Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 12:32 am
First post, first attempt at paving. Greetings, everyone.
I came across this informative site whilst attempting to educate myself on the black arts of creating an aesthetically satisfactory paving job that'll be both functional and durable. Ultimately I don't want to make a gash job of it and I really only want to have to do it once.
Now, I like to believe that I can do anything I put my mind to really very well indeed. Innovate the worlds greatest innovations, reinvent the wheel, juggle 8 balls in one hand whilst operating a ventriloquist dummy doing Shakespear (drinking a glass of water at the same time,) you know. Occasionally when I fall over or bang my head, it occurs to me that I know sod all about most things; paving was amongst them unfortunately, and reading this site has reinforced just how little I actually knew.
On the upside, I found the site and it's been an education. On the downside, although I can read and even absorb small amounts of information, it turns out that I'm probably a bit of a monkey and I'm still not entirely sure about the correct way to do it. Hopefully you guys will be arm me with a good approach so that I'll only be up against my lack of skills and not my ignorance as well.
So now I'm happy we've established that I'm 'challenged,' onto the job.
This area -
was covered in these
'blue bricks', straight onto soil. It's now covered in about 5 inches of uncompacted MoT1 and I'm in the process of cleaning the bricks up and sorting out sizes. The bricks in the photo are all the same size (nominally) in plan but I think that some of the ones I haven't cleaned yet are different, which may or may not pose an issue; I won't know if I've got enough identical ones until I've sorted the rest of them out and counted them up.
Considering how long those bricks had probably been down there the integrity of the surface wasn't all that bad, the vast majority of the bricks hadn't moved a great deal and the moss growing between them had a certain charm. However, the rest of the house is having some long needed renovation (due to my redundancy and subsequent free time) and as part of the plan is for french doors and some hard surfacing at the back of the property (directly adjacent to the depicted area,) now seemed like a good time to dig up those blue bricks and spruce it up a bit.
Here's a CAD 'sketch' I did of the area.
It's not strictly correct as the top left hand corner is truncated where the gate comes across at an angle.
I've drawn the bricks 252.5 x 127.5 x 50 and drawn the mortar gap 15mm. The courses around the drain and IC look messy on the drawing (it's just how they ended up) and it doesn't represent how I envisage the finished job. I think it presents the dimensions and serves its purpose though.
Initially I was thinking about block paving around the side and the back of the house and dug out the whole area with this in mind. I have since changed my mind for a number of reasons. I actually really like those blue bricks and they continue from my garden through the alleyway to the front. The area is where my outside tap is and where mountain bikes and dogs are hosed down; it gets wet, often. The sun doesn't get to that area and I think block paving will go green.
After some thought and lots of nebbing over peoples' walls to look at their block paving, I don't really like it that much afterall and I certainly don't think it will look right for the area.
My intention is to re-lay these blue bricks properly (as well as I can with my limited skills anyway) at the side of the house and, if there are enough (which I sadly doubt) use them as an edging course around some natural stone or stone setts on the area adjacent to the blue brick in an attempt to provide some continuity (cohesion?) to the overall area(s.) I think I want to keep it simple; simple lines with natural materials - I have a feeling that anything too 'perfect' here may look out of place.
Hopefully I haven't waffled too much and you can see what I'm trying to achieve here so far. Any advice or suggestions are very much appreciated.
I understand I need to get a heavy whacker and do several passes to compact this MoT down well and get nice levels before I do anything more to this surface. That said, to spare you any more of my waffling I'll just try to list some things I'm unclear about now:
1. Should I be putting another layer of something on top of the MoT before I lay this surface?
2. I was going to lay onto a 40/50mm bed of 1:3 mortar made with sharp sand and a bit of frostproofing additive. Am I right in thinking that this too much mortar and that it would be be better to use 1:¼:3 with lime anyway?
3. Should I first lay a course around the drain at the right level and lay around the inspection chamber before I start laying the rest?
4. The Drain is the lowest part in this area and I can't do anything about the level of the edge, the alleyway or the drain. I've racked my brains and can't think of any way to eliminate this backfall towards the house. I can only assume that I have to try to 'use' it and lay the surface so it all falls towards the drain like this:
I'm stumped, even if this is how I should try to do it I've no clear idea of how best to set it out and start it. It's making my head hurt and I really want to get on with it.
5. Any suggestions as to what I ought to do here:
I intend to remove the mortar and surfacing from around the IC and make a neat course (probably a thin one by the look of it) around it, and I was going to strike a line from the corner of the house to the corner of the gate post and make a neat course across (to match the course around the IC) for the sake of making a neat edge. Part of me wonders whether it would look better, bearing in mind the imperfect surface I'll be laying, to match into the existing courses as best I can, at this edge?
For anyone still awake, I'll break off there before it becomes any more of an epic. Thank you for looking, any input on part or all of this is welcome and appreciated.
I came across this informative site whilst attempting to educate myself on the black arts of creating an aesthetically satisfactory paving job that'll be both functional and durable. Ultimately I don't want to make a gash job of it and I really only want to have to do it once.
Now, I like to believe that I can do anything I put my mind to really very well indeed. Innovate the worlds greatest innovations, reinvent the wheel, juggle 8 balls in one hand whilst operating a ventriloquist dummy doing Shakespear (drinking a glass of water at the same time,) you know. Occasionally when I fall over or bang my head, it occurs to me that I know sod all about most things; paving was amongst them unfortunately, and reading this site has reinforced just how little I actually knew.
On the upside, I found the site and it's been an education. On the downside, although I can read and even absorb small amounts of information, it turns out that I'm probably a bit of a monkey and I'm still not entirely sure about the correct way to do it. Hopefully you guys will be arm me with a good approach so that I'll only be up against my lack of skills and not my ignorance as well.
So now I'm happy we've established that I'm 'challenged,' onto the job.
This area -
was covered in these
'blue bricks', straight onto soil. It's now covered in about 5 inches of uncompacted MoT1 and I'm in the process of cleaning the bricks up and sorting out sizes. The bricks in the photo are all the same size (nominally) in plan but I think that some of the ones I haven't cleaned yet are different, which may or may not pose an issue; I won't know if I've got enough identical ones until I've sorted the rest of them out and counted them up.
Considering how long those bricks had probably been down there the integrity of the surface wasn't all that bad, the vast majority of the bricks hadn't moved a great deal and the moss growing between them had a certain charm. However, the rest of the house is having some long needed renovation (due to my redundancy and subsequent free time) and as part of the plan is for french doors and some hard surfacing at the back of the property (directly adjacent to the depicted area,) now seemed like a good time to dig up those blue bricks and spruce it up a bit.
Here's a CAD 'sketch' I did of the area.
It's not strictly correct as the top left hand corner is truncated where the gate comes across at an angle.
I've drawn the bricks 252.5 x 127.5 x 50 and drawn the mortar gap 15mm. The courses around the drain and IC look messy on the drawing (it's just how they ended up) and it doesn't represent how I envisage the finished job. I think it presents the dimensions and serves its purpose though.
Initially I was thinking about block paving around the side and the back of the house and dug out the whole area with this in mind. I have since changed my mind for a number of reasons. I actually really like those blue bricks and they continue from my garden through the alleyway to the front. The area is where my outside tap is and where mountain bikes and dogs are hosed down; it gets wet, often. The sun doesn't get to that area and I think block paving will go green.
After some thought and lots of nebbing over peoples' walls to look at their block paving, I don't really like it that much afterall and I certainly don't think it will look right for the area.
My intention is to re-lay these blue bricks properly (as well as I can with my limited skills anyway) at the side of the house and, if there are enough (which I sadly doubt) use them as an edging course around some natural stone or stone setts on the area adjacent to the blue brick in an attempt to provide some continuity (cohesion?) to the overall area(s.) I think I want to keep it simple; simple lines with natural materials - I have a feeling that anything too 'perfect' here may look out of place.
Hopefully I haven't waffled too much and you can see what I'm trying to achieve here so far. Any advice or suggestions are very much appreciated.
I understand I need to get a heavy whacker and do several passes to compact this MoT down well and get nice levels before I do anything more to this surface. That said, to spare you any more of my waffling I'll just try to list some things I'm unclear about now:
1. Should I be putting another layer of something on top of the MoT before I lay this surface?
2. I was going to lay onto a 40/50mm bed of 1:3 mortar made with sharp sand and a bit of frostproofing additive. Am I right in thinking that this too much mortar and that it would be be better to use 1:¼:3 with lime anyway?
3. Should I first lay a course around the drain at the right level and lay around the inspection chamber before I start laying the rest?
4. The Drain is the lowest part in this area and I can't do anything about the level of the edge, the alleyway or the drain. I've racked my brains and can't think of any way to eliminate this backfall towards the house. I can only assume that I have to try to 'use' it and lay the surface so it all falls towards the drain like this:
I'm stumped, even if this is how I should try to do it I've no clear idea of how best to set it out and start it. It's making my head hurt and I really want to get on with it.
5. Any suggestions as to what I ought to do here:
I intend to remove the mortar and surfacing from around the IC and make a neat course (probably a thin one by the look of it) around it, and I was going to strike a line from the corner of the house to the corner of the gate post and make a neat course across (to match the course around the IC) for the sake of making a neat edge. Part of me wonders whether it would look better, bearing in mind the imperfect surface I'll be laying, to match into the existing courses as best I can, at this edge?
For anyone still awake, I'll break off there before it becomes any more of an epic. Thank you for looking, any input on part or all of this is welcome and appreciated.
.
. I've never done anything like this before and we all have to start somewhere. Unfortunately I haven't got any images of how it was before but whatever I did I couldn't have made it worse!
