Crazy york stone - Individual bedding (yikes!)

[Reidy]

Respect Tony...excellent site

My day job involves designing and specifying paving works in the public realm, where civil engineering contractors are employed to carry out the work...I'm sure you're very familiar with the sort of thing...

So being reasonably familiar with this area of work, the 'trouble and strife' has asked me to put my money where my mouth is and do some paving in the garden at home - this will be my first hands on experience!

I have been ordered to create a small patio area in odd shapes and sizes of york stone already supplied by the inlaws, with gravel-infill between. The main problem I anticipate is down to the varying thicknesses of stone (between 35 -100mm).

I have read with interest the crazy paving section of your website, and appreciate that the paving will have to be individually bedded (yikes!) - my question relates to the varying depth of bed and how to compact it properly. Also advice please on the min and max depth of bed, given the varying depth of stone.

Your guidance on the best way to achieve a decent job will be greatly appreciated...my life may well depend on it!

[rms]

Hi Reidy,

I suggest using 3 inches of compacted type 1 and 5'' of muck (with plenty of stone / gravel content) for your thin slabs adjusting accordingly for the thicker ones. Cement strength between 5 and 6 to 1 and most importantly a bloody big maul hammer for bashing them down!

Make sure you have an assistant for those 4'' thick ball breakers!

Tony might say this is overkill, but if you want to cover your arse...

[Tony McC]

You need to work on the basis that the thickest stone will need at least 30mm of bedding material beneath it, and that assumes it's being laid on a decent sub-base or prepped sub-grade.

I'd try to keep the thicker pieces to one area, if poss, so that you can have a fairly regular bed depth. However, if that's not feasible, then use a concrete bedding mix rather than just grit sand and cement, as this will give better results when used at thicknesses greater than 50mm.

[Reidy]

Thanks Tony and rms for your help,

Because of my lack of hands-on and patience, the prepped sub-grade varies a bit in level so with a bit of luck I should be able to get away with keeping the grit sand/cement bedding between 30 and 50mm by cunningly arranging the york stones according to their thickness.

Your guidance on the best way to compact the bedding material and individually bed-in the york stones would be very much appreciated. Do I need to compact the bedding layer at all, or do I just rely on a bloody big maul hammer as rms suggests.

Thanks again for your help.

Reidy

[rms]

The big maul hammer will work just fine!

[Tony McC]

A maul is essential, whether you're laying on sand or on a cement-bound bed, although the latter is more forgiving if the maul doesn't achieve full compaction.