I have just started to pave the driveway at the front of my house and am using a mix of block paving and concrete flags. As you can see the curvy bits are herringbone block paved and will be subject to just foot traffic.
where the herringbone block paving finishes I am changing the pattern of the paving and creating an oblong 'panel' approx 4.5 mtrs x 9 mtrs which is where my car will be parked. I thought it would look nice if I used 600 x 600 x 50 concrete flags laid in a diamond pattern with a border of block pavers around each group of four flags. The 'panel' as a whole will be bordered by a row of charcoal pavers on the outside followed by a strip of 150mm wide flag (normally used as a kerb I think) followed by a row of brindle block pavers laid as 'headers' and then the diamond pattern flag/pavers to fill in the centre. The idea is to make the area look like a persian carpet effect.
Perhaps these pictures will explain - I have just roughly placed the setup in position to see how it will look.
Questions.
Have I gone way over the top and made the whole lot too complicated?
The sub base is about 150mm thick crusher run wackered in layers and (very carefully) laid to falls and has been down for a few months and lies approx 80 - 100mm below the finished top surface of the proposed paving. This gives me the final layers of 50mm block paver/flag and 30 - 50mm screeded bed.
Will this withstand the weight of my car?
Should I put cement in the sharp sand screed and if so how much?
Should I lay the flags dry edge to edge or would they be better pointed between?
If pointed how do I finish the pointing where flag meets block paver border.
not to sure about laying concrete slabs on sharp sand and then running a wacker over them i assume thats what your planning on.if the slabs dont break they will not compact with the blocks due to surface area.i would lay the slabs on sharp sand cement(slabs only) first and then follow with the blocks that goes with the 150 edgings as well.keep us updated interested with the pattern..
I'm no expert but I would lay the outer edge first to get the levels, then the flags and lastly the blocks since they are much easier to "adjust" to fit.
The viewers eye will see the flags first so they must be perfect.
Flags, blocks, sand and cement are being dropped tomorrow morning so, thunderstorms permitting, by the end of the weekend I should have a result.
I guess the sharp sand screed is best mixed 10:1 with cement then?
I have checked out a few local drives done with a flag/block mix and to be honest most of them are pointed between the flags -I think I'm gonna lay mine dry though with a dried sand fill for the joints.
I think the corners will look better mitred too and also I had considered cutting the 150mm wide flag edgings in half or even three as they are gonna be prone to breaking if left in one full 900mm length.
I'll post a piccy or two when it's done. (assuming I don't cock it up, he he)
Well, I've done the front bit and now I'm working on the side of the house but I wouldn't have said it was easy.
I took a great deal of time and trouble to ensure the sub base was laid to the correct fall and uniformly flat and then I made sure my screeded 10:1 sand/cement dry mix was well compacted and dead flat between the screed rails (you could have played snooker on it!) but I still found that the flags wouldn't lay evenly.
I kept getting "steps" in the group of four flags laid as a diamond - sometimes as much as 1/4 inch up on one side !!
I thought 'surely I can't have got the base so far out of true' and eventually I found out why - the bloody flags weren't all the same thickness.
From the same pack they could vary in thickness up to 6mm. Is this normal?
Some of the flags are thicker at one end than t'other !!
If the manufacturers can't get em even how the hell am I supposed to?
What is the acceptable tolerance in flagging terms?
Yeah the thickness of slabs is almost always inconsistent. Individual bedding is the best way to lay slabs i feel. Ive done screed bedding before but after all the time it took getting the levels etc i was quicker doing it the way i was taught. Some manufacturers are worse than others for it.
just wondered how many cuts you had to do? for each infil it looks like at least 12 cuts from large down to darts. must of ran into hundreds? was it worth it? couldnt imagine pricing that up.
.....can't believe it's over two years since I posted this. I finshed the front area of the house and it looks really good and hasn't moved a fraction since it was laid despite the constant traffic from my car and van. Result!
Due to various factors I'm only now getting round to completing the side of the house, (the other leg of the 'L' shaped drive). I'd originally intended this to be just done in Autumn standard block pavers to match those used at the front but after seeing some local jobs done in a tumbled random block (Drivesett or Woburn or w.h.y) I was wondering whether or not I could use those for the second part? Would it look too patchy having a different block at the front and side?
I've noticed that in urban towncentre projects many textures and colours seem to be used rather than one large expanse of all the same block. Strolling through my local town recently I counted seven different paving surfaces used in one pedestrian area - everything from clay pavers to natural stone flags.
The area I've already completed at the front is probably about 40 sq mtrs and the area at the side which I'm about to start is probably about the same. Could I put a strong visual border now to the first part and change to a tumbled random block for the second part?
I suspect the preponderance of different surfaces in your local town centre is more a result of incompetence than design! I was talking to someone this week about the total bloody mish-mash of surfaces that are beginning to blight many of our urban centres. There's no consistency, no overall styling, just whatever some sales rep managed to flag to the local authority that week, and it looks a right bloody mess - or it does in the particular seaside town we were discussing.
Anyway, back to your project: if you use a break band to delineate the old from the new, there's no reason why you can't switch over to a tumbled block. I'd aim for something for a similar colour palette to what you already have, but a change in texture would help emphasis the different use.
