Working from house or wall - Up or down falls

[AnotherDesign]

Hi all, I have almost finished designing a patio, which will join the back of the house. It is 20m long and of 3 different distances out from the house due to part of the house having an extension, part not and there being a garage joined to the side of the house. This sticks out further into the lawn than does the extension.The depths of the patio will be Extension part = 2.7m. No Extension part = 5.4 m, Behind garage part = 2.17m

The lawn edge of the patio will finish against a small retaining wall approx 250mm high. The top of the wall will be level with the lawn. From here, the drop down to the patio will allow it to be lower than the DPC of the house and provide falls to a line of ACO Brickslot Drainage ( Plastic) between the wall and the patio slabs furthest from the house.

The retaining wall will probably be engineering bricks on a concrete foundation. The wall is going to be faced with ‘Tier� natural stone panel system from CED 45 - 35 mm thick.

The patio is going to be laid in Donegal Quartzite 450mm width, random lengths. 20 - 30mm thickness

So that the Brickslot drainage is next to a full width (450mm) run of paving, rather than a run of ‘cut to width’ paving, it would be ideal if the patio was laid starting from the wall / drainage, working up the falls towards the house.

The position of the wall will allow for full runs 450mm wide until the back of the Garage is reached - this short length will be 330 wide ( 120mm cut off). When the Extension is reached - this run will be approx 400 wide (50mm cut off). When the house ‘No Extension’ is reached the row will be approx 350 wide ( 100 mm cut off). There will be no small width runs.

I intend to get a landscaper to lay this patio.

Question - Is there any major problem in working up from the lower part of the falls, from the drainage slot, rather than working downwards from the house, which I understand is the normal approach?

Recommendations on the best pointing which will not get any discoloration on the paving or other comments would be valued.

[lutonlagerlout]

working uphill is best if practicable
sand and cement if done correctly is still the bets pointing method
LLL

[Carberry]

As LLL says, you normally work uphill if possible. If you work downhill, particularly on steep gradients the blocks can separate as you lay them. A millimeter might not sound much but if you have to lay 10 linear metres worth and each one separates 1mm then you will be out by ~60mm

[AnotherDesign]

Guys, that is so useful and encouraging, as working uphill will or should make all the planning workout successfully as regards to full widths & final cut widths. Many thanks for working through the long post.

Any other comments on pointing?

[Carberry]

Guys, that is so useful and encouraging, as working uphill will or should make all the planning workout successfully as regards to full widths & final cut widths. Many thanks for working through the long post.

Any other comments on pointing?

Got 3 options.
Top of the range and very expensive is 2 part resin like Rompox, gtfk.
Easipoint is middle of the range.
Plain old building sand and cement for cheapest option.



I would probably go for the easipoint.

[JMC Landscapes]

I haven't used the other pointing products yet. Always use rendering sand for pointing these days. I've returned to quite a few jobs where building sand has failed. Think this could also be the semi dry method we used to use. Always gun it in wet now. A lot stronger.

[Tony McC]

Donegal quartzite can be a bugger to bond to the bedding, so use the Bond Bridge method if you want to avoid any of them coming loose in the first few months.

[AnotherDesign]

Thanks to everone for their comments.

Tony your last contribution is really helpful, although a little concerning. My intention is to get a 'professional' to do the work, rather than to DIY it myself. However, the Bond Bridge obviously has some risks of contamination to the top of the flags, so considerable care is going to be needed. It must be easy to get the jollop running over the edges. I presume that if the paving slabs are painted to within 1" of the edges the system will work just as well, so it would be worth specifying the exact way it is to be applied.

With grouting is there a similar problem of bonding which would make the use of something like EasyPoint particularly worthwhile?