Setting out of gritstone setts

[mrfirepro]

Have come to the part of the job where I am planning the layout of the setts for a driveway. The drive has a 45 degree bend in it and I was wondering how to layout the setts and see two options.

Option 1 - lay the setts in rows that are at a right angle to the edging for a majority of the drive and keep laying them in rows through the bend, however when they pass the bend they will no longer be at right angles to the edging, and when they come to the end of the drive will not be square

Option 2 - Lay the two section before and after the bend at right angles to the edging, then form a section for the bend with narrow setts towards the inside of the bend and much thicker ones towards the outside.

I am not sure I have explained this that well, but this was the fourth description I came up with. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I will be laying the edges this weekend and will start on the setts next weekend.

I have searched for pictures but have not come up with any.

[GB_Groundworks]

the gaffer offers a design service that will solve all your problems saves in the long run on lots of head scratching

http://www.pavingexpert.com/random02.htm

i understood what you meant though

[mrfirepro]

good idea, will call them today and find out if they can work with my reclaimed and very random gritstone setts.

[Noony]

if you wish to get your setts round the bend, its not too difficult to be honest, bit more time consuming but easy enough. pretty much as you described in option 2 to be honest, just instead of laying the two sections, just use a straight edge at the point where you want to be back at 90, then measure the inside of the bend, and the outside from your last laid setts to the straight edge or line, then work out roughly how many rows you will lay in the bend using your smaller setts. then all you need to do is work out how many millimetres per row you need to 'creep' by working from small to large.

this method could also give you an idea visually how it may look if you just laid back in coursed rows, ie 90 from your start position

hope this helps, not sure if i have explained myself that well, but you pretty much got thie idea anyway i think.

noony

[mrfirepro]

Noony,

Thanks for that it was very clear. I can visualise how it will look towards the outside of the bend but the two panes almost meet at the inside edge, do you think it will look Ok if alternate rows are laid from the outside of the bend and only come to the middle of the drive?

[Noony]

thats when you will make it looky bitty and pieced together, maybe an idea to start your gradual bend earlier, and finish it further down, i get what you trying to achieve, but, you dont want to end up with setts looking like they have been filled in. ideally the inside of the bend needs some sort of radius, ie 1m, 2m long or whatever, rather than 100mm. if you think of it like the radius centre point may be a few metres away, and the segments come down gradually. you could do this with a string line and pin if you worked out where roughly the centre of your radius could be. this possibly not the best explanation, but basically the inside of your bend needs some sort of length rather than a fixed point

[mrfirepro]

Noony,

Great suggestion, I have done some layouts and I can make the center of the radius well inside the inside bend to form a swept bend rather than a very short aggressive bend.

Thanks for the help will post some photos when done, but please don't hold your breath I've already been at this for 9 months.