The Brew Cabin

Hello,

My project is DIY with professional help.
The drive is 'L' shaped and the diameter of the arch joining the two legs is 4.25 metres. The drive slopes down from the road approx. 1 : 7 and in total is 18 metres long. The main leg continues past the curve for about 9 metres to the house and garage thereby creating a sort of right angled triangular area with a concave hypotenuse. In total the drive is just over 100 sq metres.

I have had professional help digging up the old concrete and tarmac drive clearing the site and the laying of a new concrete sub-base. The latter was recommended primarily because of the nature of the sub-soil, a beautiful rich blue sticky clay, which even after nearly three months of little or no rain was soft and soggy to stand on, and partly from local experience.

The linear drains are in and connected.

I have professional help arranged to lay the bedding sand and Tegula traditional clay pavers, mainly because I think it would take me too long and I don't think my wife's patience is up to it.

Meantime I have the job of 'setting' the peripheral soldier course which amounts to just under 75 linear metres. About half are straight forward in that they simply follow the line of the wall or drain and as a result slope in one plane. The other half, going round the curve and coming off the return leg, and a couple other places, will slope on two planes. They will follow the drive-line down the hill and they will have to pick up the slope towards the drains.

Question 1.Is there a recognised procedure to gauge the second gradient ? (I have thought of using a line from the drain??)

Question 2. Is it just good judgement on the part of the layer that will ensure the blocks laid to my 'set' soldier course, will actually finish on a level with them and stay there, or am I to expect problems in the future as a result of the adoption of the 'non-flexible' construction.?

Question 3. The block courses will run at 45 degrees to the drains (and to the drive walls) so I expect as many cuts as courses. Having set one soldier course between the drains and the wall of the house, should I also set a soldier course in front of the drains so that all the cuts can be laid to them and not the drains?

I am mightily impressed with the information you have made available on your site. I have learned a great deal from it. I hope now, to learn just that bit more, which will enable me to finish my drive in style.

I will be grateful for any advice/tips you can offer.

Q1 - the "recognised procedure" is known as 'a turn of the bubble'. Basically, the blocks are laid true to the main gradient, which is the longitudinal slope of the driveway down from the threshold towards the property. The transverse gradient, which should ensure any surface water heads for the approproiate drain point, is established by laying the edge blocks so that, when a spirit level is placed on them aligned along this secondary gradient, the bubble in the vial is just showing a degree of fall in the right direction.

In cases where the transverse fall is significant, we may well use a taut string line, laser or a straightedge to ensure the crossfall on the edge block(s) matches that of the tranverse gradient as a whole, but, for most jobs, as long as there is a touch of fall, that is deemed sufficient.


Q2 - you've lost me here: the blocks laid on a concrete bed as the edge course are set to level as part of the laying process and cannot move thereafter. When you ask about blocks staying "level with them", who/what is "them"?


Q3 - Yes. Although it's not essential to continue an edge course around any drains or other fittings, it usually looks much neater, and gives a better finish.

Tony, thanks for your help. I think I was trying to make achieving the transverse gradient too complicated. I feel better now that I see my idea about the string wasn't so daft after all. I won't say I'm at all happy about actually doing it. I suspect I will have a mixture of gradients requiring a mixture of long timber to string.

Sorry for the confused description about my worries of movement of the blocks laid to the soldier course. I'm going to set the soldier course over the few days and the lads are coming in next week to do the sand and bulk lay of the main area. My concern is that the soldier course will be solid on concrete and the main area will be laid on sand and whacked until in line or level with the soldier course. What are the chances that the main area of blocks might drop below the level of the soldier course in time ?

If I may I would like to ask a further question. The drive walls are not square to the house at any point. Laying the blocks horizontally across the drive at right angles to either drive wall will require some awful acutely shaped cuts right across the width of the house. Laying the blocks in line with the house will create the same situation all the way up both walls of the drive. Is it a really daft idea to lay the blocks at 45 degrees to the linear drains at the front of the house ? The longitudinal line of the blocks would supplement the natural and desired drainage away from the house though it does mean cutting in on all sides. But at least the cuts would be a more reasonable size and shape.

Thanks again for the advice on gradients.

JohnMac.
Hastings

Don't worry about the edge courses - it's standard practice for them to be laid on concrete and for the body paving to be laid on loose material some time later. A competent laying gand will compensate for this when preparing their screed bed.

As for the alignment of your paving, setting to a 45º line makes sense if neither the driveway nor the house offers a square line. However, the type of blocks being used is relevant, and with the Tegula Clays, the usual option is coursework, also known as stretcher bond.

Traditionally, coursework runs transversely to the direction of travel, which in simpler English means the courses run across the drive, square to the edges. Using a 45º alignment is not unheard of - I was looking at some setts laid that way just a couple of weeks ago, and just happened to take a few photies...





...if you squint and look at the photies through a red cellophane toffee wrapper, they could almost be Tergula Clays!! ;)

Tony, thanks again. Your first reply gave me enough confidence to make a start on setting the edges and by the end of the day (yesterday) I had completed both sides of one drain channel and the house side of the other. The rain was not helpful !

Your reply today has confirmed my thinking about going for laying at 45 degrees. Nothing is square, apart from the corners of the house and even they are suspect ! As a layman it is a great help to have a little backing from the people who know.

Thanks for the pics. The lower one, street view, I think is more like what I had in mind. Couldn't lay my hands on the red cellophane but the squint came easily enough !

Your personal advice and your site with its huge amount if 'real' information has been of incalculable help. I'm sure I shall return to it many times yet before the end of this job. The acclaim given to you, again and again, by your fellow professionals shows what a great job you are doing. I'll let you know how the 45 degrees goes. Thanks for your help.