The Brew Cabin

Hi there,

I have a 10 year old detached house with a footpath all round. I want to lay a new patio over the path at the back of the house, full width of the site, and into the garden. Should I use flexible construction, with compacted stone in the excavated garden and then just lay the sand directly onto the path ?

As there will be an edge at the footpath by the sides of the hosue I'm concerned about people tripping there. Should I create a slope there with cement ?

I'm a firsttime DIY'er so apologies if this is simple stuff ? I've read the info on paving over a hard base and the stuff about drainage. Would that be an issue for me ?

Thanks,

Is there no conflict of levels if you overlay the existing path, Dermot? If the house is only 10 years old, I assume the paths were laid to 150mm below dpc, so, if you lay block paving over the top of them, you'd be only 50mm or so below dpc, which is not a good idea.

When you pave what is now garden, then a flexible construction is ideal and you simply need to follow the guidance given on the main website. Don't forget to allow for falls so that the paving drains properly.

I'm not sure about this slope you're proposing. It reads as though you intend the paving over the existing paths to be significantly higher than that for the new paving, hence the need for a ramp. As stated above, this may not be a good idea because of the dpc levels. However, if I've got hold of the wrong end of the stick, then forming a ramp or slope in block paving is a total breeze - it's so versatile that it's actually easier to form the ramp using blocks than to switch paving materials and construct a ramp in concrete.

Going back to the 'laying over existing path' issue for a moment, would it not be possible to lift the existing path (I assume it's flags) and replace or re-use the bedding beneath as a base for block paving at the correct level?

The existing paths are concrete. This is my main question really. What to do with them. It seems like a major job to dig them up.

Regarding the slope. I'm thinking of using something like Woburn Rumbled blocks and laying them on the footpaths across the back of the house. This would mean that when you walk from the front to the back you would come across the lip of a block. So I'm concern ed that people may trip over it.

It is a major job to get rid of all that concrete, but, if you overlay it, and the resulting block paving encroaches on the dpc, then you run the risk of damaging your property, invalidating your home insurance and complicating any future sale of the house. While I can't compel you to stick to the 150mm below dpc rule-of-thumb, I can't condone an overlay that would compromise it. The decision must be yours.

To avoid the trip problem (which wouldn't be a problem if the concrete was to be broken out first!) then you could create a ramp by removing just a metre of so of the concrete, as shown on the Paving over a base page, and creating a simple ramp with the paving, sweeping down in a sine curve profile to meet the paving level at the front of the house.

Thanks Tony,

I've just had a good read of the information on DPC and the various workarounds. (This is really a fantastic site).

I understand the situation better now. I'll have to measure the exact drop between the DPC & existing path in order to get a better idea of my options.

Thanks again,