Hi there Tony and friends,
First let me say - what a great site! extremly useful for the Patio beginner like me!
I would like some advice on how to go about making a Patio boarded by sleepers. I've never laid a patio before. I have an area thats about 3m x 3m that I would like to pave with 300mmx300mm Marshalls block paving. However my garden is on a bitof a slope so the patio needs to be raised up on an earth mound from the level of the lawn. I have some pics here ( I have started digging the area out and leveling the earth):
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/parham1975/DSC00849.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/parham1975/DSC00848.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/parham1975/DSC00847.jpg
You can see theres a fence then a earth bank then a flat area where I want to put the patio then another bank down to the lawn level. Here's what I was thinking of doing:
Create a border all around the patio area using wooden sleepers. I plan to dig a shallow level trench for the sleepers, lay them in then use some wooden pegs to knock into the ground along the sleepers and screw to the sleepers to stop them moving about. Then I thought I would go for ~4cm of cement sand 1:10 mix, level that off (with a drainage slope) and lay the patio on that.
Can anyone tell me if that's the best way to go about this? Should the sleepers be concreted in or anything? Also I guess I need to hire a compactor and really press the earth down to make sure its stable? I'm hoping for some reassurance I'm on the right lines with this project since it's my first go!
Thanks all
