strong decorative product ) when all you need is a hardstanding.

Plain concrete, reinforced with poly-fibres, 100-150mm thick, laid on a dpm over a sub-base 100-150mm thick will be the best choice. The thickness of concrete and sub-base depends on existing ground conditions and whether you plan to trundle anything heavier than 1500kg across the base. If the ground is iffy in any way, use a 150mm sub-base, and possibly use a geo-membrane to maintain structural integrity. If the 1500kg tractor is the heaviest vehicle to use the base, then 100mm of fibre-reinforced concrete will be sound, but if you plan to use it for, say a large van, a full-size tractor etc, then play safe and use 150mm of concrete.

Phone your local concrete co and get a price for 2m³ delivered. Barromix or Spotmix will even place it for you!

But, assuming you're determined to earn your pint, here's the answers to your Q's....

1 - C20 if you use readymix - go for a C30 if mixing your own.

2 - 700kg of cement and 3000kg of ballast - roughly

3 - possibly. If not, you can get them from a local concrete company for around a fiver per bag, and you'll need a couple of bags. Roughly.

4 - You need to get it all done in one shift, otherwise you end up with what we call 'day joints' which are weaknesses. Not a problem on large jobs, but undesirable on a small job such as yours. If you can get a mate to help, or if you've a missus like mine (she'd batter that Charlie Dimmock with one hand tied behind her back, nay bother!! ) then you should be able to do it in one day. Roughly.

5 - No - just make sure it's cleaned out when you've finished.

When are you thinking of doing this?

Going back to the readymix; if you order it in advance and then it turns out to be persisting down on the delivery day, they allow you to cancel and re-schedule at no extra cost.

Stick with flexible construction. It can easily accommodate your little tractor and it's so much easier to lay.

Building over sewers really is a last resort. It's much better to re-align the pipelines so that they lie outside the building line (by about a metre ). If this is not possible, your BCO/architect will have to advise as to how they want to resolve the issue - this may involve encasing the existing pipeline in concrete and converting any ICs to air-tight chambers, but it's just not possible for me to say without being familiar with the project.

Speak to the so-called 'professionals' on Monday.

Tree stumps - yes, they should come out as they will rot down over time and create voids beneath the concrete which could lead to subsidence.

Dig down or build up? It doesn't really matter. On some sites, you could dig down for metres and still not find a decent sub-grade, and so it would be better to lay a geo-membrane and build up with a quality granular material, while on other sites, you can find damned solid clay just 300mm below the surface.

Planings - I have a deep aversion to road planings as a sub-base material for a number of reasons...
1 - they are asphalt/bitumen based, and therefore degrade over time and can result in subidence or settlement.
2 - they are 'sold as seen' so you can end up with cunks or with dust. Rarely do you end up with a good mix of solids and fines that privides a sound sub-base with adequate interlock.
3 - they have a nasty habit of holding water.
4 - they are not that much cheaper than a good quality recycled Type 1 material and I'd rather invest in a good qualoty 'underlay' that I know will give me years of trouble-free service, rather than save meself a few quid and then face the prospect of having to dig up the lot in 2-3 years time if it goes wrong.

Finally, if you're not sure whether it's worth getting your hands dirty installing the sub-base yourself, then get a local groundworker to give you a price for taking on the job. Only when you know what it would cost you to bring in a 'professional' can you make an informed decision as to what represents the best value.

Does that make it any easier?