The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Sat Jul 24, 2010 2:12 pm**

Hi,

I'm hoping someone might save me wasting my time!

I've an old hedge and a pathway down the side of the house which has always looked dull and depressing. The hedge looks diseased and the pathway is made up of 15 Council slabs, 90 by 60 cms, laid in a soldier pattern next to the house. They've been laid on a thin layer of sand on top of what is very dense clay soil.

My wife is working on the "green" stuff and I've been tasked with the path.

Rather than re-cycle or dump the slabs, I'd like to re-use them and I was thinking of breaking them up to make a "crazy" pattern. This would give some flexibility to the design and make the handling of the slabs much easier for me. My question is: How easily will a concrete slab (they're about 5 cms thick) break up? I've seen some natural stone that you can buy already broken up for crazy paving and I thought that perhaps the natural stone may break up more easily and in a more random pattern. What do you reckon? Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

Regards, Lewis

Posted: **Sat Jul 24, 2010 2:31 pm**

its called crazy paving because you must be crazy to want it
its probably 1 of the most difficult pavements to construct well
basically dont do it
if you want to re use the slabs hire a crusher and crush them then use this as a sub base for some deco gravel or block paving
cheers LLL

Posted: **Sat Jul 24, 2010 2:40 pm**

i dont like it either, broken up council slabs IMO will look gash, on the other hand MSH did a crazy paved job using reclaimed york stone that looked a v good job but not my cup of tea im afraid.

I do love excavating awful crazy paved driveways to make way for a much nicer surface lol :p

Posted: **Sat Jul 24, 2010 3:02 pm**

Thanks LLL and DN. I thought I was trying to push what was basically a bad idea!

Posted: **Sat Jul 24, 2010 3:37 pm**

crazy paving ....take a look

have a look at this MSH

Posted: **Sat Jul 24, 2010 9:27 pm**

Why not just give them a good clean? With the hedge gone it will look tidier.

Posted: **Sun Jul 25, 2010 6:23 pm**

Thanks for all the replies.

Sean: just standing there with a jet washer does sound a more attractive option and you're right: it might make it look good enough.

MSH: That's a great job you did there and is exactly what I visualised for my path. Your story of this job scares the hell out of me. I know it will be more work breaking up the slabs (and I've no idea how well they will break up) and trying to find the right pieces to fit in a metre wide path might be even more difficult. Maybe I'll lift the slabs and just start from scratch.

Posted: **Sun Jul 25, 2010 6:41 pm**

I dont know why your worried about breaking them up, thats the easy bit, big hammer and 10 minutes youll soon have a heap of naff looking paving for you path :p

Id much sooner lay somthing other than crazy or like sean suggested give em a good wash.

Posted: **Sun Jul 25, 2010 7:17 pm**

straight to the point there DN.......no messin with your thoughts
MSH

Posted: **Sun Jul 25, 2010 7:56 pm**

in essex.you see people having new drives done in crazy paving still i say to my southern mrs you wouldnt see that oop north .crazy in my opinion .last laid it about 1987.

Posted: **Sun Jul 25, 2010 8:24 pm**

Sorry wasnt meaning to be rude, just meant that breaking them up is easy as compared to the skilled effort required to make a good job of crazy paving.

Posted: **Sun Jul 25, 2010 8:43 pm**

DNG, are you saying that crazy paving is not all that its cracked up to be ???

Posted: **Sun Jul 25, 2010 8:52 pm**

u on about joe cole again flow :;):

Posted: **Sun Jul 25, 2010 9:00 pm**

eres wot ya want

just the right size for most jobs

i hate crazy paveing loads of my customers have it and its a bugger to keep the weeds out of it when the pointing starts to break up

Posted: **Sun Jul 25, 2010 9:07 pm**

ha ha flow joe

The Brew Cabin

Council slabs & crazy paving - Council slabs & crazy paving