The Lemon Fool

After being in my current house for over 18 years, there's a short section of path constructed of paving slabs that's sinking, although it's sinking evenly.

The path was installed by previous occupiers. So I lifted a slab to see what's underneath. Just soil.

All the instructions for laying patios tend to suggest excavation, laying sub base, compacting it etc. Which is exactly what I would do for a new path.

However:
1 This has lasted at least 18 years
2 I don't expect to be in this house in 5 years
3 The next owners might not even like the path.

I think I'll bodge the path.

I suspect the patio is exactly the same. I'll think more carefully about that.

Sand is a popular base. Self-levelling, and it has the advantage that you can take the path with you when you move.

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:Sand is a popular base. Self-levelling, and it has the advantage that you can take the path with you when you move.

BJ

I have an idea the Bible had something to say about building on sand

I'd definitely just lay it on sand. It will bring it back up to the level and is very easy to work with and cheap.

redsturgeon wrote:I'd definitely just lay it on sand. It will bring it back up to the level and is very easy to work with and cheap.

The OP could even fess up to buyers this is what he's done. No-one is likely to say "Fantastic house, we were going to make an offer on it until you told us that footpath in the garden has sand under it rather than top quality foundations".

Are they?!

UncleEbenezer wrote:

bungeejumper wrote:Sand is a popular base. Self-levelling, and it has the advantage that you can take the path with you when you move.

BJ

I have an idea the Bible had something to say about building on sand

NO...its was a wolf that said it ....OK for him but not for you!

mutantpoodle wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:I have an idea the Bible had something to say about building on sand

NO...its was a wolf that said it ....OK for him but not for you!

I think it was the wolf who missed out on his lunch. Total bunkum though: "Straw scientifically proven as viable building material", https://www.bath.ac.uk/case-studies/straw-scientifically-proven-as-viable-building-material/; and how many timber framed buildings do you see still standing?

The biblical reference is from Matthew 7:24-27,
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%207:24-27&version=ESV.

Sand is not self-levelling, and you can still get wobbling. It is easy to level, however. For a patio, compact the sand and leave two lengths of steel bar, tube, pipe, whatever embedded in it. Slide a straight-edged piece of wood along the sand, straddling the two bars so that you get a flat surface. Remove the bars and fill the grooves.


Julian F. G. W.

Well I went to B&Q, intending to buy 3 bags of MOT sub base, which I calculated would do the job. They didn't have that, so I bought ballast.
I had half a bag of expired cement in the garage, so mixed that in too. The path is level.

Based on the previous performance, I guess it will be fine for another 20 years.

Ah, ballast. Otherwise known as "whatever was left in the JCB's bucket after we'd tipped the rest out". I buy it to fix the holes in our dirt road. It might be grey, it might be brown, it might be three parts sand, and it might have sharp edges or round edges. But then, of course, its primary use is for mixing concrete. It all works out well enough.

BJ