The Brew Cabin

I am about to have a go at laying an area of paving in my back garden which will be used for barbies e.t.c but I've never tried my hand at paving before and would appreciated some advice.

I have laid a brick border to prevent leeching/bleeding but i'm not sure what depth of soil to excavate and what type of bedding I should use. I've read various books but they all suggest different methods - the simplest of which seems to be to excavate down three inches and then just bed the slabs on sharp sand. However, I watched a gardening program last week in which the landscaper bedded slabs on what he referred to as 'dry mix' - which I'm assuming is some kind of sand and cement mix - but he didn't mention what ratio of sand to cement was used.

Need less to say, I'm a bit confused and would be grateful if anyone could point me in the right direction.

Would also like to congratulate Tony on a well run and informative site.

All the info you need is on the main website. Start on the Laying Flags page and then work your way through the subsequent pages.

Thanks Tony. Looks like I'll be using a 10:1 mix and laying them individually. Seems straight forward enough :)

I'm a bit confused myself.

If I use a 10:1 mix as a bedding layer for a light use patio, do I still have to compact it with a wacker plate?

Many thanks

Tony

From what I've learnt from Tony and his website, you don't need a wacker plate for a light use patio - simply trodding down the bedding material with your feet is good enough. Then loosen the top 15-25mm to allow the flag to be bedded down.

For heavy use or vehicular access, a well laid subbase and firm compaction method is needed.

I'm currently doing a light use patio but because of a soft subbase, I'm putting in the effort to lay a good granular sub base, including using a whacker to compress it. Maybe a bit over the top, but I'm planning on living in the house for a long long time, so I'd rather get the foundations right.

As I said above though, for the bedding layer I'll be using the good old trample with my boots method.

(Edited by InfAddict at 11:43 am on June 4, 2004)

Yep - Inf is right. You don't need to use a plate compactor for a patio - boot trampling is fine for this type of project.

Many thanks!