Hi all - enjoyed reading articles in the past, now its time to ask the experts for some guidance!
I'm planning on laying a square patio (thinking indian sandstone). This will span between 2 walls with lawn on the 2 exposed sides.
I plan to lift it slightly requiring a very low wall on each of the sides adjoining the lawn (about 2 brick courses high at one side and about 4 brick courses at the other.) I will then infill with limestone and wack down. The paving will then be laid on top of these 'walls'.
My question 1:
If the 'wall' is so low, and if I make it 2 bricks wide (I have a load of surplus bricks to use up...), will a foundation consisting solely of well compacted limestone be enough if I lay onto a good deep bed of mortar? or MUST I put in a concrete foundation? (I'm thinking that its not going to carry any weight and well compacted limestone crusher run should create a pretty solid base. Concrete footings look like overkill for such a minimal structure....)
My Question 2 :
I've struck on the idea of 'facing' the sides of these new 'walls' using narrow sections of indian sandstone..... I'm thinking that it should be possible to bond these onto the front of the 'walls' using an appropriate mortar mix (stone cladding, if you like......) Anybody any thoughts on this idea? Will it work?
No way of knowing whether that subbase is enough without seeing the ground conditions.
2. Never tried it, You could probaby stick it on with SBR and cement slurry or just dig a deep enough hole and stick a whole flag in, with enough poking out to cover your wall and concrete it in place. Or just build the wall out of sandstone in the first place.
If your going to the trouble of digging the trench for the footing, you may as well put concrete in, it'll be a lot less open to ground movement than the Limestone. As for using the Stone for a face, yeah, just put SBR in the mix and keep pressure on the "Tiles" until there se. You can get Exterior grade Tile adhesives as well.
Thanks very much for the advice. I reckon the concrete footings dont need to be too substantial, so the extra effort might be sensible. I'll have to see what I hit as I start digging! Thanks again. Ade
