Patio Base / Repair question

[adejo92]

Hello all ?

I have a fairly large patio which is slightly raised from the rest of the garden. There literally is not a single solid slab on the whole patio so today i have taken a few up to see what generally lies beneath.

Clearly, for all of the slabs to have failed, there must be something fundamentally wrong?

My question is;

• Would i be able to clean up this existing base, of weeds and loose bits, and then fill in the voids with mortar? Once that has dried, i would essentially then have a level solid base  to re lay the slabs? (I do have enough room before the patio doors to allow for a new mortar bed and the depth of the slabs)

Would that work and last?

My original thought was that the whole bed would need to be broken up and dug out before then laying a new sub base etc however obviously if that can be avoided, i would rather stick with my idea as it would be a lot easier and cost effective.

Thanks all  ?

Adam

 

 

 

[Tennentslager]

Everything paving for free here 

 

https://www.pavingexpert.com/

 

[adejo92]

33 minutes ago, Tennentslager said:

Everything paving for free here 

 

https://www.pavingexpert.com/

 

 

Hey, thanks.

 

I have been through that website however it doesn't really cover my question.

 

I think my idea isn't the by the book idea, I was just hoping to milk someone's knowledge and experience as to if it would work.

 

 

[daiking]

2 minutes ago, adejo92 said:

 

Hey, thanks.

 

I have been through that website however it doesn't really cover my question.

 

I think my idea isn't the by the book idea, I was just hoping to milk someone's knowledge and experience as to if it would work.

 

 

Unfortunately they do cover it:

 

https://www.pavingexpert.com/faq_fix_loose_flags

The suggestion is that you can try but success is not guaranteed.

[Declan52]

A layer of sharp sand covering the entire area would work. Set the bed to whatever height suits your height restriction at the door. Could be 30mm or whatever it is. Sharp sand is much easier to work with than mortar and will fill all the gaps that are in the old mortar bedding.

[adejo92]

1 minute ago, Declan52 said:

A layer of sharp sand covering the entire area would work. Set the bed to whatever height suits your height restriction at the door. Could be 30mm or whatever it is. Sharp sand is much easier to work with than mortar and will fill all the gaps that are in the old mortar bedding.

 

Hey, thanks for your reply. So the layer of sharp sand to cover the whole area and then re bed the slabs back onto the patio? The sharp sand alone will be enough to bed them in and then just re do the joins?

 

Luckily, the weeds seem to have grown on the base as opposed to through the base so once its cleaned down, that should stop further coming. Most of it's probably from the grass seed ive dropped over the year!

[Declan52]

The sharp sand is the new bedding. Don't need to use anything else. Then grout them up.

[Tennentslager]

Sharp sand 10:1 cement dry mix and the moisture in the sharp sand will let it go off. 

Paving expert recommends a resin grout, gotta admit I don't know what that is but I'm betting a grout gun, a sunny day and a cold beer will see you right?

 

[newhome]

Here are mine being laid. They haven’t moved in over 10 years. Some of the grouting needs redoing now but all of them are solid. 
 

 

[adejo92]

On 07/03/2021 at 11:31, newhome said:

Here are mine being laid. They haven’t moved in over 10 years. Some of the grouting needs redoing now but all of them are solid. 
 

 

 

is that just the sub base and then sand?

[Declan52]

Here's a good YouTube clip to watch showing how you do a patio.

https://youtu.be/igF95S0QkeA

[newhome]

53 minutes ago, adejo92 said:

 

is that just the sub base and then sand?

Yes