Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 10:22 pm
I'm in the middle of a 150m2 paving project in France. I've been following the advice on this site avidly.
So far so good. Laid Drainage and terraces the drive, compacted etc. I made a few deviations from your recommendations. I laid Geotexile barrier between the sub base and the sand bedding layer, as I saw all the French paving sites I browsed, advise to do it this way. I have a clay sub grade and it is very compacted; Had it rolled once with a 2 tonne sit-on roller and again with 650Kg power roller, so I'm mainly worried about sand washing down into sub-base and not the subgrade being undermined. Intially it was a bit loose. although I did add extra grit sand to fill the voids and whack down before laying the geotextile. The 150 euros it cost wasn't expensive compared to the 3500 euros for the pavers, so why not over engineer a little ?
So now for my real questions.
Q1
I'm using a 12x12x6 square concrete paver, which is has been finished to make to look old, byy chiping and rounding the edges, What this does however means that the fit between others is a bit looser and boy do they drain well. Even with torrential rail all the water sinks into my sub-base and my expensively laid drainage system is somewhat underutilised. As the joints are a little bigger can I get away with normal fine sand as long as it's dry for jointing. At my local French builders yard, which stocks everything you can imagine, they didn't seen to stock jointing sand. They told me to use Sable de Biot, which is the fine grade yellow sand. I did find a link at another builder merchants However.
French Jointing Sand ?
This is polymer sand and apparently you put it down dry, and then hose it down well. I which point it sets hard and self seals, preventing the sand from being washed away. Does this sound like right product ? In which case I wouldn't need to also use a joint sealant.
Q2
I have one section I need to pave which is at a 30degree angle. It's only a 1m2 area. Should I concrete the pavers down over this area.
Q3
I haven't used an edge course for much of the borders as I have dry stone walls which border the paved area. The trouble is that edge is not dead straight as the stones are irregular shapes as they butt up against the paving. This means that some gaps as much as 5cm are present. I was thinking about using a dry mix (sand,cement, colour) and adding this to fill the gaps. Then filling all other joints with with fine sand. In this way after whacking down the holes would be filled and the mortar would set. Is there a better option ? I'm worried that the paving could become bit loose and push into these gaps at the edges
Q4
My blocks already have quite alot of chips, but I don't want to add too many more. When I whack the pavers down, I was therefore wanting to use a sole, can I improvise with a bit of old foam back carpet taped in place ?
So far so good. Laid Drainage and terraces the drive, compacted etc. I made a few deviations from your recommendations. I laid Geotexile barrier between the sub base and the sand bedding layer, as I saw all the French paving sites I browsed, advise to do it this way. I have a clay sub grade and it is very compacted; Had it rolled once with a 2 tonne sit-on roller and again with 650Kg power roller, so I'm mainly worried about sand washing down into sub-base and not the subgrade being undermined. Intially it was a bit loose. although I did add extra grit sand to fill the voids and whack down before laying the geotextile. The 150 euros it cost wasn't expensive compared to the 3500 euros for the pavers, so why not over engineer a little ?
So now for my real questions.
Q1
I'm using a 12x12x6 square concrete paver, which is has been finished to make to look old, byy chiping and rounding the edges, What this does however means that the fit between others is a bit looser and boy do they drain well. Even with torrential rail all the water sinks into my sub-base and my expensively laid drainage system is somewhat underutilised. As the joints are a little bigger can I get away with normal fine sand as long as it's dry for jointing. At my local French builders yard, which stocks everything you can imagine, they didn't seen to stock jointing sand. They told me to use Sable de Biot, which is the fine grade yellow sand. I did find a link at another builder merchants However.
French Jointing Sand ?
This is polymer sand and apparently you put it down dry, and then hose it down well. I which point it sets hard and self seals, preventing the sand from being washed away. Does this sound like right product ? In which case I wouldn't need to also use a joint sealant.
Q2
I have one section I need to pave which is at a 30degree angle. It's only a 1m2 area. Should I concrete the pavers down over this area.
Q3
I haven't used an edge course for much of the borders as I have dry stone walls which border the paved area. The trouble is that edge is not dead straight as the stones are irregular shapes as they butt up against the paving. This means that some gaps as much as 5cm are present. I was thinking about using a dry mix (sand,cement, colour) and adding this to fill the gaps. Then filling all other joints with with fine sand. In this way after whacking down the holes would be filled and the mortar would set. Is there a better option ? I'm worried that the paving could become bit loose and push into these gaps at the edges
Q4
My blocks already have quite alot of chips, but I don't want to add too many more. When I whack the pavers down, I was therefore wanting to use a sole, can I improvise with a bit of old foam back carpet taped in place ?
