Raised patio

[Jon Connell]

I currently have a 90cm high run of steps running across the back of the ho use going down into the garden to a ground-level patio. The steps are bonke rs steep, been left to go to hell with weathering and the patio looks like crap anyway. So, the wife-approved plan is a raised patio to the height of the initial step more or less like this:

The final area of the patio is quite large at 5x8 metres so I thought maybe concrete beams and blocks. They're pretty cheap and it would mean the new patio was very even and I could build a very slight slope for water to run off. I guess plan B would be filling the curtain wall with hardcore, but I do like the idea of learning to use some new materials.

Thoughts or counter suggestions anyone?

Jon

[harryagain]

The final area of the patio is quite large at 5x8 metres so I thought maybe concrete beams and blocks. They're pretty cheap and it would mean the new patio was very even and I could build a very slight slope for water to run off. I guess plan B would be filling the curtain wall with hardcore, but I do like the idea of learning to use some new materials.

Thoughts or counter suggestions anyone?

Jon A lot depends on access. Ify ou can get a tipper truck in there you could get fill for a "curtsin wall" for free. Around 60 tons? =Four six wheel lorry loads.

I would consider decking.

[Jon Connell]

1-2 metres down the side of the house :-(

Ah, but that would not be wife approved.

[The Medway Handyman]

Its the only logical answer. Much less work, much cheaper, much better for the environment.

[Mike Barnes]

Jon Connell :

I can't offer any solutions but I thank you for asking the question. I'm in the same position as you, except that it's 400 mm not 900, and I wasn't going to DIY. I had imagined it being filled with MOT or rubble, and getting the tipper in there should be good test for the new cobbled driveway that was put down by the same contractor.

[Andrew May]

But Jon's argument trumps all of those - and probably a few more besides.

[Frank Erskine]

And so "eighties". Awful stuff.

[Chris J Dixon]

Either way, is this potentially a planning issue?

Chris

[Jon Connell]

Good catch. I can think of no reason why it would be refused, but I think you're right about it needing permission.

[Huge]

Believe you me, decking is a huge improvement over the battenburg flagged "patio" we had before.

[fred]

In article , Jon Connell writes

Sounds like a great idea, better suited to a pile than decking.

Rolling it over in my head I wondered about not fully beaming out the floor but slabbing it and only putting beams at the slab joins, so only supporting 2 edges. Then thought about bedding and moved from cement to some kind of conformal foam (neoprene?) strip the width of the beams at a thickness to avoid cobbling but thin enough so there was not constant vertical movement. Thinking on how to grout the unsupported gaps - don't, just butt the slabs and allow some drainage into the underspace.

I'd probably give some access to the underside for maintenance or to deal with potential rodent or insect activity.

[Tim Watts]

On Thursday 22 August 2013 10:58 fred wrote in uk.d-i-y:

How about these:

I'm assuming that you have an existing solid base?

Will not be cheaper but will be a lot easier than concrete beams.

[Tim Watts]

On Thursday 22 August 2013 11:13 Tim Watts wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Supplier (for pricing):

[Jim K]

& would need planning permission being more than 1ft off the ground?

would a raised patio also need PP?

Jim K

[fred]

In article , Tim Watts writes

Certainly some nice ideas on that site, including rubber corner pads that may help the chap on the other thread with the leaking balcony roof

- redo the fibreglass double thickness then protect it with lightweight slabs on corner mounts, although I would worry about water stagnating in the small gap under the slabs and getting smelly.

Back to main topic, I'd be a bit worried about having a large area of slabs effectively on stilts and the o/p's finished height of up to 900mm may be an issue. Also prices are hefty even for the short (220mm ones) which would work out at 10quid a slab, tenner upwards each for 600mm? So

20quid a slab. 2.4m x 100 x 65mm prestressed lintels[1] are showing online at under 20quid in bulk so that's a fiver per slab (600mm sq) plus the cost of the dwarf wall(s). Weight about 14kg/m so 33kg for 2.4m. [1] normally used with bonded brick courses so not checked for loading