Hi, I`ve dug up my old 23 square metre patio and prepared the ground to put in a 100 m sub base which i`ll wack down. The base i have dug out though is very sandy in parts and now boggy in parts after constant rain.
Is it ok to put my sub base over sand and should i wait for it to completely dry out?
It seems too deep to be from the old base as I,ve dug out 6 inches and there is still another 6 inches of sand in parts, goes as deep as the pipes. If I wack the sand down can I then wack down the hard core?
what pipes? are they drainage pipes, is the sand pipe bedding?
If it is drainage pipes you may want to explore details on the site about when to encase them in concrete?
Once you've resolved the issue with the mystery pipes, you could use a geo-textile (NOT a landscape fabric) to act as a separation membrane between sand and the overlying sub-base.
The pipe runs from outside the kitchen to a small manhole (inspection ?) about three feet away...can't see anything else but the pipe. Is it a case of putting plenty of the sand back around the pipe and hardcore on top?
Not "plenty of sand", just 60-100mm or so to act as a cushion. If you put too much, it moves and the sub-base descends into it which can cause settlement.
Hello again, i`ve got all my slabs down now a mix of 600x600, 450x450 and 300x300 and i have noticed a few of the 300x300 have not bonded with the mortar and one of them slightly rocks. Whats the best course of action to remedy this? Will this be taken care of when i point up the joints in a couple of days? Also what is the best mortar mix for pointing up? our slabs are buff so i want to keep the joint mortar light in colour so i will need to add a dye i presume.
Loose flags need to be lifted and re-laid. Never rely on pointing to rectify rocking flags: it will fail, maybe not next week, but at some point, it *will* fail.
If you use a pale sand (silver sand, perhaps) you will get a pale mortar without the need to rely on dyes which fade.