I have a very small front garden in my house (100yrs old terrace). The area is about 4sq meters and I want to cover it with paving slabs. Currenty it is just soil.
One person has offerd to to do the work and when I asked about how he would do it he said he would compact the soil, then lay about 2inches of mortar and then lay the slabs on top. This would fix the slabs to the mortar as the mortar is wet.
He would leave a 10cm gap all the way round (with no mortar around the edges) to allow for drainage and to prevent damp on the house walls. This gap he would fill with pea gravel. I understand leaving the gap as I have read that you should not slab direct to a wall if there is a chance it will bridge the damp course.
I have never heard of this method of laying slabs. I thought generally they are laid on a bed of sand and are effectively laid sown not stuck down.
He says in his job (landscape gardner) they always do it this way.
Is this an acceptable method?
He has offered to lay them with sand but says in his exp this allows weeds to come up and the slabs are more secure this way.
I just want to know if there is something fundamentaly wrong in his approach or is it just another method that I have not come across so far
Many thanks
Bhupesh