The Brew Cabin

i have a garden path of approxiamately 7.3metres long by 1metre wide to do - at the moment it is grass. what sort of base would be sufficient for block paving (cobbles i think)

a 50mm bed of mot/crusher run. you can get that at any builders yard.

50mm is at the lower end of what I'd use, even for a garden path. If you've got a decent sub-grade, then you can get away with 50mm, but I usually suggest 75mm as a minimum for garden paths, or other areas that aren't trafficked by vehicles.

I use this figure because 75mm was the minimum depth of sub-base that was permitted under the old 'Spec for Highway Works' for use beneath public footpaths that were to be flagged, although I know from experience that, on some sites, 50mm would be ample As long as there is sufficient depth to foem a coherent sub-base and to enable regulating and decent compaction, it will be ok.

50/75 mm sorry! i was thinking of the rock hard Culcheth clay id spent all day diging out by hand!

We're particularly blessed/cursed in Culcheth, as we sit on a huge dollop of Boulder Clay surrounded by what in Lancashire is known as 'Moss', ie, a swampy, peaty bog-land, that isolates us from Manchester, Warrington and Leigh. It's a great sub-grade for constructing driveways, or for building houses, but it's a bugger if you like your gardening!