Planning Your Patio

Forward planning will undoubtedly save you time later on. Having chosen your product we suggest you take a piece paper and mark the outline of the area to be paved. Try to design your project to incorporate sizes of paving that will eliminate the need for too much cutting. This plan will be a useful guide both when ordering and laying. When constructing, remember that when building a patio or path close to a house it is important that the finished paving level is at least two brick courses (150mm) below the damp course. Always provide a 'fall' to drain water away from buildings (a gradient of 1:40 is usually sufficient).

 

Some of the tools you will need in undertaking a project :-

Rake, shovel, tape measure, bricklayers trowel, tamper, spirit level, wheelbarrow, string-lines, soft brush, timber straight edge, mixing board, mallet or hammer and a bucket.

 

Site Preparation

Preparing the ground for paving depends upon site conditions and the intended use of the paved area. If your ground is firm, you probably need only remove the turf and topsoil to a depth to accommodate the 30-40mm sand bed plus the slab and mortar thicknesses.

 

If the subsoil is wet or spongy you need to dig out much deeper to put in a stabilising layer (approx 100mm) of well compacted hardcore (often called   MOT, scalping, crushed hardcore) before laying the sand bed, again allowing for 30-40mm of sand plus the slab and mortar thicknesses. In reality, few areas are already level enough for immediate paving, so some areas need to be excavated whilst others need to be made up with compacted hardcore. The use of hardcore helps ensure adequate site drainage, which is a prerequisite for paved areas.

 

Foundations

Examples below are a guide line only and depending on ground conditions, intended usage and the type of

paving to be laid may be subject to alterations:

 

a) Most garden situations - light pedestrian use, solid established ground: Use five spots of mortar on 30 or 40mm compacted sharp sand

 

b) Heavy domestic use - to take heavy mowers, support planters, maybe on less stable or wet ground: Use five spots of mortar on 30 or 40mm compacted sharp sand on 100mm compacted hardcore

 

c) Terracotta Tiles and Natural Stone

Use 25mm wet mortar bed on 30 to 40mm compacted sharp sand (note that a hardcore foundation as per b) may be required according to ground conditions)

 

d) Car driveways

Blocks may prove a better option than stone. Use 100mm wet concrete bed on suitable compacted hardcore base.

 

Please note that paving is only suitable for car driveways when the base is specifically designed for this application and where the base design is dependent on underlying geological conditions. For de-icing use a proprietary brand (i.e. salt free) product specially formulated for use on paving. Regular or prolonged dripping of road salt solution from cars may cause damage. Heavy vehicles and the use of power steering whilst stationary can also have detrimental effects.)