Help! quantities required for laying patio?? - Help! quantities required for laying pat

[Steve139]

Hi all,

I am a DIY'er and looking to lay a patio at the bottom of my garden but not sure how to workout the quantities of hardcore, sand, cement, as well as the slabs that I will need to order.

The Patio dimention is 8m x 4m (approx), or 32 square meters. The slabs chosen are the Peak Riven (buff) 450 x 450 type. When I lay the slabs I plan to leave a gap rather than have them butt up against each other.

For 450 x 450 slabs, Wick's guide says Units Per Square Meter figure is 4.94, so to work out the total slabs required I did 32 x 4.94 = 158. If I order a few spare then I guess I need around 165 slabs?... does this sound okay or is there some other way to work out the slabs required?

As for the hardcore and mortar layers, I am told 3"(75mm) is sufficient for the hardcore layer, and 2"(50mm) for the mortar... is this reasonable for a 32 sqm area?... If it is can someone please advise how I can work out the amount of hardcore and sand I will need, as well as the number of bags of cement?... plus what's a good mix of sharp sand and cement for the mortar?

Finally, if I am excavating approximately 6" of soil, so what size skip do I need to order?

Sorry for all the questions, but your guidance/help would be much appreciated.

Kind regards

Steve

[Rich H]

All the answers to your questions, and more, are on the main site. See the link at the top of the page.

[GB_Groundworks]

bulking calculator

http://www.source4me.co.uk/calculate_excavated_spoil.htm

8x4x0.15 = 5m3 or 8-10 tons of earth