Jointing sand with rigid construction? - To narrow to point.

[Emulated]

I have been months planning my drive with help from the main site and had a search here for some info but no luck.
I am laying my block paving on an existing base of 6" with 25mm to 30mm bedding mortar. I did not want joints to show and therefore laid it the same as one would on a sand base which leaves a small gap between blocks. Is it still best to use jointing sand or is there anything better, although pointing would be very fiddly.

[lutonlagerlout]

you cannot point block paves,theres not enough room
i would have though kiln dried would be fine
why did you go for rigid construction BTW?
LLL ???

[Emulated]

you cannot point block paves,theres not enough room
i would have though kiln dried would be fine
why did you go for rigid construction BTW?
LLL ???

It appeared pointless to break up a solid drive, would have taken me days and cost a few quid to hire a breaker and then remove all the rubble. I had a good read on the main site and my only concern was making sure I did the expansion joints correctly. I did notice some of the drives around my area have dipped where the car wheels go every time and was hoping to avoid that.

[leobrick]

the reason the drives have dipped is because of the sub base not being 100mm and welll compacted why did you not use paving sand over your rubble pavers are laid on paving sand or quarry dust as it is flexable when laying block pavers they are layed tight what do you mean by expansion joints ?

[Tony McC]

Too late to worry about just why Emulated opted for a rigid construction: he did, and we can't change that now.

When blocks/bricks are laid on a rigid (mortar) bed, they should have mortared joints to match. However, this is a bit of a muddle, and the blocks have been laid with tight joints, which precludes use of a standard mortar. It might be possible to use a fine-grained slurry, but then there's the problem of cleaning the surface.

So, the only real option is KD sand, as would be used with a flexible construction. It's better than nowt, but less than ideal because you have, in effect, a flexible joint with a rigid bed, when the rule-of-thumb is flexible bed and flexible joints or rigid bed and rigid joint.

You won't be able to use a plate compactor to settle the jointing sand (because of teh rigid bed) so you'll have to kleave it to the weather and gravity, which means you'll be topping-up those joints for the next 3 months or so.

[Emulated]

the reason the drives have dipped is because of the sub base not being 100mm and welll compacted why did you not use paving sand over your rubble pavers are laid on paving sand or quarry dust as it is flexable when laying block pavers they are layed tight what do you mean by expansion joints ?

The reason I did not lay the blocks on paving sand is because of the thickness. This way I can use 25 to 30mm mortar mix. I did read that rigid laying requires an expansion joint at 6 metres. I alread have one at 5 metres in the existing drive so i am not expecting any problems. I was prepared to lay with pointed joints but the powers that be wanted the bricks close laid. I hope jointing sand will be OK but I dont forsee any problems. Thanks for all the info.