The Brew Cabin

I have been using pavingexpert as the tool to make our patio. This is a picture of where we are at :

http://www.aqvv76.dsl.pipex.com/images/ ... den-40.jpg

We built a small 2 brick high "retaining" wall then used a couple of cubic metres of granular sub-base to come up to an inch or two below the brick level after the vibrating plate.

We then used a 9:1 (sharp sand:cement) dry mix, compacted then pulled off the excess (screeding?!?!). The slabs were laid onto this a little "banging" with a rubber mallett got the slabs (Wickes 45x45cm "Buxton)kinda level. We used a heavier wet mix to set the edge slabs into place.

Because of some criteria sent by our best halves, we ended up with gaps upto 1cm between the slabs. What do you think we can "grout" this with ? What mix of sand:cement should we use as a dry mix to brush in ?

This has been as per the image for a couple of weeks.

Hmmm

be careful about a dry cement mix on that, It could well stain the slabs specially if you get heavy rain after you have done it.

You could try kiln dried sand as used on blockpaving, or poss a very fine gravel. Your main prob with either of those solutions will be the edges where it will poor out. You could try a bit of compo in the edges to prevent this from happening.

Other than that I'm not to sure the gaps look to small to be pointed to me.

Dom

you say gaps up to 1 cm what do they go down to as you can point 10mm gaps but if it gets to 5 or less youve got problems, are these gaps even at 10mm?

1cm = 10mm which is an ideal joint width for mortar. However, a wet mortar can be terribly messy in the wrong hands (hands that are unaccustomed to pointing) so try the very, very stiff mortar mix shown on the Pointing Case Study page.

You'll need to be patient and careful and prepared to put up with an aching back and sore knees, but it's usually worth the effort!

Hi,

Thanks for your messages.

The gaps aren't even - they are on average 10mm.

So if pointing is a goer - and very very stiff mortar mix will match my wrong hands status.

Only thing is our better halves don't want a "dark" mix, they'd prefer something a little darker than the tiles, but not too much. The last cement/sand mix i did was very grey - can it be "coloured"?

Yes mortars can be coloured and most of the powder mortar dies are added before the water so they will not affect how much water you need to add to the mix. As to how affective they are when fairly dry i could not answer but note the wetter the mortar the lighter it usually dries. Alan D.