Bedding - Wet / dry

[pcross]

hi,

This is a totally newbie question. I'm laying my first patio, i've been following all the instruction on the site and it's all going great.

When it comes to the bedding mix, I've got my sharp sand (not building sand) I've found the information about mixture ratios to cement.

But from looking at the pictures, this looks like a dry mix ?
So do you add water to the mix and if so how much ?

thanks, Paul.

[lutonlagerlout]

depends how you like the slump (wetness)
for us a gauge is around 10 big shovels of grit sand,12.5kg cement (half a bag) a good glug of sbr and half a bucket of water
LLL

[r896neo]

Personally i think for a novice a wet-bed is easier. There is a chance of leaving rocking flags if your bed is not spot on when your using a dry mix.

I use it a touch stiffer than bricklaying mortar if that means anything to you. IF you make it too wet you create a bit of a wave when you tap the flag down hard which sounds bizarre but you'll see what i mean when it happens.

Simply lay one or two flags to start and then lift them to check the mortar has spread to give a nice even full bed.

[pcross]

Great

Thanks for the the help and pointers.

Is SBR, like a Plasticiser that allows the bedding to be more workable.

[r44flyer]

Great

Thanks for the the help and pointers.

Is SBR, like a Plasticiser that allows the bedding to be more workable.

It's more for strengthening and waterproofing but does improve short term workability. Don't let it dry on anything you don't want it on, it sticks like shit!

Regards adding water, make your mix up using measured amounts of sand, cement and water, so the ratio is easy to make the same every time. Add water a litre at a time until it gets thoroughly wet but not sloppy, then you'll know how many litres per mix.