Using building sand for edgings

[PaulS]

I have two tons of building sand left over from a building project. I am about to lay some brick edgings for a gravel driveway and wondered if I could use the building sand as opposed to sharp sand to set the bricks into.
I wasn't thinking of a dry mix as this would wash away but using a stronger wet mix (say 3:1 sand:cement) on a hardcore base to set the bricks in.
Would this be acceptable or would I need to strengthen the mix with say gravel?

The brick edgings won't get any traffic but I do plan to get some granite setts (which will have car traffic) for the threshold between the main road and driveway and set these using the above method if possible.

[Ted]

You want to set them in a course sharp mortar on a decent foundation IMO, definately the edging stones between the driveway and the road.

You say the edging stones won't get any traffic but you would be surprised.

When I put edging stones between a driveway and the road I put at least a 1.5 ft foundation in and use a course sharp mortar. I also set the edging stones slightly proud of the drive so they take the brunt of a cars weight rather than your new driveway.

[PaulS]

I was thinking whether I could use a mix of say building sand/pea gravel and cement for the base (on top of a layer of hardcore). Once the base has gone off I could use standard mortar to set the bricks in with a haunching on each side.
Would this work?

[Ted]

Mixing pea gravel with the building sand will make it into concrete and will improve the strength, but you still want to be using course sharp sand mixed with your pea gravel, not building sand. Save the building sand for the bricklaying. You are only saving a few pounds by not using course sharp so you might as well pay the extra few quid and do it properly.

[lutonlagerlout]

ted is correct,with building sand the grains are very fine and round,this means although easy to use they dont bond together well (ok for bricks though ) sharp or flooriing sand has slightly bigger aggregate size and the grains are more irregular so they actually mechanically bond together not just the cement
sometimes we even add sharp sand to a bricklaying mortar to make it stronger,they used to do it all the time
cheers tony