Using paviors as setts

[Adamb4321]

Hello Tony,

Great website, I hope my question isn't too daft.

I'm planning on laying two smallish decorative paths one 3m long the other 8m long in the back garden. I like the look of granite, her in doors doesn't as it's too "grey" . Can I use square/oblong paviors like the Bradstone Woburn with a 10mm joint, and if so should I bed them into concrete like a carpet stone or lay onto sand like a pavior?




Regards


Adam

[Turbina Magnum]

granite can not be copied and nothing looks like it :p
but if I would use paviors I would keep bit less then 10mm joint and they would defenately have to grouted with sand and cemnet.
Bedding at back garden footpath doesn`t metter in my opinion. I would just use sand as its cheaper.

[Tony McC]

Adam,

block pavers are occasionally laid with mortared joints - it's known as rigid paving, and they need to be laid onto a mortar/concrete laying course rather than sand or grit, otherwise you have a rigid joint on a flexible bed which *always* results in joint cracking.

More details here

It's slow work, especially if you opt for a cement mortar joint. A resin mortar joint is much quicker and cleaner but much, much more expensive.

[Adamb4321]

Thanks for the replies,

I think mine was the typical "small project" that started to grow out of all proportion, it started as a short gravel path to a decked area and ended up with me thinking of taking up some rather uninspiring concrete flags and block paving about 50sqm in a multi sized block with beautiful curved edges.

I did read up on rigid paving, it did sound fairly straight forward till I worked out how much concrete I'd need and tried to guess how quick I could lay blocks into it before it set.
I think it's probably best left to the experts, I'm going with plan A, which was one small gravel path edged with saw tooth bricks and leaving the rest out out all together for the time being.


Adam