The Brew Cabin

Hi there from sunny Sutton (must be dreaming!). Absolutely brilliant site, Tony - already spent far too much time browsing rather than doing my own job and earning a living.....

OK, the problem: I need to repair my patio and garden path, both of which are crazy paving. The patio (160 sq ft) appears to be laid on fine-ish sand and the occasional area of what looks like red cement(?). Most of it is in good nick but there are small collapses here and there, and voids under some of the paving stones.

The garden path (70 cm x 14 m) was laid straight onto the soil (heavy-ish clay) and is 50% 'buggered' - mortar gone, slabs sunk, water pools. The paving is natural stone but I've no idea what sort - pale grey, fine grained and very smooth on top and completely rough underneath. I would rather not rip up the whole patio unless I really, *really* have to but would prefer a temporary solution until cash and time is available for the big job.

However, the mortar used is 'weird'. It is white with small (3-5 mm) stone chips and glassy smooth.

Any ideas about the best approach, the mortar? For the path, I'm happy to lose the crazy paving - I just need a quick and not too expensive replacement that is kid resistant (which with my two is equivalent to heavy traffic by stampeding tyrannosaurs) and which enjoys major flooding by new neighbour with his hours of #'*!*@ incessant lawn watering.

Red cement? I guess you mean 'mortar' rather than cement, and a red mortar is not that unusual, if it's prepared using a reddish building sand, as is common here in the North-west of England.

The 'voids' sound worrying - that's something normally seen with the hated spot-bedding,. Does that sound right?

Anyway, to rectify the path - I can't say what would be best unless I could see the paving for myself (and I'm guessing that your "Sutton" isn't the one just up the road in St. Helens). You could make a temporary repair to the lost or sunken paving by overlaying with a fine-grained concrete, but I'm not sure how feasible that would be.

If you were looking for a cheap, temporary surfacing as a replacement, then gravel of some form would be the answer, but it doesn't respond well to regular inundation. Still, when you come to do the permanent job, the gravel can be reclaimed and used a coarse aggregate for concrete.

Next cheapest solution would be to use the nasty little 99p flags from the DIY sheds and bed them onto a semi-dry mix, but, if you're going to that sort of time and expense, it's debatable whether you;re not better off doing the 'permanent' fix now, and saving all that effort.

What were you thinking of using for the "big job"?