The Brew Cabin

I have to lay a new garden path - 15 metres in total - which I'd like to do in Riven slabs. The garden slopes quite significantly (30 degrees) across the width of the path so I need to build a small retaining wall on one side to make the path level (there is an existing high wall on the other side).

My question is; do I screed the path level with the retaining wall and lay the slabs directly on top of it or should there be a bed of motar between the slabs and the wall in which case how do I get the screed level right? Or should I simply lay shedloads of concrete and forget about slabs?

Hopefully this makes sense. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Great site by the way.


Joe

If you're laying the riven flags on top of the retainer wall, they need to be laid on a bed of 4:1 mortar, to ensure they can't slip off the edge. Laying on a screed of sand, or even sand and cenment, won't hold them in place.

Once you've got the edge flags bedded in place on the mortar, individual bedding is the easiest way to lay the rest of the flags, but, if you prefer to use a screed, then cut a notched screeder board, as shown for laying block paving. Assuming the riven flags are 35mm thick, a 30mm notch should be sufficient, but one of the problems with screeding from riven flags is that the screeded level tends to reflect the ups and downs of the riven surface. You can elinmoiate the worst of this by using a float or short straight-edged timber to tittivate the bedding layer once the screeded board has levelled it out.

HTH