"Mcploppy ©" wrote in message
...

Phil L typed:
Mcploppy © wrote:
Phil L typed:
Mcploppy © wrote:
Hi All,

For the past few years I hve been having a lot of bother with
ants under my patio, the result is now my slabs are becoming
uneven as the little "things" are erroding the base away.

I intend to lift the slabs and relay the entire patio... but
first would like to find out how to totally erradicate the
little "things".

Over the years I have used many different powders and
sprays...
still the little "things" keep coming back.

Suggestions ????

TIA

When you come to relay the flags, rake the sand base level and
sprinkle in a few shovel fulls of cement,[1] you don't need to
mix
water with it, there's enough in the sand.
Rake it in to mix it up a bit and lay the flags directly onto
the
bed, do'nt use 'blobs' of sand/cement as this just leaves voids
underneth each flag, moreover, this blobbing is no good IMV (I
lay
drives for a living) as the rain will simply wash the sand from
underneath the solid blobs leaving each flag rocking...simply
lay
them on a dry sand/cement mix and the overall effect will be a
semi-solid bed with flags on top.
You will still get colonies of ants taking up residence but
they
will be much smaller nests and will be unable to make much of a
dent on the foundation.


HTH

[1]
one bag of cement should cover about 8sq metres, mixed into a
50mm
bed of sand(don't worry about it not being mixed evenly - as
long
as the top inch has /some/ cement in it, then it will set quite
hard)

Excellent..... fancy a job :-s

The thought of lifting the slabs does not fill me with
excitement.... but it has to be done.

You're better off getting all the slabs lifted and cleaned in one
go,
they should't be to heavy if they are less than about 15 years
old,
newer patio flags are quite thin, prior to this normal paving
slabs
were used, usually about 50mm thick, if these are what you are
working with, then you will definately need someone to help you.

Just set yourself a reasonable target each day, lay about ten
slabs
in each session, you'll be surprised how quick it gets done...out
of
interest, how big is the total area?...how big are the flags?

Well the flags ar more than 15 years old infact nearer 30 ;-)

The sizes .... 60M Square - 600x600 and 900x600 slabs approx

Wow!
60 M square makes 3600 square metres. Even if all your slabs were of
the larger size of
0.9 metres x 0.6 metres, you would appear to have to deal with around
7,000 slabs. I reckon you will need a gang of 10 if you want the job
to be finished in a reasonable time.
{:-))

Franz