After a summer of toil during odd evenings and weekends I managed to (single handedly) complete my block paved patio/sideway last week. I couldn't have done it without the help of this site, so many thanks to all forum contributors and especially to Tony. Although I have made a few (minor I reckon) errors along the way, I am very happy with the way things have turned out.
Here's the project -
I don't really have any pics of the original patio, but you can see a bit of it here; the slabs weren't that bad, but they were laid badly on a very suspect base which in parts was no more than 1cm of brittle concrete on top of the soil.
I hired a breaker to break up the cement base and then hand dug though whole site (75m2 ish) to a depth of 20cm ish using a spade/shovel and wheelbarrowed the lot out to the road the be trucked away. God knows how many tonnes and God knows why I didnt just hire a mini digger, but it was certainly good exersize.
Here's the excavated sideway.
And here's the excavated patio area with some crude levelling aparatus.
I concreted down my edging and got rid of the old inspection chamber cover and replaced it with an inset jobby to keep my path continuous.
And the back excavated... I probably went a bit too deep in some places bearing in mind it's only a patio, but wanted to be safe rather than sorry. I used Marshalls tegula blocks for my edge course and used the tegula straight kerb for the step.
Because the land to the back of the house slopes towards the house, I had to either dig very deep at the grass edge of the patio and build a retaining wall for the grass in order to create a slope away from the house or to do what I ultimately did; I engineered a fall on the patio towards a 3 metre section of the house and installed an Aco channel drain and connected it to the existing gutter drains.
I then whackered down my type one at the side...
... and at the back. I bought this Bomag wacker off eBay. Superb piece of kit and reliable as you like. Will sell it back at some point and wouldnt imagine I'll lose a huge amount on it.
I ws a bit nervous regarding the whole screeding process so I decided to start from the path on the basis that it was an easy area to screed and to practise if I got levels wrong. I compacted my sharp sand and then used some notched planks as my screed board.
Confident with my levels and screed bed, I started the pleasurable job of laying the blocks.
I used Marshalls drivesett duo blocks, using the heather side only.
I cut in around my new inset inspection chamber just to get a
bit of cutting in practise and also so I could see how it would
look. The other half of the inset will ultimately be grassed
along with the rest of the side area of the house.
I'll install a raised bed against the fence as well.
I continued the process round towards the back of the house.
I realise that the pros would generally do things all in one go,
but time restraints meant i preferred to do it this way.
I also did all the cutting in as I went along which was
probably more time consuming than necessary...
I did my cutting with this Stihl saw that I bought off eBay... Just like the Bomag wacker it's a proper bit of kit.
Not being used to operating this kind of gear I was a bit
nervy to start with, but with a bit of practise and messing about,
the cutting in became a piece of cake. I ended up using
permanent black marker to mark my blocks becuase and chalk/slate that I tried to used got washed off by the water on the saw.
I used screed rails and other bits n bobs to get my falls/levels
right on the main part of the patio. My spirit level was
probably a bit short, but i always used it together with a long
straight piece of wood. But it was one of those digital levels
which gave me a bit more confidence than just going by eye
with the bubble.
I took quite a long while over the screeding and did a bit of
Tony's 'titivating' to finish things off, but seemingly it worked out well and the patio's falls and levels are as planned.
And here's the final part of the patio area paved.
I will add a couple more pics in the next couple of days to show the completely finished article.
So all I can say is thanks very much to you all, especially the gaffer for providing such a thorough and professional website. I couldn't have done it without the help of this site. I did register a profile in order to ask some questions on this forum, but everything is covered in such depth on the main site that I didnt need to ask anything. Like I said, there are a few minor faulkts which I'm sure you pros will pick up on, but for a firt timer, I'm very pleased with the outcome.
Thanks for the compliments fellas. Jay, I'll let you know if and when I wanna get shot of the wacker and Stihl, I'm going to do my front path some time in the next year, so it'll be after that.
Few more piccies of the (almost) finished article....
Blocked the step and added a few finishing touches.
Bird's eye view...
I think/hope I cut in correctly. I wanted to avoid any 'slips'. Not sure if I turned the blocks correctly, but seemed the most logical way to avoid having any darts. Having read the extensive information with regards to darts and slips on here I have now found myself obsessively checking any new paving work being done... The town centre near where where I live is currently being completely repaved and partly pedestrianized; 8 million quid I think they're spending. It's being done by one of the 'big' contractors and I walked down the high street today where they're still working (9 month project) and the number of slips and darts was criminal, many of them already broken or sinking. I wanted to find the gaffer and pull him up on it! Added to the fact that 2 fellas were carving up slabs with a Stihl saw without the water kit and sending plumes of dust into crowds of shoppers; that really is criminal and I seriously think I should make a complain about that...
One question I would like to ask of you experts is this; the kerbing blocks I used for the face of my steps needs to be 'pointed' I think... Or maybe they don't? The kerbs have gaps between them as you can see in the 1st picture on this message; Ideally I's like to mortar it 'sand' coloured to blend in with the other gaps in the whole patio, is this possible? Or what are my alternatives.
you would normally point between the kerbs as they are being installed leaving joints 8mm - 12mm between each kerb, seeing as the step is finished and they are butt jointed together any pointing you did now would just fall out as its too thin
Crystalclear
Driveway and Patio Installer
Call us today
01942 840109
7 days a week 8am till 8pm
Mick, yeh I laid them too tight I guess so I'll have to live with it I think. Although I think I'll try and mortar the gaps and see what happens...
Sean, it's a proper outdoor powerpoint; if you check the 7th pic on the first message you'll see the flap.
Looks a grand job.... couple of years back laid about 400m of tegula traditional also wiv a random lay. Client made us chip the saw cut edge with a brick hammer cos they didnt like the straight cut....
