Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 11:25 pm
Hi.
Having successfully laid a small Indian stone patio (flags laid straight onto a 6:1 dry mix) in our garden around 8 years ago, I've been tasked with laying another similar one elsewhere in the garden. This one's bigger and more visible so needs to go well - no pressure there then. Having come across the website I liked it so much I bought the book a couple of weeks ago and have read it pretty much cover to cover. All this information has probably lead to me be overthinking the task which in the scheme of things is fairly standard and ought to be simple. Despite searching the forum, I've ended up with a few questions...
1) We've had ants mining the sand out from another patio area and my wife is concerned that a 10:1 mix won't be strong enough. So to see how strong it is, I mixed a barrow of it as a dry mix and am pleasantly surprised how strong it is but wife is not convinced. Is 10:1 'ant proof'? I'm sure it is as if not you'd not recommend it but I'd hate to make an easy mistake.
2) The patio has one free edge so once the bedding (planning for semi dry or if hot, a moist mix) had cured, I was going to use an SBR slurry to stick 1 course of stones down along that edge. I'd even got as far as thinking I could paint the slurry onto the cured bed rather than the underside of the flag in an effort to reduce the chance of splashing the surounding stones. Then I saw a post on the Cabin where a variation of this method had failed and Mr C used the phrase 'Waste. Of. Time.'. Would my proposed method work? If not, for my education can someone advise why (curiosity - I'm not challanging the reply)?
3) Assuming I'll need to change the plan to paint the SBR as the slabs are being laid, given the short working life of the SBR slurry, either I mix up enough to do 1 (or at most 2 slabs) or, lay a dozen or so slabs, get them 100% levelled and then go back and paint the underside of the flag (or the bed
). To me, it seems easier to lay a dozen and then go back and bond them else I'll spend half my time washing the SBR brush & bucket so the slurry doesn't set on the brush and turn it into a solid block. Or am I missing something?
I'm amazed at how much info there is on the website (and the book has even more) so can't quite work out why having read all that, I've still got questions - but I have. I guess it's something to do with, when you don't have a good understanding of a subject, it's easy to worry about things that don't need worrying about.
So, as ever, all guidance is much appreciated.
Cheers.
Nigel.
Link to post on failed bonding: http://ext.pavingexpert.com/cgi-bin....t=15232
Having successfully laid a small Indian stone patio (flags laid straight onto a 6:1 dry mix) in our garden around 8 years ago, I've been tasked with laying another similar one elsewhere in the garden. This one's bigger and more visible so needs to go well - no pressure there then. Having come across the website I liked it so much I bought the book a couple of weeks ago and have read it pretty much cover to cover. All this information has probably lead to me be overthinking the task which in the scheme of things is fairly standard and ought to be simple. Despite searching the forum, I've ended up with a few questions...
1) We've had ants mining the sand out from another patio area and my wife is concerned that a 10:1 mix won't be strong enough. So to see how strong it is, I mixed a barrow of it as a dry mix and am pleasantly surprised how strong it is but wife is not convinced. Is 10:1 'ant proof'? I'm sure it is as if not you'd not recommend it but I'd hate to make an easy mistake.
2) The patio has one free edge so once the bedding (planning for semi dry or if hot, a moist mix) had cured, I was going to use an SBR slurry to stick 1 course of stones down along that edge. I'd even got as far as thinking I could paint the slurry onto the cured bed rather than the underside of the flag in an effort to reduce the chance of splashing the surounding stones. Then I saw a post on the Cabin where a variation of this method had failed and Mr C used the phrase 'Waste. Of. Time.'. Would my proposed method work? If not, for my education can someone advise why (curiosity - I'm not challanging the reply)?
3) Assuming I'll need to change the plan to paint the SBR as the slabs are being laid, given the short working life of the SBR slurry, either I mix up enough to do 1 (or at most 2 slabs) or, lay a dozen or so slabs, get them 100% levelled and then go back and paint the underside of the flag (or the bed
). To me, it seems easier to lay a dozen and then go back and bond them else I'll spend half my time washing the SBR brush & bucket so the slurry doesn't set on the brush and turn it into a solid block. Or am I missing something?I'm amazed at how much info there is on the website (and the book has even more) so can't quite work out why having read all that, I've still got questions - but I have. I guess it's something to do with, when you don't have a good understanding of a subject, it's easy to worry about things that don't need worrying about.
So, as ever, all guidance is much appreciated.
Cheers.
Nigel.
Link to post on failed bonding: http://ext.pavingexpert.com/cgi-bin....t=15232
