The Brew Cabin

I have recently decided to extend the one row of paving in my garden to become a full patio. Upon lifting and excavating the area to be paved it appears that those nice builders laid the original paving slabs directly on concrete. I am presuming the best approach now would be to use a base of concrete for the entire area. Would anyone agree (or disagree and have a better idea)?

There is a lot of concrete in place at the moment, far too much to excavate without hiring some heavy machinery, and it is about 200mm below the dpc so with 35mm slabs it doesn't give much room to play with.

Thoughts and suggestions very gratefully received. Thanks.

Will the paving of the new patio match the existing paving, or will it all be new paving?

Assuming it's all going to be new, I'd lay the extended area on my usual patio bedding mix (semi-dry, 10:1, sharp sand with cement, no added water) and lay over the old concrete base (assuming the old flags can be separated from the concrete) using a thin full bed of a Class IV mortar.

There's no need to cast a concrete slab beneath the patio just to match the one course of paving that's already present, unless you have really bad ground.

It will all be new, have already lifted the old slabs (50mm std looking pavement slabs laid directly on the concrete - they were heavy) so will crack on as suggested.

You are a legend, thanks for the time taken... might even post back when I finally get this finished, the 130 450x450x35 slabs arrive next week!!

Please do post back - it's always good to hear how Brew Cabin users get on with their projects, and your experiences may well help some future user.

Good luck! :)