Gravel seating area

[HelenPoplett]

Hi
I'm currently re-planning a small town garden and would like to replace the lawn with a gravel seating area. The garden has no barrow access i.e. everything has to be carried through by hand. So I'd like to keep materials to a minimum. I want a surface that I can walk upon barefoot without discomfort.

I've read the advice on the site and a few postings here and have a few questions:

I'd originally thought of laying Breedon gravel but the area is north facing and the ground surface often damp - would a regular gravel be more suitable (and less likely to become claggy)?

The area will be low, foot-traffic only and laid over pretty compacted London Clay - can I 'get away' with laying only a membrane and a 40mm layer of gravel?

Many thanks
Helen

[lutonlagerlout]

helen have a look here for a good variety of stone,its not recommended what you suggest but i am sure it wont be the end of the world if it sinks a bit/lot,will it?
cheers LLL

[HelenPoplett]

Thanks for that LLL.

We are planning on hiring a plate compacter to make it as stable as possible - it's replacing a turf lawn which is very compacted itself and will be stripped away beforehand. Tony gives a spec for laying a 25-40mm gravel over membrane without a sub-base - will that be more succesfull than a self-binding gravel? And if so can i take it down to a 16-20mm gravel size without loosing the stability?

Ta,

Helen

[Tony McC]

25mm over a membrane with no sub-base? Do I? Oh: you mean the sketch? Mmm - that might disappear when I get around to re-doing that page.

I'd now recommend a sub-base in all cases, unless you have really form, solid, reliable clay or a gravelly sub-grade. 16-20mm gravel is unstable, if it's clean, so you need plenty of fines to stabilise it.

The Breedon or Cedec would be ideal, regardless of the orientation and traffic levels, and you;d get away with just 40-50mm of either. If you gho for a loose gravel (aka a Pea Gravel) then you really will need a sub-base and some form of edge restraint.

[HelenPoplett]

Thanks Tony.

We are currently putting in timber edging boards all round the area. We stripped the old turf today and as anticipated it is underlaid with very compacted London clay. Would compacting the soil further with a plate compactor before laying the membrane and gravel be worthwhile?

I've ordered 20mm Dorset pebble for the area, would adding fines such as sharp sand add enough stability?

Ta,
Helen