I have read the site and have found it really helpful and certainly comprehensive, however it has all left me feeling a little bewildered and what seemed at first like a fairly straightforward job feels like a nightmare
Anyway, I’m hoping that it might all seem a little better if I get a few comments and a few questions answered so here’s the story.
I intend to lay 17.6M2 of Indian sandstone to form a patio/flagged area, the current yard is basically full of large gravel (ranging from 5p to 10p in size) and then there is an unfortunate concrete bed already against the house on which a few nasty cheapo flags have been laid by the previous owners (and in fact there may even be some of the original flags left still under it, which might explain my extremely low step)
The yard slopes down toward the house and so I intend to lay the flags at the back of the yard, then break up the current flags and possibly the whole concrete bed (good idea or not?) by the house and replace them with some nicer aggregate.
I have been told that under the current gravel is a layer of ash as at one point there was the big York stone flags (no longer thanks to a thieving neighbour) but I’m not 100% as it just looks like heavy thick black clay mud to me.
I was considering laying the new flags over the existing gravel as a sort of “sub-layer� but I’m worried that it may be just too big and unstable to support the bedding layer (?)
I did consider adding some smaller gravel to fill the gaps but I wonder if this is all perhaps just a waste of money/effort/time and that I should just take up all the existing gravel and start on whatever lies beneath. Any thoughts?
With regard to the actual bedding layer, I am a little confused... Should I be using a 10:1 cement/sharp sand semi-dry mix and laying the flags onto it without mortar under them or should I be using that mix and then using mortar or should I just be using sand and then using mortar?
Finally, with regard to the Damp proff course... I was told that you can usually tell if there is one because there will be a line of holes drilled into the stonework, I can see these at the front of the house, however the rear of the property is unfortunately pebble-dashed and all in all looks a shoddy mess... I can’t see any holes and there is a strange gap above ground level (see photo) and I’m really not sure what to make of it all.
Any answers, comments, suggestions houghts would be much appreciated!
Thank.