Sika setting sand for block paving - Does anyone have any experience of this.

[Karanbajwa]

Hi there all ,
I have seen a product by Sika called setting sand for narrow joints, it is a moisture curing product marketed for use with block paving. Once swept in and exposed to moisture it sets hard

Does anyone have any experience of this ? Does it sound like a good idea over regular kiln dried sand?

Any replies or thoughts would be much appreciated

[MikeG]

Setting sand into a flexible paving system ? The two don’t go together in my book.

[Tony McC]

Apologies for being late to this - had all sorts of health issues with angina during the heatwave and now an arthritic knee that is driving me mad with pain.


It's a poor product by Sika's usually very high standards (exception being the God-Awful FastFix jointing mortar) and there is very limited need for it. In Britain and Ireland we have traditionally jointed with an unbound sand, and it has worked foine most of the time. There are obvious exceptions wherever there is severe scour by wind or suyrface water, and then maybe some form of stabiliser ois required, but these are the exceptions, not the rule.

For reasons best known to themselves, they do prefer a bound jointing medium in North America - you might expect it from the US: they elected aracist buffoon, after all, but we expect more of the Canadians - and that is where this product originates, and, again for unknown reasons, the US manufacturers can't fathom out why those stubborn Europeans just won't buy their over-priced sand...even though, as I've said, in most cases it's completely unnecessary.

If you must use a bound sand for the jointing of block paving, there are far better products, but I still believe a "regular" jointing sand with a good quality stabiliser fluid is a far better option....and considerably cheaper!

[Karanbajwa]

Thank you for the reply and insight much appreciated

[RAPressureWashing]

I'd stick with just Kiln Dried Sand, save yourself a lot of headaches.