The Brew Cabin

Apologies if this is submitted twice - I got a timeout on the first submission - not sure if it made it or not!

I have read the Crazy Paving section of your excellent web site but have one or two quesitons.

I have an area approx 12m x 12m in front of a double garage that I need to finish off. I would like to use a mixture of gravel and crazy paving (for both cost and aesthetic reasons). The crazy paving will be mostly pathways along the normal 'walking routes' plus some edge areas.

My questions are about how to lay the flags. There will be some car traffic over the crazy paving Your web site suggests 100mm bed of concrete, and your construction diagram at the end of the page seems to indicate that the flags are laid on the wet concrete base (rather than allowing the concrete to set and using a mortar base). Is this correct? If so I assume the concrete would be laid in small sections to give time to lay the paving without disturbing half set concrete.

What would you suggest for edging of the crazy paving. As I mentioned, there will be some car traffic so to prevent the edges collapsing I assume some type of edging will be required. Should I continue the concrete slab for for some distance (100-150mm ?? ) beyond the edges and just haunch some concrete up to the edge of the slabs, or are there other edging types that would be suitable.

Thanks in advance

Frank

You can choose the bedding method that suits you best. Bedding directly onto fresh concrete is cheaper, but you have to work at it to get the concrete covered before it gets too hard. Contractors prefer this method because we can lay 30 square metres or so in a couple of hours and then fall back to do the pointing/grouting.
For those with less experience, casting 30m² of concrete (3m³ @ 100mm thick) and trying to cover it with crazy paving in a couple of hours might be asking too much, but, if you do opt for this method, you could rely on site-mixed concrete, mixing and placing as required, rather than having Ready Mix delivered. If you use a realtively dry mix, just damp-ish rather than wet, then there's little or no chance of disturbing previously laid sections as work progresses.

Casting a base and then bedding onto mortar may be better suited to diyers, as you can place the concrete base, allow it to cure, and then knock up the mortar bedding as and when required, working at a pace to suit yourself. Obviously, using mortar and concrete is somewhat more costly, but it's not exactly bank-breaking.

As for an edging, it's not absolutely ncessary. If you are mortar bedding, then the pieces of flagstone are unlikely to move anyway, and, if you've opted for direct bedding onto concrete, using a wetter mix at the efreee dges will ensure a good bond between the flagstone and the bedding. However, if you do want to use an edging, you could use pieces of the broken concrete flagstone, laid on edge, with the formed edge uppermost, or you could use a pre-cast edging kerb, a block paver, a line of setts, or whatever takes your fancy.

Bringing the bedding up the sides of the free edges, as you describe, is a better construction and should normally be fine. No need to extend it by 100-150mm - just 25-50mm beyond the flags is fine, but then you need to consider what you will use beneath the gravel. bearing in mind that you only want 35mm or so of gravel, it might be easier to continue the concrete beneath the entire project and use the gravel as a surface dressing.

Thanks for the advice.