The Brew Cabin

The weather forecast for the coming weekend is without pissipitation so I am hoping to take full advantage and block pave a 17 square metre circle.
The kerbs and soldiers will be bedded on Saturday and the circle paved.
The kerb mix is very dry, but as the overnight temperature is going to be below freezing should I add an anti-freeze?
Will it be ok to compact and sand the blocks on Sunday if I keep away from the soldier course?
Thanks

Hi Steve,

most ready mixed Concrete companies will add an anti-freeze to their concrete if they anticpate temps of below 4C and falling. If you have the concrete delivered at, say, 10am on Saturday, and it's a typical semi-dry kerb mix, you should get a good 4-6 hours working time with it, and have the kerbs laid and haunched before the temp drops significantly, but it's probably still worth checking what the supplier recommends - they're far more 'in touch' with the local weather than I am.

Normally, though, on residential works, the end strength of kerb mix isn't a major concern - as long as it 'sets' and doesn't fall apart, it'll do, and so anti-freeze isn't normally added. If you cover the exposed concrete with sand, hessian or summat like that, it will help keep the worst of any frost off the concrete while it sets overnight.

Come Sunday, I reckon you should be ok with the compaction, as long as the kerbs are held in place with the lower soldier course, as previously described. Don't go mad with the vib plate - you can get a basic level of compaction, enough to consolidate and rattle in the jointing sand, and then go over it again in a week or so, once the rest of that paving is in place and providing full support to the kerb.

If you want to be sure that the strategic blocks are well bedded and secure, use a bedding mortar designed to work at low temperature.

Monoset RX will do it down to -10C, pot life once (hand) mixed is 10-15 minutes. Bed depth 6mm-50mm. The liquid polymer ensures it sticks. Bed it onto concrete with Monoset Primer.

See http://www.ronacrete.co.uk/pdf/cf007_ds.pdf.

Thanks for the advice simeon, fortunately saturday night was frost free and all went well.

Hi tony
The extra pack of Beta blocks came in yesterday afternoon. Brett have excelled theirselves a change from my previous dealings with them.
So it's away with the mixer at the weekend.
The bxxxxx badgers have decided there may be worms under my circle and have removed some of the soldiers and dug out some of the haunching.
Q
The outer soldier course on the circle is laid level with the bottom of the chamfer on the kerb (so my wife can run over it without any damage). I intend to lay the kerb for the rest of the drive so that the soldier is 15mm above the bottom of the kerb. Will I still get sufficient restraint from the kerb or should I drop the kerb down as per the circle?
I am using 125mm high x 100mm wide Topave kerbs with the 30mm x 30mm chamfer towards the drive.

PS had a few bobs worth of 0800 996 1816- the thieving hounds.

hi Tony
The circle is finished! fortunately the sun came out dried the blocks so the sand flowed well.The cutting took quite a time but if I hadn't taken your advice to make the cuts on the inside of the circle it would of taken even longer.
Also got about 10 metres of land drain in with another 10 for tomorrow.
hope you are well.

Progress at last, Steve! :)

With your kerb, try to keep the upstand, that is, the amount of kerb sticking up above the paving level, to no more than 125-150mm. Most road kerbs are set to this level, as it minimises damage to wheels and tyres, and ensures doors opening aren't bashing against the kerb.



There's nowt to stop you having, say, 185mm of upstand, if you want, and as long as the kerbs are bedded and haunched as shown, they'll be fine. :)

Thanks for the support over the website thieves. I beleive Northamptonshire Trading Standards will be having a word with them in the morning. :)