The Brew Cabin

Hi Folks,

I am about to start laying out formwork for a concrete slab on which to lay paving. Part of this slab will butt up to a brick wall, so do I lay formwork against the wall to ensure that I maintain a level slab? If I do this, how do I then remove the formwork, or if not how do I stop the formwork (timber) from rotting in the future?

If I do not lay the formwork against the wall, can I work to a string line level? I imaging this to be more difficult in the laying process, but more logical in the long run??

TIA

James

Any thoughts on this one folks?

The delayed response is because I've been away for a couple of days. I know it's inconvenient of me to bugger off with Mrs Taz for a couple of days R and R every now and again, especially when there's all these DIY projects needing to be done, but that's the way I am - feckless and carefree! ;)

You don't put 'formwork' against the existing wall. There's a few tricks that can be used to maintain a level screed when casting a concrete slab such as this. The easiest is to fasten a temporary timber batten to the wall and use that to guide the level of the tamping board when placing and finishing the concrete. If you set the batten at alevel of, say, 200mm above required level, then you can fix a noggin to the tamp that tallies with this level, or just use it as a rough'n'ready guide - it all depends on how accurate you feel you need to be with the finished slab.

I'm not sure why you're laying a concrete slab for your paving. Is this going to be a rigid pavement?

That's not good enough Tony... you should know that when you set up a service like this you are no longer allowed personal time & that you need to be totally dedicated to people like me that you have never heard of before 24/7, rather than spending time with people that you actually care about :biggrin:

Thank you for your assistance, & hope you enjoyed what I'm sure is well deserved R&R :) (have I grovelled enough now)!

I am actually concreting a pool surround & will be tiling using a terracotta tile rather than a paver, but I could not find anywhere else that looked like they could answer my question, hence I found you!

Thanks for you help.

James