Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 3:19 pm
Hello all,
What a great resource this place is ... Just one little question though.
I am in the process of laying a driveway, and replacing the council laid paving slabs forming our original pathway along the side of the house. My intention is to do so with exposed aggregate concrete, using the Surfaced dressed method, and do the vast amount of work myself (Although I do have a son to do a chunk of the heavy work
)
The 'main' slab will be 6.1 by 3.6m with a 8.5 by 1.2m 'path' down the side of the house. As the lay of the land is downhill from the road to our house, I'm laying acodrain about .75m from the house across the width of the 'drive' slab, and along the side of the 'path' slab, which will output into the existing storm water drain. So far I have dug down 250mm and laid 120-150mm deep type 1 MOT sub base which has been compacted with a whacker. My initial thoughts were to have the slab laid in one piece, but then I woke up when I realised that for a 100mm thick slab will be 3.5 cu metres of concrete, PLUS the decorative agg, and as an amateur is probably a bit much to lay in one go, plus a monolithic slab will almost certainly crack.
So according to Tony's formula I need expansion joints every 3 to 3.5m which means that I can have a go at this over two days. It's easy enough to splt the main slab into 4, but I'm concerned about the path ... I seem to recall reading somewhere that when the slab is 'narrow' the standard formula doesn't necessarily apply, and you need to reduce the spacing of the joints ... but I can't find the page now
So should I reduce the gap between joints down to say 1.5 or 2m for the 'path' slab?
The other question is simply should I reinforce the joints, although I have a firm sub base down, the ground here is clay, and what I don't want is the individual mini slabs moving or settling?
What a great resource this place is ... Just one little question though.
I am in the process of laying a driveway, and replacing the council laid paving slabs forming our original pathway along the side of the house. My intention is to do so with exposed aggregate concrete, using the Surfaced dressed method, and do the vast amount of work myself (Although I do have a son to do a chunk of the heavy work
)The 'main' slab will be 6.1 by 3.6m with a 8.5 by 1.2m 'path' down the side of the house. As the lay of the land is downhill from the road to our house, I'm laying acodrain about .75m from the house across the width of the 'drive' slab, and along the side of the 'path' slab, which will output into the existing storm water drain. So far I have dug down 250mm and laid 120-150mm deep type 1 MOT sub base which has been compacted with a whacker. My initial thoughts were to have the slab laid in one piece, but then I woke up when I realised that for a 100mm thick slab will be 3.5 cu metres of concrete, PLUS the decorative agg, and as an amateur is probably a bit much to lay in one go, plus a monolithic slab will almost certainly crack.
So according to Tony's formula I need expansion joints every 3 to 3.5m which means that I can have a go at this over two days. It's easy enough to splt the main slab into 4, but I'm concerned about the path ... I seem to recall reading somewhere that when the slab is 'narrow' the standard formula doesn't necessarily apply, and you need to reduce the spacing of the joints ... but I can't find the page now
So should I reduce the gap between joints down to say 1.5 or 2m for the 'path' slab?The other question is simply should I reinforce the joints, although I have a firm sub base down, the ground here is clay, and what I don't want is the individual mini slabs moving or settling?