Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2015 1:11 am
About 5 years ago I had my garden paved by a 'professional'.
He put down type 1 as a base and then used a sand/cement mortar to bed the slabs - a lot of the slabs were dot and dabbed.
At the moment I am having some other general buidling work done to my house and I asked the builder to build me a garden wall. We got talking about the paving and noted that in one place the fall seems a bit weird (to be fair my garden layout does make it difficult to try and get the patio to make water drain away easily).
Some of the slabs may have sunk (my house has been a building site for past year so had loads of materials like bricks etc on the slabs)
I said I would take up a section of slabs (about 40% of the patio) and we would look at getting him to relay. This was the area where the fall and level seemed dodgy.
I have taken this section up and as thought by the builder the slabs were dot and dabbed - the mortar goes round all 4 edges of each slab and a dot in the middle.
As I have gone this far I am now thinking about taking the lot up - just to make sure it is all done nicely, consistently and for peace of mind.
Anyway, getting to my question.
The builder has said he would take the old mortar out and concrete back up to the right level and then re-lay the slabs. Ive no doubt the method he would use would give me an absolute rock solid foundation.
The problem is - breaking up the mortar will obviously be time consuming and also there will be enough rubbish to have to get a skip - something I am loathe to do as I have already spent the best part of £800 on getting rid of rubbish already and was hoping i wouldn't have to.
I will also have to be spend money on materials (cement/ballast) whilst I am throwing away mortar that is solid.
One of my neighbours is a builder and I was talking to him about it - he said one way around it is simply to screed it by filling in all the gaps - that will then give me a new flat surface on which the slabs can be bedded - this would mean my slab level will rise by a few cm bit will not be a problem from a damp proof course side of things.
I ran this suggestion past my current builder - he doesn't want to do this as he said sand/cement mortar is not as strong as concrete and I will end up (I guess) with too thick a slab of mortar. His view is basically do it the best way or don't do it at all (i.e he only wnats to do it his way).
The existing mortar that is under the slabs is ROCK SOLID. I am 99% sure if the gaps were filled in (and more improtantly the levels were sorted) it would be fine as a base.
So whats the deal - can the mortar be too think or is my builder going overboard?
There is no pressure from my builder to do it his way he is happy to do it or not do it but he will only do it his way - but obviously I need to weight up costs and as I say I don't want to bash up and remove the current mortar if it does the job.
He put down type 1 as a base and then used a sand/cement mortar to bed the slabs - a lot of the slabs were dot and dabbed.
At the moment I am having some other general buidling work done to my house and I asked the builder to build me a garden wall. We got talking about the paving and noted that in one place the fall seems a bit weird (to be fair my garden layout does make it difficult to try and get the patio to make water drain away easily).
Some of the slabs may have sunk (my house has been a building site for past year so had loads of materials like bricks etc on the slabs)
I said I would take up a section of slabs (about 40% of the patio) and we would look at getting him to relay. This was the area where the fall and level seemed dodgy.
I have taken this section up and as thought by the builder the slabs were dot and dabbed - the mortar goes round all 4 edges of each slab and a dot in the middle.
As I have gone this far I am now thinking about taking the lot up - just to make sure it is all done nicely, consistently and for peace of mind.
Anyway, getting to my question.
The builder has said he would take the old mortar out and concrete back up to the right level and then re-lay the slabs. Ive no doubt the method he would use would give me an absolute rock solid foundation.
The problem is - breaking up the mortar will obviously be time consuming and also there will be enough rubbish to have to get a skip - something I am loathe to do as I have already spent the best part of £800 on getting rid of rubbish already and was hoping i wouldn't have to.
I will also have to be spend money on materials (cement/ballast) whilst I am throwing away mortar that is solid.
One of my neighbours is a builder and I was talking to him about it - he said one way around it is simply to screed it by filling in all the gaps - that will then give me a new flat surface on which the slabs can be bedded - this would mean my slab level will rise by a few cm bit will not be a problem from a damp proof course side of things.
I ran this suggestion past my current builder - he doesn't want to do this as he said sand/cement mortar is not as strong as concrete and I will end up (I guess) with too thick a slab of mortar. His view is basically do it the best way or don't do it at all (i.e he only wnats to do it his way).
The existing mortar that is under the slabs is ROCK SOLID. I am 99% sure if the gaps were filled in (and more improtantly the levels were sorted) it would be fine as a base.
So whats the deal - can the mortar be too think or is my builder going overboard?
There is no pressure from my builder to do it his way he is happy to do it or not do it but he will only do it his way - but obviously I need to weight up costs and as I say I don't want to bash up and remove the current mortar if it does the job.
