Hi all,
We have recently moved house, and our new garden was all laid to turf. I have taken up approximately 200 m² of this turf, to make way for vegetable beds and flower beds, and I am in the process of digging out a path that is approximately 30m in length (75cm wide). My plan is for it to be a very cottage-looking path, with clay pavers, simply dividing the beds - which are to be used mostly for carting our wheelbarrow around on.
We are also currently having a new garden wall built, by a professional bricklayer/builder, who has seen what I am planning for the garden path, and has suggested that I don’t need to bother digging the 25cm or so deep that I was planning on digging (I was planning on a good 15cm sub-base, then 5cm sand/cement) and instead simply lay down 5 cm of sand/cement mix (6:1 ratio) and forget about a subbase, as the ground is good quality, virgin soil.
I am so torn, I would be grateful of any advice… I am a garden loving DIYer, but have never laid a path before. I don’t want to disregard what our builder has said, but everything I read on the Internet points to the need for a good 6 inch layer of subbase (followed by sand). Needless to say however, if I really don’t need to be digging down so deep, then that would save one hell of a job.
Thank you so much for any advice you can give… And sorry for the rather long blurb!
Laying clay pavers on virgin soil - Virgin soil-sub-base required?
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Tony McC
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Oh dear! Another "builder" who really ought to stick to whatever it is they normally do to bugger-up peoples' extensions and the like and lkeave paving to those that actually have some genuine skills.
1 - you can NEVER build paving over "soil", wherther it's virgin or not.
2 - this eejit's suggestion that "the ground is good" is based on what? An episode of GroundFarce 20 years ago and summat his mate down the pub told him?
3 - as you say, "everything I read on the internet points to the need for a....sub-base". There's a reason for that: it's because it's essential.
4 - get that cowboy a bucket of oats for his horse. I wouldn't have a man like that on the same site as me!
1 - you can NEVER build paving over "soil", wherther it's virgin or not.
2 - this eejit's suggestion that "the ground is good" is based on what? An episode of GroundFarce 20 years ago and summat his mate down the pub told him?
3 - as you say, "everything I read on the internet points to the need for a....sub-base". There's a reason for that: it's because it's essential.
4 - get that cowboy a bucket of oats for his horse. I wouldn't have a man like that on the same site as me!
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