Building a flat base for a shelter in a garden....

[pauljwilliams]

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?

[Space_Cowby]

in a nutshell yes.

if there is nothing wrong with the concrete base just bed the slabs down on mortar dabs.

If the base is knackered, break it out and refill with the hardcore you have just made :-). Level and compact down. Bed slabs down on a sand and cement dry mix.

Then just put you shale down onto the weed suppresemnt mat.

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