First go at paving

[dig dug dan]

smashing jack legs off, smashing the levers and buttons, letting the conveyor belt run on the heap...

[Heed]

Well I moved all this solo by hand on Thursday.



I realised it was a massive job to do by myself and a mate offered to help for a bit of beer money. With 2 of us working we set about mixing the base.



And laying slabs is taking forever. Yesterday we got ten square yards down between 2 of us working for 7 hours. They are all spot on with levels and bedded solidly but it seems to take ages.

Here's me aligning the first slab.



And what we have done up to now. I'm about to get going again.

[lutonlagerlout]

looking not bad heed
are you screeding the bed?
and i know its a little late but try and avoid straight joints
what do you normally do for a living?
LLL

[local patios and driveway]

not mine you wont £450 a day with driver,

HOW MUCH!!! jesus i dont want to offend you as you must be getting the work, but your customers must be the people that use the first guy they find!

[lutonlagerlout]

guys lets not get too deep on regional costs
the bottom line is that most of us charge as much as we can get
which aint a lot at the moment
everyone on here has different overheads
for us if its not worth £500 then its not worth doing
(or i can fit it in on the way home or saturday morning)
cheers LLL

[rab1]

As Tony (LLL) said, the price of work varies considerably around the Country. I`m in Scotland and if someone quoted Luton prices up here they would never win a job.

[Heed]

looking not bad heed
are you screeding the bed?
and i know its a little late but try and avoid straight joints
what do you normally do for a living?
LLL

Cheers LLL.

I'm screeding the bed with 50mm square poles.

The straight joints are running across the patio on the left and right. Down the middle of the patio the lines run the other way to draw the eye to a path from the patio doors to the shed.

I normally repair radars for the RAF, due to being an engineer I like to try new challenges and this has been one of my biggest so far DIY wise. I've learned to lay laminate flooring and am now a proficient tiler. However the amount of work in the patio is far exceeding either of those tasks!

[lutonlagerlout]

like the " can do " attitude
at least when its done you can say "all my own work"
how are you planning on pointing it?
LLL

[local patios and driveway]

looks good for your first attempt i must say. it will be worth the effort when you are done too. takes a while but you'll get it right and it should last many years

[joydivision]

Regarding straight joints, I think LLL means a straight joint like the flags on your last 2 rows where you have 4 corners meeting in one place.

Looking good though!

JD

[GB_Groundworks]

not mine you wont £450 a day with driver,

HOW MUCH!!! jesus i dont want to offend you as you must be getting the work, but your customers must be the people that use the first guy they find!

How much do you charge for your £80K 16ton machine out at a day with a highly skilled driver, piped with 3 aux hydraulics so can run sheet pillers, selecta grabs, etc

In a solid 8 hour day it can burn 100 litres of juice, then a wage then the amount of work you can do with it, plus it very rare we go out for just a day with the big guns. Do most on price work

[Heed]

how are you planning on pointing it?

I've seen the geofix pointing mortar in buff which looks pretty good. Can you recommend a decent way of pointing? Is it better to mix your own gear or use pre-mix?

Big thanks for all the comments. I've just finished it all apart from some of the cuts and the pointing. I'm going to have a day off tomorrow then crack on on Thursday and get it finished.

[DNgroundworks]

DO NOT USE GEOFIX! if you want to use a jointing system like that use gftk or romex, geofix is sh*te! Or there is easi point which is a gun injected cement based system. All quite easy to use.

[Heed]

I'll take note of those capitals and avoid geofix like the plague! I'll have a look ofr gtfk or romex. Easi point sounds good but also sounds very time consuming.

[Heed]

This is the patio as it is now. Edging is getting done tomorrow then the jointing will be done on Friday if the weather is good.

I'm really happy with it.