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Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 10:49 pm
by ph0u203d
I've just laid a 6m2 patio with 450x450mm & 600x450mm dark grey slabs. I've pointed the slabs with a light-coloured mortar, which has now set, but is slightly below the level of the slabs.
I'd like to cover the mortar pointing with some small white gravel. I've had a quick go at doing this 'dry' & the gravel does fit on top of the mortar (fairly flush with surface of slabs), but my immediate thought was that some would eventually blow out & I'd spend forever replacing it. Also, I'd imagine it would be a nightmare to brush/wash the patio, with the gravel moving out of the joints & on to the slabs.
Does anyone have any experience of setting gravel on top of existing mortar pointing? For example, is there a solution I could use (PVA-based etc?) to coat the gravel & cause it to stick to the mortar underneath?
Any help would be great.
Thanks.
Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 6:47 am
by seanandruby
go to the main index and look up resin bonded surfaces.
Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 2:39 pm
by lutonlagerlout
ph0u203d wrote:I've just laid a 6m2 patio with 450x450mm & 600x450mm dark grey slabs. I've pointed the slabs with a light-coloured mortar, which has now set, but is slightly below the level of the slabs.
I'd like to cover the mortar pointing with some small white gravel. I've had a quick go at doing this 'dry' & the gravel does fit on top of the mortar (fairly flush with surface of slabs), but my immediate thought was that some would eventually blow out & I'd spend forever replacing it. Also, I'd imagine it would be a nightmare to brush/wash the patio, with the gravel moving out of the joints & on to the slabs.
Does anyone have any experience of setting gravel on top of existing mortar pointing? For example, is there a solution I could use (PVA-based etc?) to coat the gravel & cause it to stick to the mortar underneath?
Any help would be great.
Thanks.
it may look great to start ,but give it a few months and the gravel will be full of deitrius ,you probably could point with a coloured mortar and push gravel in but i dont think it would last
LLL
Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 9:04 pm
by Tony McC
Gravel-dressed jointing is one of those ideas that are only ever considered viable by those with no experience of hard-landscaping in the real world. It's a neat idea for a show garden, or somewhere that will be preened and pimped on a daily basis, but for everyday gardens and patios, it's much better to keep the jointing as simple and low-maintenance as possible.
Heed what LLL says: you'd be sick to death of the maintenance by the end of the summer, honestly!
However, if you really must have a decorative gravel joint, the best way to achieve it is to use the type of resin more normally used to bind deco aggs in resin-bound surfacing. For this, the joint needs to be at least partially-filled with the chosen gravel over which the resin is poured. When done properly, the resin fills most of the voids and so limits the number of hidey-holes for detritus. Once set, it should be possible to power-wash the whole patio without the risk of losing the jointing.
Romex sell a resin that is ideally suited for this type of job - if you can find them. It's branded as Romex Deko - see their website for more info, but be warned that I don't know of any distributors in Britain.