The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Sun Jul 10, 2011 9:41 pm**

Hi all,

First post here. Great site & forum.

I'm in the process of redoing my patio and footpath around my house. The old concrete path moved away from the house by about an inch a few years back which I presume was due to settling of the garden. House was built 10 years ago. The patio section had a nice big split in it.

I've removed the old concrete and started a bit of digging to see how deep the drains were laid and how much fill was used.
The pipes are plastic.

I would like to lay clay pavers but the specified depth of bedding as seen here
http://www.pavingexpert.com/drain02.htm#bed
is a bit of a problem.

I have about 210mm from the top of the outside of the pipe at it's highest point to the point where the surface of the old concrete met the wall of the house. But it looks like I would need about 380mm to cater for paver (50mm), sand (30-35mm), fill (200mm) and granular material (100mm).

What options do I have with this?

Attached is a photo if it helps.
Appreciate any help.

Cheers,
Brian

Posted: **Mon Jul 11, 2011 7:13 am**

i'd put the bedding and run with what you have, the ground seems good.

Posted: **Mon Jul 11, 2011 7:52 am**

that applies to pipes in trenchs more than your situation brian
as long as you can get 75-100 type 1, 30-40mm of grit sand ,and your 50mm block and still be 150 below DPC then you are fine
cheers LLL

Posted: **Mon Jul 11, 2011 9:26 am**

why are yoi including granular material on your make up of sub base and bedding? Looks to me from your photo that you have plenty of room. You can bend the 150 below slightly as it is a private dwelling.

Posted: **Mon Jul 11, 2011 2:20 pm**

Thanks for replies guys. That helps a lot.

Re: question on granular material. I was just attempting to quote the info from the link I provided. It's all there in the page but maybe I didn't copy the terminology correctly.

So the following should work fine then ?

Clay paver - 50mm
Grit sand - 40mm
Type 1 - 100mm

This still leaves about 20mm to fill with pea gravel above the pipe. I assume pea gravel is used to protect the pipe as it would be relatively non-compressible. It is what is currently surrounding the pipe but hard to tell to what depth.

Posted: **Mon Jul 11, 2011 4:47 pm**

digdugdan wont be impressed

Posted: **Mon Jul 11, 2011 6:18 pm**

Yeah. I spotted that about 2 mins after registering. Oh well.

Posted: **Mon Jul 11, 2011 6:27 pm**

copying is the best form of flattery :p

Posted: **Mon Jul 11, 2011 8:00 pm**

dan you have a stalker :;):

dig dug you are worrying a bit too much
plastic pipes are fairly tough,and there will only be people walking on it
I would just put a bit more type 1 in and go easy with the wacker where the pipe is
LLL

Posted: **Mon Jul 11, 2011 8:40 pm**

Thanks LLL...you're probably right. I do tend to overanalyse a bit.

But it's my first time doing this and I'd hate to mess up. Plus I've got the in-laws watching with interest!

You've kind of answered one of my other questions. The existing sub-base that you can see in the photo doesn't look like it's strictly Type 1....a good few stones between 40-80mm. But for the most part it's fine grit and sub 40 so I'm tempted to just put some fresh Type 1 on top and whack down.

Posted: **Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:23 pm**

its not the great pyramid dig dug
an awful lot of patios that i remove have little or no subbase
there comes a point between cost and effect on a pedestrian area where you will gain 5 % in strength for double the money
i would spend the extra getting your clay blocks as they will make it a proper job compared top concrete blocks
LLL

The Brew Cabin

Bedding depth & type