The Brew Cabin

Hi I have got some granite sets which had been laid in soil from a old factory floor. They are 5" cubes and I want to lay them for my driveway the base is compacted Yellow road stone which has been down a year 100mm deep the area is 110 Sq metres. I have read that you use a weak semi dry mix then use a similar mix to grout them with a 5-10mm gap.
I may well need to take a area up at some time is this possible using this method or can they be laid in a sand screed bed and bind with sand given that for the last 100 years they have sat quite happily in soil - any suggestions

This would be very difficult as you will find the setts vary in depth so a screed would become redundant, you have two options you can lay them all properly and struggle a little lifing the area that needs removing in the future or you can lay them on sand and probably find they all need relaying in the future. personally i would use a sand / cement bed and a sand /cement infill, as once youve laid 110m2 of cobbles to a driveway once believe me you wont want to do it again next year. Alan D.

You could, in theory, lay the 125mm cubes on a sand bed and use sand joints, but just how successful this would be is highly debatable.

Old, reclaimed setts were most likely quarried and fettled to accommodate a wide joint, probably pitch. If you wanted to use a sand joint, you'd need to minimise the joint width, and it's highly likely that the sides of the setts aren't cut or cropped to suit this laying method. If you rely on sand joints of more than around 5mm width, then the sand will disappear in a matter of weeks, and you'll be left with loose setts.

One compromise would be to use sand bedding with a weak sand/cement joint, but this is an unhappy mix of flexible and stiff. It may last a year or two, but, over the longer term, it's more or less guaranteed to fail.

If you plan to run vehicles over the completed sett pavement, then its worth doing the job properly, even if it may be lifted at some future date. For DIYers, a cement-bound bed with pitch or mortar jointing is the easiest option. A good streetmason can lay setts on unbound bedding, but it really does take a lot of experience to be able to judge just how to prepare the bed in such cases.