Temporary drive surface

[Hawaii04]

Hi. I'm about to start breaking up my concrete driveway ready for block paving. As this is going to be a diy job its going to take a long time so I'm looking for ideas as to what to put down over the excavated areas for the family to walk on for (a) safety and (b) to stop the kids walking chalk and mud into the house. I was thinking of putting down a couple of sheets of ply but think this could get a bit slippery. Any ideas appreciated. Thanks.John

[rxbren]

Dig it out, lay your edgings and stone it up and compact it job done till you come to speed sand and lay blocks

[Hawaii04]

Hi and thanks for the tip but from taking up the concrete to actually getting the edge down and mot type 1 is going to be a matter of months as I'll be doing this on my own and only on my days off. It's just to give people something safe to walk on that I can take up and down in between digging. Thanks anyway.

[seanandruby]

Could be that your concrete base is sat on a sound sub base, take a piece up and see. If not, You could break out where your edgings are going and set them in leaving enough existing concrete in for a footpath until you need to take the rest up. If you use ply you could cover with rough roofing felt as an anti slip.

[Hawaii04]

Thanks. Both ideas are great.

[lemoncurd1702]

Or do it small chunks. Break and excavate 10m2 and base up leaving enough room to install edgings later. I would only partially lay the sub-base, maybe just the initial 75mm, top up later when the whole area is dug out to achieve correct levels.
Better still work your days off and save the extra money to pay a contractor to do it. If it takes a two man contractor 5 days it'll take you 15. Doing it yourself you're only going to save on the labour and probably pay more for the materials and waste disposal of etc.:p

[Hawaii04]

Yes I like the idea of doing 10 m2 at a time. I'll prob do that. Unfortunately I don't have the option of working on my days off and already have the blocks and materials so it's just my own time and disposal of excavated materials I've got to worry about. Lucky I'm in no rush to get this done and have a very patient mrs. Thanks for advice.