My parents are about to get a garden patio re-layed and we're looking for some advice. We live in a very sandy area of Britain, and we have huge problems with ants. I've done my best to search thro' the main site and the forums, but are there any suggestions on a choice of sub-base that would dissuade these nuisances? One suggestion that has been made to us is that crushed rock will be harder for them to burrow thro', does this seem sensible?
Any thoughts will be gratefully recieved =)
Anti-ant patio bases
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DNgroundworks
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- Location: Preston, Lancashire
Well id construct a subbase of well compacted dtp1, and then bed the flags (if the paving is flags) onto a full bed of cement bound sharp sand mortar, and then point the flags with a 4/5:1 soft sand mortar.
The ants would struggle burrowin that, but probably just burrow somwhere else in the garden!
Hope this helps.
The ants would struggle burrowin that, but probably just burrow somwhere else in the garden!
Hope this helps.
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Tony McC
- Site Admin
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- Location: Warrington, People's Republic of South Lancashire
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Ants and other invertebrates like small grains. While there are small grains within a Type 1 sub-base, once properly compacted they are pretty tricky to move, and if there's plenty of sand elsewhere locally, the ants would prefer to play with that rather than tire out their mandibles on crushed rock.
The parts of a pavement that ants normally invade are the bedding and the jointing, so, if you ensure both of these are quality, bound materials, the ants will have no choice but to go elsewhere. Use a 6:1 mortar for the bed (stronger than I normally suggest but that's to ensure it's ant-proof) and either a 3:1 cement mortar for the jointing or one of the quality resin-bound jointing mortars. Loose bedding and poor jointing are what the ant's are looking for.
The parts of a pavement that ants normally invade are the bedding and the jointing, so, if you ensure both of these are quality, bound materials, the ants will have no choice but to go elsewhere. Use a 6:1 mortar for the bed (stronger than I normally suggest but that's to ensure it's ant-proof) and either a 3:1 cement mortar for the jointing or one of the quality resin-bound jointing mortars. Loose bedding and poor jointing are what the ant's are looking for.
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