The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Fri Apr 29, 2005 12:14 am**

I have a 30-40 sq metre yard behind my 1860s house laid with large-ish cobbles (typically grapefruit size). I've dug a few up to establish that they are laid in dirt, no sign of any mortar, and whatever jointing was originally used they are now all jointed with soil which is prey to weeds and moss.

I have looked at your excellent "laying cobbles" pages, but these assume you're laying from scratch. My cobbles are well bedded-in after 140 years and I haven't the heart to dig them all up and re-lay them in mortar. But presumably I could rake out the dirt jointing and re-joint them with grit sand (and maybe pea gravel too?). If so - how much dirt jointing should I rake out first, and what's the best sand to use?

Posted: **Wed May 04, 2005 6:30 pm**

In the days before modern cements and concretes, cobbles would be bedded into clay, hoggin, cinders, or a clay and lime mix that, many decades later may appear to be plain old "dirt" but is actually the decomposed remnants of that original bedding and jointing material. Scraping out this 'dirt' and replacing it with sand or sand'n'gravel will meraly accelerate the eventual complete failure of the pavement, as an unbound sand provides no grip whatsoever for this type of paving.

There's been all sorts of efforts to re-create traitional cobbled pavements, and all those that have lasted more than a couple of months have relied on using cement or lime as a binder. For those pavemenst subjected to foot traffic only, hoggin or clay can work, but cars and vans need summat more substantial.

Unless you're prepared to create a new-looking pavement, you'd be best advised to leave well alone. That vegetation is actually helping to hold together the structure and is part of its inherent charm. If you want tidy-looking cobbles, use a weedkiller to control the vegetation, or start again and build a new pavement. It's very, very, very difficult to achieve a happy medium of olde-looking cobbles that have just been re-laid.

Posted: **Wed May 04, 2005 11:33 pm**

That's very helpful. Thanks, Tony. I shall leave well alone, and keep the weeds down.

What a great website, and what a helpful free service!

The Brew Cabin

Re-jointing 19th century cobbles laid in dirt