Patio - level or sloping?

[surreyhillslandscapes.com]

Personally i make it quite wet, everyone is different, I do 4 soft sand 4 sharp sand, 1 cement and just over half a bucket of water, it's a little drier than brickies muck..

[Bill's son]

I laid some this morning and didn't put any water in the mix. I just put it down, levelled, and compacted, then agitated the top 20mm prior to laying the flags. Will this be ok?

[surreyhillslandscapes.com]

It will need some moisture as this is what make's the cement react, I find a wet mix and beating the slabs down with a rubber mallet really makes em stick

[matt h]

pray for light rain followed by dry spell. Your bedding is likely to move and get washed away.. wish you luck

[lutonlagerlout]

it would be a lot quicker to read the main site son of bill,from most of your questions so far you haven't read much of it.
surreyhills when you say 4 soft and 4 sharp is the sharp like plastering sand, or screeding sand?
it looks a very soft mix from the picture.
similar method to my own RE: the lines and that,brickies like lines

and son of bill ,you defiantely need some water ,even in a dry ish mix,depends on how wet the sand is really,to start with

LLL

[Bill's son]

lll, I have read quite a bit actually, my lack of understanding stems from inexperience of these things and an inability to visualise and put into practice the methods described.

On the one hand the advice is to create a bed and compact this, then you have to disturb the top 20mm to lay the slabs, thereby upsetting any level, and then on top of this to lay each slab on its own bedding, and doing this to each slab as you go - so why have a fixed/whacked down bed in the first place? I didn't read anywhere that you had to make the 10:1 mix with water, so I didn't.

We have had a few showers here today, so hopefully it will be ok.

[lutonlagerlout]

what you need is a full bed under each flag,
to achieve this you put down your bedding then furrow it with your trowel so that it is maybe 20 mm high
when you lay the flag on it ,you tap the flag down to the level,this then forces the bedding into the furrows and achieves a full bed
which is what you need
cheers LLL

[Bill's son]

Well, I did furrow the bedding as you say. I suppose what I missed from having a relatively dry mix was that fluidity that you can feel when tamping down with the rubber mallet.

I was seriously thinking of taking the damn thing up today, as I wasn't entirely happy with the fall (bit wonky here and there), but having just had a peep out of the window it doesn't look too bad.

I need to get about eight of the slabs cut to finish off - my 115mm angle grinder discs were destroyed in one cut I did, and even then the flag split the wrong way! Arghhhhhhh!

So off to the stone masons sometime.

Thanks for the help, I am better prepared for next time, or if I really feel they should come up, these flags.

Son of Bill

[seanandruby]

Speechless

[Bill's son]

Why?

[surreyhillslandscapes.com]

Bills son, methinks you may need a bigger disc to cut those slabs, worth hiring at least a 9 inch diamond blade and cutter, LLL, the sharp sand is sharp screeding sand, or coarse sand to you northerners , how do you quote a previous post by the way?

[Tony McC]

To quote a previous post, use the Quote tool in the "post A Reply" screen or simply cut'n'paste the requistte test and wrap it in [ q u o t e ] ... [ /q u o t e ] tags, but without the spaces

[Rich H]

Well Bill's son I suggested in an earlier post to use 1/2 - 2/3 bucket of water in your mix, told you how to feather the mix on the ground, gave you the direct link to the Gaffer's instructions on individual bedding, so I'm confused that you're still not clear.

If you don't add any water the chances are that the cement will not cure, it will instead just dry out. Actually this isn't the end of the world as long as the slab is properly consolidated, but you won't get it bonded to the mix. In the long run the slabs may click or rock, though, so the pointing will crack.

[Bill's son]

You can now lay the slabs to the fall using a string line as a guide for each row of slabs, which will save you forever messing about with the level.

How do you use the string as a guide when the slabs vary in size?

[seanandruby]

They may vary in size but you still need to lay to a straight edge, using the string as a guide. also you will need a straight edge and level plus a good eye.