Patio - level or sloping?

[lutonlagerlout]

not one word mate
I'm just always on the lookout for some craic
LLL

[Bill's son]

Ok, here it is, You can laugh as much as you like at my mistakes, but I'm not bothered becasue this is the best I can achieve with my experience which is pretty limited. I'm happy with it. I would't pretend that I could do this for a custy and expect to be paid, so before you professionals all mock me....

I have started to dig the ground in front in prep for turf laying.

The biggest problem I faced was that that Tony describes, 'on the main site', of the slabs all being the smae size and so when you put some together they are bigger in area than a single slab... well, you know what I mean. I just had to titivate the things around to try to get a uniformish size of joint across the patio. It sort of works.

And there is a nice fall on the thing, which was my main concern. The mortar is bloody thick in places, maybe even 3"?

Bill's son.

[Bill's son]

Oh yeah, I hired a 9" cutter and it made the job a piece of piss - thanks for the tip on that one. Jewsons have been brilliant and telling me the pros and cons of electric vs petrol cutters.

[flowjoe]

Is that a spear & jackson fork

[flowjoe]

Only joking, nice job

[Bill's son]

... and that's space on the right hand side against the raised bed of onions for a drainage channel. I'll be putting pea gravel or something in there. The fall is from left to right away from the construction on the left in the photos.

[Bill's son]

Only joking, nice job

Know I know you better I'll forgive you.

Sorry for being stroppy a few days ago.

[Rich H]

The only problem is the little chip I'm beginning to suspect might be on your shoulder

It looks fine, just one cross which nobody except us lot would ever notice. Pointing looks nice and neat.

Natural stone always has to be titivated to get the slab size/joint size to work, we're just used to it.

Good job.

[Bill's son]

I know exactly what you mean about the 'cross'. As soon as I saw it appearing I thought, 'bugger'. In fact I think there are two.

My big problem was my earlier cock-up which meant that there were four inches of sub-base that was compacted, on top of which was three inches or so of crummy, but solid mortar that, while not being 'wet' as such when put down, did solidify and left a high point in the middle of the patio area.

So I had to put my string line down the centre of that, not to one side. This was a pain, obviously, as I had to manoever some slabs (and big ones) under the string!

Still, it worked. Pointing was stressful, but ok.

[Bob_A]

....I run this site for nowt - it makes no money (it actually costs me several grand a year to run it) and so I have to earn an income elsewhere. When I'm not earning an income, I do try to update the site and add as much new info as poss, but I also have 200+ emails per day to deal with, plus the phone calls, so, as the site has become more popular, the time I have to spend on it has reduced.....

Tony without doubt this has got to be the best website for paving and general building, I wasn't aware it cost you to run this site though

Have you thought about allowing a bit of carefully vetted advertising? If done correctly it shouldn't detract too much, should it?

[Mikey_C]

well done Bill's son, looks good to me, glad you felt you could still post your results and didn't take my winding you up, to seriously, nobody at home was bitting that night so I had to look elsewhere

[Bill's son]

I only got the hump because I was looking for an immediate answer to the problem I was faced with on that day, at that hour.

It was a big deal to me because it's taken ages to get this far and I had already made a balls up of the first attempt.

I got all serious and this came across as me saying the site was crap/inadequate, but that wasn't what I wanted to say. I just wanted some pictures, that's all.

In practice I probably didn't need them. Experience is everything, I have learnt that.

[lutonlagerlout]

turned out nice son of bill
and no i am not taking the mick
as far as the cross goes rich if sumat is truly random then 1 or 2 of these in an area is not the end of the world,same as on big areas having 2 the same size adjacent
good job billson whatever your name is
LLL

btw regarding costs ,the gaming squad i am in rent a 100mb server which is like £120 a month + then you need all sorts of other gizmos and hours and hours of time writing all the html
www.moneysavingexpert.com has discreet adverts, but the best way to support tony is buy the book from him rather than the thieves at amazon etc. and use the professional services he offers= very reasonable
its the fact the site is independent that makes it such a valuable resource
i reckon a paypal donate button would be in order,these are unobtrusive but i see them on a lot of clan sites and every drop of oil keeps the wheels moving
LLL

[seanandruby]

you can always pack a table leg up with an house brick. only joking B S. good job m8.

[surreyhillslandscapes.com]

Got there in the end son of bill, good job fella:)