GardenBanter.co.uk

In article ,
green earth wrote:
I want to create a couple of paved areas in my garden. I am not sure how to
prepare the areas. Is it good enough to take up the grass level the area and
place the stones on lumps of mortar or does it need a better prepared base?

Find and read Cormaic's Web pages on the topic. Do a search on this
group and Cormaic for them. They will tell you almost everything you
need to know.

For small areas of patio that will merely be walked on, you can take
a lot of short cuts. For example, on my sandy soil, just treading it
down makes a good enough foundation. On clay or for a drive, that would
not last well. And, similarly, you can be stingier with sand, at the
cost of laying the slabs being more effort and needing more care.

There is only one trick that Cormaic's pages don't have that I used,
and it could be because I invented it! For a patio that abuts to a
flower bed or lawn, where you DON'T want a probably edging strip, you
can dig a narrow, deeper trench (only inches deeper). You then put
sand in the bottom and dry bricks on the sand level with the main
body of the sand at the top. You can then lay the slabs on top, and
tapping them down will tap the bricks down.

That won't, of course, work if the bed is dug deeply and regularly,
as the sand will creep out. Nor for a drive, as a vehicle's weight
will push it out of shape. But it is fine for a flower bed or lawn.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.