The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Tue Nov 09, 2010 9:04 am**

Hi All,

Tony, this is a great website, and there is no way that I would have contemplated laying my own block paved driveway if it weren't for the huge amount of detailed info on your site - Thanks!

I do have one question, however.....I'm just about to start laying 60sqm of tegula block, having already completed the sub base and concreted the edges.
It is very likely that it will rain before I manage to get all the blocks down, BUT, as long as I'm not actually laying the blocks onto wet sand, is it OK to leave the laid blocks exposed to the rain before they have been compacted? I was thinking of laying all the blocks before doing any compaction - does that sound reasonable?

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated!

Steve

Posted: **Tue Nov 09, 2010 9:25 am**

yes your correct Stevie, as long as the sand laying course has been compacted before it get saturated with rain water you can continue with the sand screeding and laying of the block paving

its only when the sand laying course has been spread out over the driveway and not compacted you will have problems as the vibrating plate will bring the water out of the sand and turn it into a slurry

when you have completed the laying of the full blocks and all of the cuts due to the wet weather we are having this time of year you will only get a little bit of kiln dried jointing sand into the top of the joints when the blocks are wet

you can force more sand into the joints by using a hose pipe and brushing a slurry of kiln dried sand over the entire surface until the joints are filled, then using the hose on a fine spray remove most of the surplus sand

whilst the work is in progress don't park on any of the uncompleted work until the joints of the block paving have been filled to the top and compacted

Posted: **Tue Nov 09, 2010 10:46 am**

According to the British Standard, we're supposed to compact to within 1 metre of the leading edge at the end of each day's work, but how many of us actually work that way?

Generally speaking, for driveway projects, leaving blocks uncompacted for a few days is no great problem, regardless of what the weather throws at them, but keep foot traffic to a minimum and no vehicles or other heavy usage whatsoever.

Posted: **Tue Nov 09, 2010 6:34 pm**

Thanks for the quick responses mickg and Tony McC.

That's exactly what I wanted to know - I'll make a start tomorrow (if its not raining too much)!

Thanks again!

Steve

The Brew Cabin

Laying and compacting around the rain