The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Sat Jan 07, 2006 12:18 pm**

We had our garden landscaped two and a half years ago incl about 50m2 of bredon gravel paths around the lawn area. These have been very disappointing, the surface seems always damp,slippery and soft and covered in moss.
I have dug down in one area and the gravel layer seems to be about 40mm thick and there does seem to be a good sub-base of 75mm or so. There is no sign of a membrane below that.
We suspect that the gravel may not have been rolled with a heavy roller when laid. Could that be the cause of the problem?
What is the best solution? Dig up the gravel and relay and roll or put a new layer on top and roll?
Compliments on the site by the way -very helpful for a complete layman like me!

Posted: **Sat Jan 07, 2006 1:30 pm**

Whether the gravel was rolled or not will have no bearing on what you're now reporting. The gravel will have compacted naturally over the intervening period, and although it should have been rolled-in when first laid, that is not the reason for it now being mossy.

If it's damp, that suggests the ground itself is damp and that the Breedon is acting as a huge wick. Slippery? Not sure how a slef-binding gravel can be slippery, unless it's a result of vegetation. Soft - again not sure what you mean. If there's a decent sub-base and then 40mm of the gravel, the only way there can be soft spots is if the underlying sub-grade is exceptionally soft. As for the moss, that's probably because of the continual damp - I'd even hazard a guess that it's a shady spot, too.

A mosskiller will control the vegetation but may slightly discolour the gravel. The damp is a fact of life and short of installing a complex and costly sub-surface drainage system you will just have to learn to live with it. The soft spots may need further investigation to determine just why they are soft. It may be that areas need re-constructing with a membrane between the sub-grade and sub-base to 'stiffen' the construction.

The Brew Cabin

Bredon gravel problem