Hi there...
I've got a wood-framed gazebo type thing in my garden at the moment, and i'm looking to build in a solid base to put a garden bench on.
Currently there's just a thin layer of concrete/cement about 1in thick, with 8 paving stones on top in a 4x2 arrangement. They're quite uneven though, so any bench would rock on the surface.
I want to rip it out, replace the flags, and surround it with shale.
My initial thoughts were to dig down a couple of inches, put in some anti-weed matting, then pour in a rough layer of concrete of 1 in thick. Then, after this has set, put on some self-levelling concrete, followed by slabs as before, surrounded by shale:
Top view: * = shale, x = flags
******
*xxxx*
*xxxx*
******
Side view: * = shale, x = flags, l = levelling concrete, c = concrete, w = weed matting, s = soil
*xxxx* llllll cccccc wwwwww ssssss
Is this overkill?