Hi all,
I want to put in a 5m x 3m natural stone patio on an area I levelled a few months ago. It will on a very heavy clay soil. When I levelled it originall y I hand-tamped it, and it has been exposed to the elements since then. Bef ore I lay the patio on top of it, should I hire a plate compactor to squeez e out any last voids, or just hand-tamp it as I lay the stones? The stones will be laid on ~50mm of bedding mortar.
thanks,
dan.
I strongly advide some hardcore first. Clay moves like an SOB and you want some gibve in whats between it and the patio slabs. Or make a reinforced concrete raft and lay on that.
Yes and if there any sizable trees nearby whose roots go underneath all bets are off! Brian
few months ago. It will on a very heavy clay soil. When I levelled it origi nally I hand-tamped it, and it has been exposed to the elements since then. Before I lay the patio on top of it, should I hire a plate compactor to sq ueeze out any last voids, or just hand-tamp it as I lay the stones? The sto nes will be laid on ~50mm of bedding mortar.
Okay. Would 100mm be enough? I assume MOT is suitable?
There are no trees nearby.
thanks,
dan.
assuming the slabs are 50mm thick,
dig down 200mm
fill and whack with wacker a 100mm bed of compacted MoT.
then lay a layer of 50mm sharp sand or 1 to cement to sharp sand mix and bed your slabs on that.
worked here although i still have some movement
i'd lay rebar mesho over it too..
thats the 'royal' solution.
Nobody has pointed you at
Be aware that the advice there is very unlikely to give you a bad patio, but it may well involve you in more work/expense than is necessary. In other words if they say "nah, hand tamping will be fine", you can be confident they are right. If they say "no, you need 500mm compacted MOT", then they may be over-doing it.
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